(Dis)obedience

And The Christmas Truce

Wendy McElroy

Naina Bajekal

Crimethinc.

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In his book Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas

Truce, historian Stanley Weintraub presented the letters and

diaries of the men who temporarily ended WWI for two weeks

circa Christmas 1914. One wrote, "Never ... was I so keenly aware

of the insanity of war."

In the book Weintraub also quotes a 1930 comment delivered by

Sir H. Kingsley Wood in the British House of Commons. Wood

had been a major in World War I and a participant in the

Christmas truce. He went on to become a cabinet minister after the

war. Wood noted how many officials now labeled the refusal to

fight as "degrading" and unworthy of a soldier. Wood disagreed.

"I ... came to the conclusion that I have held very firmly ever

since, that if we had been left to ourselves there would never have

been another shot fired," he said. The carnage resumed only

because the situation was in "the grip of the political system which

was bad." Rather than being degrading, the truce was a triumph of

shared humanity over the ambitions of empire, something worth

remembering 100 years after the fact.

The truce was a series of unofficial and widespread cease-fires that

extended over two weeks. The truce between mostly British and

German troops centered on the Western Front, defined by lines of

trenches that stretched across France from the North Sea to the

border of Switzerland. The trenches were often close enough for

the combatants to exchange shouted words and to smell food their

adversaries were cooking.

Life in the trenches consisted of extreme boredom broken by

spikes of terror when an attack was launched. Young men left the

comparative safety of their own trenches and crossed open ground

into "no man's land" to try to reach the trenches opposite. Even

successful attacks racked up huge casualties. The Battle of the

Somme in France was waged between July 1 and November 18,

1916, and came to symbolize the cost of trench warfare; more than

one million men were killed or wounded.

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An estimated 12.5 percent of troops on the Western Front died,

often from wounds for which antibiotics were not yet available;

the casualty rate (both killed and wounded) was estimated at 56

percent. In all, more than 10 million soldiers died in World War I.

It was natural for each side to wonder about the men living so

close them who endured the same wretched cold and wet

conditions, and who faced the same prospect of an early death.

The top brass recognized the danger this curiosity posed to

military order. On December 5, 1914, British General Sir Horace

Smith-Dorrien sent a warning to the commanders of all divisions:

"Experience ... proves undoubtedly that troops in trenches in close

proximity to the enemy slide very easily, if permitted to do so, into

a 'live and let live' theory of life...officers and men sink into a

military lethargy from which it is difficult to arouse them when the

moment for great sacrifices again arises."

Several factors contributed to the danger of "military lethargy."

Many of the Germans spoke English well. Weintraub observed, "It

is estimated that over eighty thousand young Germans had gone to

England before the war to be employed in such jobs as waiters,

cooks, and cab drivers." Moreover the British King George V and

Kaiser Wilhelm II were both grandsons of Queen Victoria. The

fact that the Front conflict occurred on French soil might have also

mitigated hostility. Both the British and Germans were European

and overwhelmingly Christian, which promoted a veneration for

Christmas. Indeed, concerned that Catholics were fighting

Catholics, Pope Benedict XV actively sought a Christmas truce in

1914 in order to prevent the "suicide of Europe." Although

German officials reportedly entertained the idea, the British did

not. But the soldiers may have paid attention.

Meanwhile, powerful factors acted against the likelihood of

camaraderie. In the months since WWI had erupted in August,

hundreds of thousands of troops had been killed or wounded.

Soldiers on both sides had lost friends and witnessed horrible

scenes of death and mutilation. Moreover, both sides had

conducted massive propaganda campaigns aimed at stirring hatred

toward the other.

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Against this backdrop, a remarkable thing happened on December

19, 1914. British Lieutenant Geoffrey Heinekey described it in a

letter home to his mother. "Some Germans came out and held up

their hands and began to take in some of their wounded and so we

ourselves immediately got out of our trenches and began bringing

in our wounded also. The Germans then beckoned to us and a lot

of us went over and talked to them and they helped us to bury our

dead." Heinekey could not have been alone in concluding, "I must

say they [the Germans] seemed extraordinarily fine men."

