The Christmas Truce (Sabaton's song, and a bit of history)

[Starfox]

Why did it happen?
Maybe that will come as a surprise to some, but humans in general are not inherently warmongers. Their leaders are and that's a whole other story. Also, if there was one common tradition well entrenched (no pun intended) between the British, French and Germans soldiers, it was the spirit of Christmas, all sides on the western front celebrated that period of the year.

How widely was it followed?
It was wide across the front line, although in some sectors battles kept raging even on Christmas day. However, the nature of the truce varied from sector to sector. In some it was little more than a common agreement of the "you don't shoot at us for the day and we won't shoot at you" kind. In others there were agreements to allow each side to recover their dead from the no man's land, much more rarely, prisoners exchanges. And in others there were full acts of fraternization, like playing football in no man's land; sharing meals, gifts and even having full Christmas mass when a chaplain was present - back then religious services were always in Latin on all sides so Language was not an issue.

Even then, some disliked the Truce. it was the case of Adolf Hitler (then just a dispatch runner -- he ended the war as a decorated corporal) who according to witnesses said "such a thing should not happen in wartime, have you no German sense of honor?" Charles de Gaulle, then Lieutenant, was also pretty dejected writing about the "lamentable" desire of the French infantryman to leave the enemy in peace although he was not talking about the Christmas truce itself but about the whole attitude during December 1914.

Because here's the thing, the Christmas Truce didn't just sprout spontaneously. There was a pattern already occurring during the month of December where in some sectors agreements were made between trenches to not shoot at each others in particular conditions, during physical exercises, at meal time or while recovering wounded from no man's land. Germans, British and French occasionally exchanged seasonal greetings and news. The Christmas truce was just the culmination of that "live and let live" mentality, a display of the last remaining bits of humanity that managed to survive the beginning of WW1.

Why wasn't it more widely known?
Because back then, armies commanders, on both sides, when they learned what had happened were horrified. In their minds, nobody could ever learn about that. The enemy had to be vilified on whatever side he was. The enemy was a villain, evil, a beast to take down, he couldn't show humanity because he wasn't human. He had to be hated. So the censorship, German, French and British, did its job and suppressed the information. People started to talk about it only after the war (though few of the soldiers present in 1914 were still alive).

The aftermath
The Christmas truce of 1914 had consequences for all those who participated in it and made it known, unfortunately, by writing of the event in letters to their families, forgetting that those letters were going to be read by military censorship before being allowed to go to their loved ones. So the commanders of all armies had a pretty good idea of the units who were involved. It was out of the question to summarily execute anyone because there were too many people involved but the units considered heavy offenders (those who were seen as fraternizing with the enemy -- e.g. playing football in no man's land) were disbanded and their members separated and relocated on other sectors of the front, generally harsher ones. This punitive action was further motivated by the fact that once the truce was over, some units, on both sides, refused to fire on the enemy -- it is difficult to kill someone who just shared a meal, drinks and sang songs with you the night before. Of course for high commands it was just "dereliction of duty", if not high treason.

Despite the repression by armies commanders, there were some attempts at another Christmas Truce in 1915 but the brutality and insanity of WW1 had caught up with everyone so they were much more sparse. By December 1916, Verdun and the Somme had happened with far too many senseless  casualties, numbering in the millions (Verdun alone was around 700,000 deaths on both sides) and an ever increasing brutality so nobody was in the mood to even try celebrating Christmas and that lasted until the end of the war.

There is an excellent and relatively recent movie (if a bit too romanticized with a love plot in there that never actually happened), that was produced in collaboration between France, the UK and Germany that details the events around the Christmas Truce and the Truce itself, condensing events that happened in several sectors in just one. It's called "Happy Christmas" in English and if you can find it I recommend it (there is a version floating around YT but it's the French one).

In it you can find that amusing exchange between a French and German officer on Christmas day. They are talking about their homes and after the French officer told him where he lived (in a village that was currently in German hands and where his wife was pregnant when the war began and couldn't be moved because of complications), the German officer says "Yes, I know the place, we used to vacation there with my wife... before the war. You have an excellent wine" and the French answers "You know, if you want to have a drink with me, you just have to ask, there's no need to invade my country". That triggers a brief laugh and the German officer says "Well, maybe after all this".

The day after, the German officer sends someone to take some news of the French officer's wife and relay the information to the French officer, telling him that she is well and gave birth to a son.

By the way, the cross shown at the end of Sabaton's video actually does exist (not the same of course). It was planted in 1999, in a field in Belgium where one of the many variations of the Christmas truce occurred. And it does bear the words "Lest we forget".

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