The Christmas Truce

[infrogmation]

90 years ago, during the Great War, on Christmas, 1914, troops on both sides disobeyed orders from their superiors. They stopped killing eachother. They sang songs, came out of the trenches on to no-man's land and helped eachother bury the corpses that had been lying there for months. They exchanged small gifts, and shared their food, drink, and smokes. At one place along the lines, someone had a soccer ball and the men played a game until the ball was ruined when it snagged some barbed-wire.

"It was a day of peace in war," commented a German participant, "It is only a pity that it was not decisive peace."

BBC article

About.com article

First world war.com article

And 90 years later, one man still remembers... first hand.
Last survivor of 'Christmas truce' tells of his sorrow (from The Observer) "'I'll give Christmas Day 1914 a brief thought, as I do every year. And I'll think about all my friends who never made it home. But it's too sad to think too much about it. Far too sad,' he said, his head bowed and his eyes filled with tears."

Comments

[iayork.livejournal.com]

The colonel said "These bodies stink, won't someone come and drag them away."
We try to clean them up but they mow us down
and the English colonel looks the other way.
Oh the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak
Well I ran for the trench but I had no time to speak
Well my heart said yes but my head said no
When the English colonel said "it's time to go."

He said "What's a few men?"
He said "What's a few men?"
He said "What's a few men?"

The colonel's job is never done
so he declares timeout on Christmas Day.
We held the enemy in our arms
and we ploughed each other's dead into the clay.
Well the Lord said death will be no longer
and all of these things will pass away.
There will be no sorrow and there will be no pain
and we'll swap cigarettes on Christmas Day.

Well my heart said yes but my head said no
when the English colonel said "it's time to go."

He said "What's a few men?"
He said "What's a few men?"
He said "What's a few men?"

--Hunters and Collecters, "What's a Few Men"

[benzai-ten.livejournal.com]

I've heard this story before, but not in this much detail. Thank you for sharing this!