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TIL that in a few areas of battle in WWI, the 1914 Christmas Truce lasted all the way until New Year's

The WW1 Christmas Truce: 'The war, for that moment, came to a standstill'

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20231219-the-ww1-christmas-truce-the-war-for-that-moment-came-to-a-standstill

In 1914, in a poignant moment of shared humanity, British and German troops entered into a spontaneous ceasefire over the Christmas period.

The following Christmas, machine gun barrages were deliberately timed to drown out any sound of carol singing to prevent spontaneous truces happening again.

10 comments

PeepinGoodArgs

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"It lifted astoundingly quickly. And along that line we were suddenly able to see Germans doing exactly the same thing all out in the open. And we just looked at each other for some time and then one or two soldiers went towards them. They met, they shook hands, they swapped cigarettes. They got talking. The war, for that moment, came to a standstill." General Walter Congreve, who led the Rifles Brigade, wrote to his wife on Christmas Day, describing the ceasefire as "an extraordinary state of affairs". Because the trenches were so close, soldiers were able to shout greetings to each other, initiating conversations. "A German shouted out that they wanted a day's truce and would one come out if he did," wrote the general. "Very cautiously one of our men lifted himself above the parapet and saw a German doing the same. Both got out, then more... they have been walking about together all day giving each other cigars and singing songs."

I don't get this. This sounds like people were there for a job, but otherwise harbored no ill will towards the enemy. Or maybe they did, but it being Christmas and all, they really just wanted to carol and smoke cigars? What was the point of going back to the war with someone you just sang carols and smoked with?

FireTower

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The German army was conscripted and the British soldiers of the day were men sold on the idea of traveling the world and becoming a hero or a 'true man' by cutting down their nations enemies in noble warfare.

It basically was just a job at the start of the war for many. They shot at the enemy because they were soldiers and that's what soldiers do.

But when their officer told them "You'll be shot for dereliction of duty" they went back to fighting.

WW1 was a senseless and sad war, driven by the desires of aristocrats.

Kepabar

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It's well documented that the leadership of both sides had some difficulty getting their soldiers to go back to fighting after the truce.

The average soldier did not want to fight. Leadership had to threaten charges of desertions and treason to get them back to fighting.

MaxVoltage

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modern people are able to so easily access excellent multimedia propaganda nowadays that just isnt needed anymore

Hate is so easy to propogate with film

And almost impossible without it

ChickenLadyLovesLife

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An interesting book somewhat related to this is Poilu, the notebooks of a French soldier who served through most of the war. He was an avowed socialist who never fired his weapon at the enemy and encouraged the soldiers under him (when he was a corporal) to do the same. One of his stories was about a period later in the war when the soldiers on both sides of the trenches in his area had reached an "accommodation" where they refused to shoot at each other. One day a high-ranking officer visited, saw the situation, picked up a soldier's rifle and shot dead an enemy soldier lounging in full view across no-man's land. This precipitated a resumption of "normal" warfare in the area but almost got the officer killed - by his own soldiers.