THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17,--~1965.
"Play the game!" shouted the Germans. "If you don't shoot, we won't shoot!"
E
THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE OF 1914
XISTENCE for the British soldier in the trench warfaro
of the latter part of December, 1914, W & N
or
By Crawford Snowden
among
the
There was inuch wonderment British and German company the British watchers commanderz oh Boxing Day when they saw their officer dig morning. The German, polite, wretched in the extreme. appear into the German immaculate, announced that his If ho was not involved in trenches. He was not a man to colonel had ordered renewal of the constant artillery duels take foolish risks, yet this was hostilities at noon that day and
Englishmen like asking to be taken prisoner. might taking Inert in the What possessed him that be so warned to keep down, please?
this llons and costly at- boldly walked Into the desperate
In response to thanks for
the German saluted, templs from time to time to den? Perhaps he hardly knew. courtesy
In the German front lines ho bowed from the waist and capture trenches over wire
was conducted to some German piled: "We are Saxons, you are
word of entanglements and flooded officers who were standing in a Anglo-Sxons; the
"farm gentleman is for us as for you." country and in hand-to-hand group beside a ruined
house. They wrre astonishert
Noon arrived and with it fighting with bayonet and ke him and were at onco tin thrown cross containing the grenade his lol day and to
armed, message "We shoot in the air!" And they stick The unoffelal
Auspicious. night was mud and fee-cold they asked,
And ice in water clothing.
his
-
Was no.
Was he
word
fruce continued.
re-
told, too, of a British C.O, pre- senting A courteous German C.O. with a scarf; and of the German returning the compll- ment next day with pair of warm, woolly gloves.
In most of these Instances of
оти
mporary good feeling a guard
trenches was gainst either enemy approach- being the other's
rigorously kool-though it was said that men of
British regiment WeTC actually wel- comed into the German lines.
Certainly the unoMeinl armis- tice was in many cases no more than a temporary cessation of hostilities. A battalion of the East Lancashire Regiment, for example, was unable to contri. bute to a concert in the German ines, "for no
a
recorda of the
with which it Hymn of Hate, was intended to regale the Hun, were obtainable,"
There is also the story of a gaine "On the
of foothall with the HE
occasions A bitter enemy let no up-
of a gentleman** they in enemy, and of two
No attempt was mixie appar when British and Germans in a enty by either side here to portunity of a strafe go bỵ, aisted,
an unofBelal truce: The British officer repressed body chased a hare in No Man's maugurate Every now and then the
and shopling the East Lancashires' Christmas and laughing mule "O ze word
schoolboys. fury of a howitzer shell
The like
Chr chas Day in the trenches was "at- gomitoman," he answered. its Gend afar
seemed satisfied, ended with a Gernun
eventful." nounced
less hourly, and British soldier falling on
The Sherwood Foresters re- frightful approach. ur Grevbugs, more or
Let's hope heved them on the night of between the hire together S
they tossed for
Christina Day AL thia "whuzz-bangs" shattered the were
tho been without loud-parted friends,
the trench
pusht warning. The
from
Exchange!
The conversati
that fol-
It seems to have
soldter
tirc
Foresters' conmunding
Introur of lowest is not recorded, nor does Saxons and flavarious mainly, if officer was be who, by the end
One of the World's Strangest Stories
sap-
WAS
گیا ہو
The war. was to become Lieutenant-General Sir William Marshall.
TE has written
Honed
that he en
all his company commanders against allowing any truternisation. The Germans were lo be warned if they came out of their trenches that they would be red on They did corne out and protested loudly on being told to get back. Shots were fired over their beads to make them realise the Foresters were in carnest.
"I was glad I had given such arders,"
Marshall in Menu ries of Four Fronts. berate that day almost simi- lar Instrictions
from came Army Beadquarters.
At one point in the Atano Valley. when Germans their trenches on Christmas
left
of
on
This picture from the archives of the Imperial War Museum shows British and
Day shouting
Two days' German officers fraternising in No Man's Land during the unofficial truce, 1914.
trucel the French troops fac- history reveal The name of not exclusively, who succumbed digging and draining,
the that to
strong German tracking them suspected a ruse and
shot them all down.
North the man who suggested ping, filling sandbags
Christmas. Nieuport Day
bo (ional feeling for Christmas
might
the Germans of Baxons case a party
Eve Christmas endless.
observed us a day of rest." In in one
made a fierce along even advised our men to WRIT
French-Belgian all instances elsewhere
attack on the By night there was anxious
the the battallons on their right to schtry duty on the Bre-step, or the front came from
No Germana. into
it was agreed at this stay in their trenches in positions and the Allies made a
successful counter-attack. nerve-trying patrols
would were faced by Prussians whom
Sir Edward Hulse's letler Man's Land It was a period point that the infantry
but the Saxons described as surly another.
stoled that the
In the of inaction on the big scale; not Are on one
answer for ruffians.
trenches nevertheless the enemy
dragged on for nearly sought neither side could
Yet the late Captain Sir Ed-
a week, but with the Worces unceasingly to kill, and death its artillery,
the ward Hulse, Bart., Scots Guards, tershire Regiment it seems stalker the battleground, grimly
1st Battalion of
ve ended at
midnight on taking tall. Trench reliefs Worcester Regiment moved into writing to his mother of
which the
Christmas Day. were invariably accompanied the line on this Christmas Eve. astonishing truce, by ensualties.