Incidents of fraternization kept occurring. A German philosophy-

student-turned-soldier named Karl Aldag reported that hymns and

Christmas songs were being sung in both trenches. German troops

foraged for Christmas trees that they placed in plain view on the

parapets of their trenches.

By the time Christmas Eve arrived, so much interaction had

occurred between the British and Germans that Brigadier General

G.T. Forrestier-Walker had officially forbidden fraternization. In

his book A Century of War: Lincoln, Wilson, and Roosevelt, Judge

John V. Denson quoted the directive. Fraternization "discourages

initiative in commanders, and destroys offensive spirit in all ranks.

... Friendly intercourse with the enemy, unofficial armistices and

exchange of tobacco and other comforts, however tempting and

occasionally amusing they may be, are absolutely prohibited."

On Christmas Eve, a hard frost fell. In his book The Truce: The

Day the War Stopped, Chris Baker reported on the events of

December 24, 1914. "98 British soldiers die on this day, many are

victims of sniper fire. A German aeroplane drops a bomb on

Dover: the first air raid in British history. During the afternoon and

early evening, British infantry are astonished to see many

Christmas trees with candles and paper lanterns, on enemy

parapets. There is much singing of carols, hymns and popular

songs, and a gradual exchange of communication and even

meetings in some areas. Many of these meetings are to arrange

collection of bodies. In other places, firing continues. Battalion

officers are uncertain how to react... ."

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Some officers threatened to court-martial or even to shoot those

who fraternized, but the threats were generally ignored. Other

officers mingled with enemies of similar rank. The Germans

reportedly led the way, coming out of their trenches and moving

unarmed toward the British. Soldiers exchanged chocolates,

cigars, and compared news reports. They buried the dead, some of

whom had lain for months, with each side often helping the other

dig graves. At its height, unofficial ceasefires were estimated to

have occurred along half of the British line. As many as 100,000

British and German troops took part.

On Christmas morning, the dead had been buried, the wounded

retrieved and the "no man's land" between the trenches was quiet

except for the sound of Christmas carols, especially "Silent

Night." In one area, the soldiers recited the 23rd Psalm together:

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want... ." Soccer and

football matches broke out. In some areas of cease-fire, soldiers

openly cooked and shared their Christmas meal.

Fraternization continued thereafter but to a diminishing degree,

because the high commanders were now acutely aware of the

situation and responded with threats of disciplinary action. For one

thing, the interaction made many troops doubt if the reports they

read in their own newspapers were true. One officer wrote a letter,

which was published in the The Daily News on December 30 and

one day later in The New York Times. He commented, "The

Germans opposite us were awfully decent fellows—Saxons,

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intelligent, respectable-looking men. I had a quite decent talk with

three or four and have two names and addresses in my notebook.

... After our talk I really think a lot of our newspaper reports must

be horribly exaggerated." These were the first reports on the

Christmas truce, because news was suppressed as a threat to

"national security."

The English officer Lieutenant A.P. Sinkinson became even more

critical of his own government. He wrote, "As I walked slowly

back to our own trenches I thought of Mr. Asquith's [British P.M.]

sentence about not sheathing the sword until the enemy be finally

crushed. It is all very well for Englishmen living comfortable at

home to talk in flowing periods, but when you are out here you

begin to realize that sustained hatred is impossible." The

atmosphere of goodwill needed to cease. And, so, slowly

fraternization was quashed. On New Year's Eve, some singing and

shouting of messages occurred, but the truce was over.

Weintraub's book concludes with a chapter entitled "What If?"

What if the Christmas truce had continued and soldiers who

refused to fight? In summarizing the chapter, Denson comments:

"Like many other historians, he [Weintraub] believes that with

an early end of the war in December of 1914, there probably

would have been no Russian Revolution, no Communism, no

Lenin, and no Stalin. Furthermore, there would have been no

vicious peace imposed on Germany by the Versailles Treaty,

and therefore, no Hitler, no Nazism and no World War II.

