German and British Troops Struck a Truce on Christmas, 1914
By Christmas eve, 1914, the war had been raging on the Western Front for five months, and combined casualties already numbered in the millions. That evening, British troops in some sectors of the front heard German soldiers in opposing trenches singing carols. The Tommies soon joined in the singing, and before long, both sides were shouting “Merry Christmas!” at each other.
At the break of dawn of Christmas day, unarmed German soldiers, with hands upraised and shouting Season’s greetings, came out of their trenches and slowly started crossing no man’s land. The Tommies suspected that it was a trick at first, but upon realizing that it was not, they two came out of their trenches, and met their foes between the trenches.
As one British described it in a letter: “I think I have seen one of the most extraordinary sights today that anyone has ever seen. About 10 o’clock this morning, I was peeping over the parapet when I saw a German waving his arms, and presently, two of them came out of their trenches and sauntered towards ours. We were just going to fire on them, when we say they had no rifles. So one of our our men went out to meet them, and in about two minutes, the ground between the two lines of trenches was swarming with men and officers of both sides, shaking hands and wishing each other a happy Christmas“. The soldiers exchanged gifts of cigarettes and chocolate, buried their dead, and even played an impromptu soccer match in no man’s land.
It was a touching moment, but also a troubling one from the perspective of commanders, as the last thing generals want is for their troops to fraternize with the foe. Both high commands realized that such incidents were bad for morale, and undermined their soldiers’ fighting spirit. Strongly worded orders prohibiting fraternization were issued, and to ensure against a repeat, artillery was ordered to shell opposing trenches the following Christmas, and every Christmas thereafter.