They were astonished to find Germans "trusted us implicitly the to keep," tells of English, Scots, ΠΟ and there was suddenly Then, aulte
iring by
Ѕаходя Irish,
the Wurtemburgers, single shot broke without warning, a benigh in- enemy; the silence seemed un-
定額 concluding "It was like a dream," and Prussians
and desultory firing was fluence took hold on the Ger- real, man trenches opposite those of said one soldier in a letter the
11 and III Corps. his familly, British Christmas ho arrived.
THE
HE Kaiser's hole evaporated like a mist from the far side
of No Man's Land, and the war
The
this
have
"Then, after a pause," 633 their regimental history,
(COPYRIGHT)
на
to
silence
Po
to impromptu concert by singing sumed all along the line."
together "Should auld acquaint Christmas Day dawned ano ance be forgot" Sir Edward but misty. Wherever the enemy opposite
were
Suxons or
armed and shovels, came out confidently into No
Bavarians there was peace.
Parties of Germans, only with picks
cante to a dramatic standsull Man's Land to bury their dead. That phenomenon, the Un-******
The British were very glad to oth Truce, had begun.
follow their example. Burying One of the most surprising par
parties met midway between experiences of its beginning the opposing trenches,
Was
that of the officer manding C Company
com-
where-
upon thera were greetings, of the hand
shakes, exchange of
North Staffordshire Regiment. cigarettes for cigars, of plum
Но was having la supper
his dug-out after stand-down when his cornuany sergeant- major put his head in
What am to do, sir?" he cried. The Germans are di ting on their paranets, lighting candies and singing hymns"
Farther along the about
line,
puddings for cognac, of buttons and badges.
Lew Uhlan At one point a
serving iri officers, evidently infantry battalions, came out to pose for photographs of British and German soldiers together.
at could have
but 7.30 p.m., there was showy similar predicament for
grouped
The Uhlan officers como off 10° 10 ceremonial parade
D
the polished and clean they were.
Here and there a Saxon or a
Leinster Regiment, Chineso
lanterns were
yere suddenly hoisted Bavarian was found to speak
on the German parapet.
Leinster sentries Were puzzled: they promptly them to pieces.
The English Quently. One had been less a stop-walker at Selfridges, an- shot other a waiter
at Frascatis, third had played at London
Immediately come shouted music-halls appeals from thuo Germans,
calling on the sentries to cearo
fire. And officers, hurrying out from their dinner, wero astonished to hear from
the
с
NE German soldier told a Scots Guards officer he mis
German trenches, in perfect took for a corporal that he had
English:
repeated again and again.
to
AFTER-DINNER CROSSWORD
ACROSS
Uved just before the war in "Play the game? If you don't Suffolk, where he had left his best girl and a 3-hup. motor- shoot, ice won't shooti»
bicycle.
benign influence that Meantime, the North Staffords brought about this unofficial officer. on going
out to the truce moved the Germans trenches,
learned that a Gor sing hymns, carols, folk-songs--| man soldier in No Man's Land oven Auld Lang Syne. was asking to speak to a British
An exceptionally good per- soldier.
former on the
obliged, cornet The officer climbed over the
from
German trench, with * meet went to
tho top and
"Home, Sweet Home, followed. What to call a schoolboy — or, German. In both trenches eyes by "God Save the King."
lono Needless to say ware fixed on the
there figures silhouetted against the Brillah vocal contributions by night sky. Distant sounds either hand of occasional firing way of response, though they were sometimes soldiers' songs, the murmur · of accompanied their voices.
two
on
word
1. Responsible for a White Christ-
mas (0)
his teacher," (6)
DOWN
1. Suitable gifts for the buildaru-
child (0)
Miny a new one will be turned
over on January 1.
3 Running knots (0)
2.
9. He cooke'
(4)
10. Fancy dress
of Cine goose (4)
7. Bessonable sound made by gill
to boast about?
A disordered; verse is curt. 15. Christmas gifts
dinoverment? (1)
o not quite drawing-room.
On the front of the third battalion the Ride Brizade, the 14. A more reokicur alice than usual,
(përhape) (0) performance in No Man's Land used after Christmas,
Gorman Juggler E candies on the German of a clover parapet burned brightly in drew a large crowd from both 17. Safitae white noces the keen air. The German soldier siden. About Ipar both sides 19. How plan pudding spoke Buently, in EnglishPUTAT
THE
to dinner: In their rusted" so. - Frosty mng, kaya, Boho revented that ho, had been a tree trencher and a Gleyinen mi walter in Brighton, Anice why bugler courteously sounded the
he wished to speak to Briffa omo mess call of the
Pomakna lainas, Chef had regiment ha i afuch.
bally beetetako mo" kada Mother were afwe
not
Octen duty.. (8);
1. Vocal trifle.." (4) "25)
4
d. Used to wipe out the score la
the deciding ♬ gamete (0)
20
1. Lost Alice become heavenly,
4. Podmonos congregation? (0)
Mother at it every Christusse morning (5)
12 Greadily devour « large bird,
(B)
15, ́ We think more
28. You might
-- Page 2
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