On this very night 100 years ago one of history’s greatest events took place. Captain Arthur O’Sullivan was entrenched with the men of the Royal Irish Rifles on what was called The Western Front when a strange voice cried out in the darkness. Across a deadly field historically known as No Man’s Land, a German voice yelled in broken English, “Do not shoot after 12 o’clock, and we will not do so either.”
Suddenly all was quiet and still in the trenches at Rue de Bois, France, despite the carnage from the day before as World War I was just beginning.
Minutes later the voice yelled again. “If you English come out and talk to us, we will not fire.”
Capt. Sullivan did not know what to think. Are these Germans raving mad, he wondered, but in a memoir written some years later by Sullivan’s commanding officer, it is well-documented that an Irish rifleman climbed out of the trench and, with his hands at the back of his head, the soldier walked bravely across the field where the Germans were entrenched and offered his outstretched hand. A German officer shook it and then kindly handed his rival a cigar.
The Irishman walked back to the English trench unscathed and just as he reached his own trench, one of mankind’s most glorious moments occurred when other men clamored towards the German side. As they did, the German soldiers hurried out to meet them halfway. The Great Christmas Truce had begun.
“It’s Christmas, good will!” recalled Chris Baker, whose three great-uncles were killed not far from the Belgium line on the Western Front. “I think it just showed the good in people that can be there. Whereas days before and afterwards it was barbarous and savage, people can suddenly lay down their differences at Christmas,” he told CBS reporters recently.
Soldiers who had been hardened by war sung Christmas Carols, the different languages converging, and exchanged gifts … the English giving their enemy chocolate and plum pudding (a gift from the King) while the Germans gave away pipes that had a picture of their crown prince they had received.
What today’s generation can’t begin to fathom was the each army’s trenches went for over 400 miles and up and down the line and the unexpected the truce became spontaneous. Brigade headquarters had sent a cable earlier in the day on Dec. 24, “It is thought possible that the enemy may be contemplating an attack during Christmas or New Year. Special vigilance will be maintained during this period.”
But at 8:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve, Col. George Laurie cabled back to headquarters, “No shots have been fired since 8 p.m. The Germans have illuminated their trenches, singing songs and wishing us a Happy Xmas. Compliments are being exchanged but I am nevertheless taking all military precautions.”
At 12:35 that night – by then Christmas Day – Brigade HQ wired back, “No communication of any sort is to be held with the enemy, nor is he allowed to approach our trenches under penalty of fire being opened,” but, by then, the two armies were mingling freely and wishing one another Merry Christmas.
According to various accounts, there was a hard frost during the night but as dawn broke, the Germans were yelling “Merry Christmas” for quite literally miles up and down the trenches and Brigade HQ send out a new missive at 8:04 a.m. on Christmas morning: “As long as Germans do not snipe, there should be no sniping from our lines today, but greatest vigilance must be maintained, as Germans are not to be trusted. Our guns will not be firing today unless asked to do so by infantry or unless German guns fire.”
According to legend, there was instead a soccer game played between the soldiers on Christmas day – “The Game of Truce” – but experts at the Imperial War Museum in London cannot find anyone who witnessed it. “If it happened, and there are very few collaborative accounts, there are second and third-hand accounts of it taking place,” said historian Alan Wakefield.
Wakefield said the soccer game is very much part of the World War I mythology. “If people think it happened, it happened,” he told CBS News, explain there is no way to know the game’s outcome. “Actually, there are a couple of reports, which are uncorroborated, that have said it was 3-to-2 to the Germans,” he said, adding rather tongue-in-cheek, “probably on penalties!”
But there is no doubt that 100 years ago on this very night, men put down their guns to celebrate the coming of Christmas. If it can happen back then, it can happen again.
royexum@aol.com