I’ve posted on this a couple of times, and as it is one of the more unusual ethics events in history to occur on Christmas, here it is again. Of course, as an America, I am joyful about another, more consequential military event that happened on Christmas. Washington crossed the Delaware river on this date. His resulting victory over the Hessians at Trenton was, in the end, less than consequential militarily, but it was important nonetheless . It bolstered the rebelling colonies’ morale, at a point where there were serious doubts that the nascent democracy had any chance to prevail.
One of the weirdest events in world history took place on Christmas 1914, at the very beginning of the five year, pointless and stunningly destructive carnage of The Great War, what President Woodrow Wilson, right as usual, called “The War to End All Wars.”
World War I, as it was later called after the world war it caused succeeded it, led to the deaths of more than 25 million people, and if anything was accomplished by them, I have yet to read about it.
The much sentimentalized event was a spontaneous Christmas truce, as soldiers on opposing sides on the Western Front, defying orders from superiors, pretended the war didn’t exist and left their trenches, put their weapons and animus aside, sang carols, shared food, buried their dead, and perhaps, depending on which source you choose to believe, even played soccer against each other.
The brass on both sides—this was a British and German phenomenon only—took steps to ensure that this would never happen again, and it never did.
It all began on Christmas Eve, when at 8:30 p.m. an officer of the Royal Irish Rifles reported to headquarters that “The Germans have illuminated their trenches, are singing songs and wishing us a Happy Xmas. Compliments are being exchanged but am nevertheless taking all military precautions.” The two sides progressed to serenading each other with Christmas carols, with the German combatants crooning “Silent Night,” and the British adversaries responding with “The First Noel.“ The war diary of the Scots Guards reported that a private “met a German Patrol and was given a glass of whisky and some cigars, and a message was sent back saying that if we didn’t fire at them, they would not fire at us.”
The same deal was struck spontaneously at other locales across the battlefield. Another British soldier reported that as Christmas Eve wound down into Christmas morning, “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!’” He wrote in a letter home that he heard,
‘Come out, English soldier; come out here to us.’ For some little time we were cautious, and did not even answer. Officers, fearing treachery, ordered the men to be silent. But up and down our line one heard the men answering that Christmas greeting from the enemy. How could we resist wishing each other a Merry Christmas, even though we might be at each other’s throats immediately afterwards? So we kept up a running conversation with the Germans, all the while our hands ready on our rifles. Blood and peace, enmity and fraternity—war’s most amazing paradox. 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…
A Smithsonian article opines that several factors worked together to produce the conditions for the strange spontaneous ceasefire:
By December 1914, the men in the trenches were veterans, familiar enough with the realities of combat to have lost much of the idealism that they had carried into war in August, and most longed for an end to bloodshed. The war, they had believed, would be over by Christmas, yet there they were in Christmas week still muddied, cold and in battle. Then, on Christmas Eve itself, several weeks of mild but miserably soaking weather gave way to a sudden, hard frost, creating a dusting of ice and snow along the front that made the men on both sides feel that something spiritual was taking place.
The phenomenon was far from uniform, for fighting continued throughout Christmas in many areas. Just to show how quickly things change, it was German troops, then regarded as “easy-going,” that are acknowledged to have made the first friendly overtures, shouting to their British adversaries, “We are Saxons, you are Anglo-Saxons! What is there for us to fight about?”
It would have been a most effective dastardly trap, but the trusting British were soon leaving their trenches, and as one British soldier wrote in a letter home—”literally hundreds of each side were out in no man’s land shaking hands.”
The “Christmas Truce” was only between the British and the Germans. On the Eastern Front, the Russians still used the old Julian calendar, so for them, Christmas was almost two weeks away. As for the French, they were less likely to be charmed by “the Hun,” since the Germans occupied a third of France.
In maybe two-thirds of the British-held trench line that ran across southern Belgium, however, Christmas was all fun, and just maybe, games. Both Germans and British soldiers reported that soccer games took place, mostly between pick-up teams of the same nationality, but in a few places, perhaps there were a few Krauts vs. Limeys contests. Some historians are dubious, but it makes a good story.
Apparently it was understood that the truce was only going to last through Christmas, and many officers on both sides were furious that it lasted that long. Most soldiers were determined to practice Peace on Earth at least until midnight. In one spot, it is documented that presents were exchanged between the enemies. Then, on December 26, the fighting and killing resumed.
There would be no further truce until the Armistice of November 1918.
I was moved to write about this event after reading one article that said that it demonstrated “the importance of choosing to see past our momentary hatreds.” How does it demonstrate that? The “truce” saved no lives; it didn’t shorten the war, lead to more mercy and compassion, orpromote understanding. The victors in the First World War still enacted such punitive measures against the Germans that it seeded World War II.
Soldiers who operate under the delusion that warfare is a noble pursuit tempered with honor and mutual respect are deluding themselves. The idea is to kill people, and to end the war as quickly as possible. The “Christmas Truce” was incompetent and naive.
I should add that my attitude toward this famous tale was greatly influenced by an episode in my father’s World War II memoirs. He was relieving Allied troops that had taken a town, and was startled to see that the area appeared to be partitioned, with American soldiers on one side, and German soldiers going about their business on the other. “Oh, yeah,” he was told by the commanding officer he was relieving. “We made a deal to let Jerry alone on that side of the town, and they promised not to bother us. It’s great.”
My father had his troops march in and capture the peaceful Germans as soon as he took over. “The German commander was furious,” Dad wrote. “He said this proved you couldn’t trust Americans.”
My father told me that his duty was to kill or capture Nazi soldiers, and to keep up the pressure until the war was over, holidays notwithstanding.
World War I troops had the same duty.