The Christmas Truces of 1914: Peace in the Midst of War

Here's a nice article on a miracle in the WWI trenches. I wrote a piece on this topic in 2008, but it appears that it's no longer on the Internet. So I present the following.

By Kurt Hyde

In 1914, when the bulk of the soldiers on both sides of World War I were Christian and Christmastime rolled around, fighting ceased, despite orders from superiors.

The fighting came to a halt for many of the troops along the Western Front on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in 1914. Most historians refer to this event as the Christmas Truce of 1914. But it wasn’t a single truce negotiated by diplomats at the highest levels of the governments involved. The Christmas Truces of 1914 were negotiated informally by the troops themselves, most of whom were Christians who sincerely believed they were fighting for a just cause, regardless of which side they were on. But no matter how noble they viewed their cause, they did not want to engage in the slaughter of their fellow human beings on the Holy Day.

Some of the truces were just a head nod in agreement not to fight for a day, while many involved fraternization, meaning the troops visited with each other. There were hundreds of these individual truces, perhaps even a thousand.

There were reliable reports of Christmas Truces along the Western Front from Messines, Belgium, passing east of Armentières to Richebourg, France, a distance of about 20 miles. There were also sporadic reports of similar truces in other locations. Estimates of participation run as high as tens of thousands of soldiers. It was the largest informal truce in recorded history.

Read the rest here.

And here's a good video about the incident.

 

Comments

[TJ]

The equivalent of a cup of eggnog and I have nothing for you...

[Selwyn Duke]

Dear TJ,

Thank you for responding. Be happy you're getting the eggnog! I can't write all the time, you know.

Merry Christmas and God bless,

Selwyn Duke

[Luigi]

Merry Christmas!