The Baron made Snoopy fly to the Rhine
And forced him to land behind the enemy lines
Snoopy was certain that this was the end
When the Baron cried out, “Merry Christmas, my friend!”

—Snoopy’s Christmas by The Royal Guardsmen, 1967

All quiet on the Western Front

By Roger Childs

In September 1914 the combined French and British forces halted the German advance across Belgium and northern France at the Battle of the Marne. Trench warfare, with artillery barrages followed by waves of soldiers going over the top, would be the norm for much of the next four years.

 However, on Christmas Eve 1914 something remarkable happened on the western front that no one expected: peace broke out. Legend has it, that the Germans initiated the truce with the singing of Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht (“Silent night, holy night”), but regardless of how it began the Christmas spirit was let loose. In fact Christmas trees, with lanterns and candles started appearing above some German trenches from the 23rd.

Peaceful exchanges

A German soldier, Karl Aldag, reports that both sides had been heard singing hymns in the trenches. (On 23 December) German troops coming into the lines bring Christmas trees. Some men begin to place them on the parapets of the fire trenches. Chris Barker “The Truce: The Day The War Stopped.”

At various places along the lines the troops got out of their trenches and ventured into no man’s land which was normally a killing field. There had been an unwritten understanding, in earlier months, often indicated by a white flag raised above the parapet, that the firing would stop for meal breaks and burying the dead. But these were all short lived truces and there was no fraternisation.

However, on 25 December 1914 things got serious. This time the soldiers from the two sides made contact. They discovered that their “enemies” were much like themselves: men from factories, farms, workshops and offices, who liked a drink and enjoyed football, and had wives and children patiently waiting for them to return. 

So they–

  • exchanged gifts: beer and schnapps from the Germans and canned meat and tobacco from the French and British
  • showed each other family photos
  • made conversation: many Germans could speak English or French, and some French could speak German.

It was also a chance to carry out the grisly task of collecting the dead bodies from no-man’s land. Furthermore officers and ranks took the opportunity to drain, deepen and repair trenches without the fear of being picked off by snipers.

There was also football. One English soldier’s diary records that a game against “the enemy” ended 3-2, but he didn’t disclose the winner. So it was a probably an away win to the Germans!

Chris Barker in The Truce record that as well as a number of French units there were

  • 23 British Brigades from 6 Divisions
  • 9 German Brigades from 5 Division involved in the fraternisation.

Joyeux Noel:  a superb movie on the Christmas truce

This 2005 French film captures the mood and atmosphere of the remarkable events of Christmas 1914. It centres on one part of the front where German, British and French officers cooperate to bury their fallen comrades and bring a bit of festive cheer to the troops. 

(It’s well worth watching the DVD if you haven’t seen it, but have a hanky close by for when the German diva sings opera to the troops at the front.)

Stop this nonsense and get on with the war!

The length of the cease-fire varied from place to place, and did not occur all along the western front line. In some places is just lasted for Christmas Day but elsewhere it went on to New Year’s Day. It depended on how fast the top commanders found out about it and reacted.

The high commands of all the combatant countries were furious, and officers were disciplined. On the German side, some troops involved in the Christmas fraternization were transferred to the bitterly cold Eastern Front to fight the Russians.

By 2 January 2015 it was business as usual again on the Western Front. The two sides would keep on killing each other, at the rate of tens of thousands a month, for nearly another four years. However on Christmas Eve 2014, common soldiers and some officers had started something that could conceivably have ended the war, but now the politicians and generals were back in charge.

Peace at Christmas 2025?

The Christians took over the old European pagan festival which coincided with the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. It is meaningless to the majority of the world’s population today, however the Christmas message of peace and goodwill is universally understood.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if 111 years after the 1914 Christmas truce, peace could break out in Palestine, Ukraine, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia and elsewhere, and stay broken out?