The Christmas Truce of 1914

December 24, 1914.

Since August, the great nations of Europe have been mauling each other in a suicidal frenzy. The assassination of the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire has, through a series of miscalculations and misjudgments among the Great Powers, spiraled into a massive European conflict that is spreading like a virus to engulf the world.

The slaughter has been unprecedented. Modern, quick-firing artillery and machine guns have turned the battlefield into a steel-swept killing zone. Already hundreds of thousands of men have fallen, and the Powers know they are locked in a conflict that will last for years with no certain outcome.

In September, the German Empire's bid to end the war quickly with a single massive blow went a-glimmering when the French and the British Expeditionary Force turned the German armies away from Paris in the epic Battle of the Marne. After the battle, the exhausted armies slogged northward, each attempting to get around the other's flank. When the forces ran into the English Channel, the "race" stopped.

For a month in October and November, the Germans tried to break through at the Belgian town of Ypres, in a titanic battle that would leave another 200,000 casualties - dead, wounded, and missing. The assault failed.

Now the war of movement is over. The Allies and the Germans have hunkered down in trench systems that will become the iconic image of the Great War for generations to come. Though they will become a symbol of the horrors of war, the trenches save lives, sheltering men from the massive firepower their enemies can bring to bear. It's getting out of the trenches that is costly.

The Western Front is locked up and set to become a grinding, industrial slaughterhouse as both sides attempt massive - but futile - assaults to break their enemy's lines. It will be the summer of 1918 before technological and tactical innovation finds a way to decisively break the stalemate.

Right now, as winter clamps its icy grip on Northern Europe, the men in the trenches are focused mainly on establishing some level of personal comfort. And, as the holiday season rolls 'round, they are thinking wistfully of home and family and the joys of the season.

The soldiers are overwhelmingly Christian, on both sides, and enemies share many of the same Christmas traditions. And those shared traditions are creating something extraordinary.

Across the blasted and churned No Man's Land between trenches - separated by a mere 150 yards in some sectors - a sound wafts through the frosty air. The Germans are singing "Stille Nacht! Heil'ge Nacht!" British troops reply, joining in unison with the familiar tune: "Silent Night; Holy Night."

As the song dies away, men call greetings to one another, wishing a Merry Christmas to men they have tried in past days to kill.

As dawn breaks on Christmas Day, men cautiously poke their heads up above the trench lines. Nobody shoots. A German stands on the trench parapet. Nobody shoots. Gradually, the men come out of their trenches, go over the top, unarmed. They meet in No Man's Land and exchange cigarettes and treats sent in care packages and show each other pictures of loved ones back home. Men who have spent time in the enemy's homeland reminisce about good times before the

war.

Up and down the front, in many sectors, spontaneous fraternization is the order of the day. In at least one place, the good will extends to a game of football (soccer) played in No Man's Land. The Germans reportedly win 3-2.

It can't last, of course. Though in some places the quiet extends into January, in most areas of the front the threat of punishment, stepped up artillery fire and the cycling of fresh troops into the front lines soon pushes the Western Front back to the grim business at hand.

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The Christmas Truce would not be repeated. In subsequent years, there would be strict orders enforced against such dangerously subversive actions. And by the end of 1916, there had been so much slaughter and trauma that the fellow-feeling for one's enemy that existed against all odds in 1914 would be all but extinguished.

But despite the darkness of the ensuing years, and the efforts of military censors to erase the memory, nothing could extinguish the small, white light that the Christmas Truce shone into the gathering gloom of a savage century. For a moment, men paused in their madness and were decent to one another. For a moment - amid the cold, the mud, the fear, the agony of a civilization rending itself apart - there was Beauty.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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