Christmas Truce of 1914

Some one else put a post on this topic off-season, but I could not find it.

Here's an excerpt from my book, as it was described by two English soldiers:



...And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of
the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good
will toward men.”
The Gospel of St. Luke

It was still freezing hard on Christmas Eve …
[under] bright moonlight …
After a timeless dream I saw what looked like
a large white light on top of a pale … It was a
strange sort of light … What sort of lantern was
it? I did not think much about it; it was part of
the strange unreality of the silent night, of the silence
of the moon, now turning a brownish yellow,
of the silence of the frost mist …

… from the German parapet, a rich baritone
voice begun to sing a song I remembered from
my nurse Minne singing it to me after my evening
tub before bed. She had been maid to my
German grandmother …… Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht! Tranquil Night!
Holy Night! The grave and tender voice rose out
of the frozen mist, it was all so strange....

The wonder remained in the low golden light of a
white-rimmed Christmas morning. I could hardly
realise it; but my chronic, hopeless longing to
be home was gone.--Private Henry Williamson,
London Rifle Brigade

This wonder burst forth on Christmas Eve, 1914, for
a lad who had just turned nineteen. Here, the fields
in France had been transformed into No Man's Land.
But in that moment, this was now all men's land.

Private Frederick Heath, somewhere else along those
400 and some miles of the Western Front, also described
it:
The night closed in early – the ghostly shadows
that haunt the trenches came to keep us company
as we stood to arms....


With overcoat thick with wet mud, hands
cracked and sore with the frost, I leaned against
the side of the trench …

With ears strained, I listened, and
then, all down our line of trenches there came to
our ears a greeting unique in war: “English soldier,
English
soldier, a merry Christmas, a merry
Christmas!”

The night wore on to dawn –
a night made easier by songs from the German
trenches, the pipings of piccolos and from our
broad lines laughter and Christmas carols. Not a
shot was fired …

The truce of God had been called, and the rest
of Christmas Day was filled with peace and goodwill.”
http://sdcougar.startlogic.com/blog/?p=155

 

BBC Video on the Chrsitmas Truce, youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p05E_ohaQGk&feature=related