With the early truce there would have been no entry of

America into the European War and America might have had

a chance to remain, or return, to being a Republic rather than

moving toward World War II, the 'Cold' War (Korea and

Vietnam), and our present status as the world bully."

War is against the self-interest of average people who suffer not

only from its horrors but also from its political fallout. Those who

benefit from both are the ones who threaten to shoot those who lay

down their guns: politicians, commanders and warmongers who

profit financially. But even the powerful and the elite cannot

always extinguish "peace on earth, goodwill toward men," even in

the midst of deadly battle.

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***

On a crisp, clear morning 100 years ago, thousands of British,

Belgian and French soldiers put down their rifles, stepped out of

their trenches and spent Christmas mingling with their German

enemies along the Western front. In the hundred years since, the

event has been seen as a kind of miracle, a rare moment of peace

just a few months into a war that would eventually claim over 15

million lives?

Pope Benedict XV, who took office that September, had originally

called for a Christmas truce, an idea that was officially rejected.

To this day historians continue to disagree over the specifics: no

one knows where it began or how it spread, or if, by some curious

festive magic, it broke out simultaneously across the trenches.

Nevertheless, some two-thirds of troops—about 100,000 people—

are believed to have participated in the legendary truce.

Most accounts suggest the truce began with carol singing from the

trenches on Christmas Eve, “a beautiful moonlit night, frost on the

ground, white almost everywhere”, as Pvt. Albert Moren of the

Second Queens Regiment recalled, in a document later rounded up

by the New York Times. Graham Williams of the Fifth London

Rifle Brigade described it in even greater detail:

“First the Germans would sing one of their carols and then we

would sing one of ours, until when we started up ‘O Come, All Ye

Faithful’ the Germans immediately joined in singing the same

hymn to the Latin words Adeste Fideles. And I thought, well, this

is really a most extraordinary thing – two nations both singing the

same carol in the middle of a war.”1

The next morning, in some places, German soldiers emerged from

their trenches, calling out “Merry Christmas” in English. Allied

soldiers came out warily to greet them. In others, Germans held up

signs reading “You no shoot, we no shoot.” Over the course of the

day, troops exchanged gifts of cigarettes, food, buttons and hats.

1 “The Truce of Christmas, 1914” by Thomas Vinciguerra, in NY Times.

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The Christmas truce also allowed both sides to finally bury their

dead comrades, whose bodies had lain for weeks on “no man’s

land,” the ground between opposing trenches.

The phenomenon took different forms across the Western front.

One account mentions a British soldier having his hair cut by his

pre-war German barber; another talks of a pig-roast. Several

mention impromptu kick-abouts with makeshift soccer balls.

The truce was widespread but not universal. Evidence suggests

that in many places firing continued—and in at least two a truce

was attempted but soldiers attempting to fraternize were shot by

opposing forces.

For many at the time, the story of the Christmas truce was not an

example of chivalry in the depths of war, but rather a tale of

subversion: when the men on the ground decided they were not

fighting the same war as their superiors. With no man’s land

sometimes spanning just 100 feet, enemy troops were so close that

they could hear each other and even smell their cooking. The

commander of the British Second Corps, General Sir Horace

Smith-Dorrien, believed this proximity posed “the greatest

danger” to the morale of soldiers and told Divisional Commanders

to explicitly prohibit any “friendly intercourse with the enemy.” In

a memo issued on Dec. 5, he warned that: “troops in trenches in

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close proximity to the enemy slide very easily, if permitted to do

so, into a ‘live and let live’ theory of life.”2

Indeed, one British soldier, Murdoch M. Wood, speaking in 1930,

said: “I then came to the conclusion that I have held very firmly

ever since, that if we had been left to ourselves there would never

have been another shot fired.”3 Adolf Hitler, then a Corporal of the

16th Bavarians, saw it differently: “Such a thing should not

happen in wartime,” he is said to have remarked4 “Have you no

German sense of honor?”

Still, a century later, the truce has been remembered as a testament

to the power of hope and collective disobedience in a truly dark

hour of history.

2 Behind the Lines: Powerful and Revealing American and Foreign War

letters—and One Man’s Search to Find the Truth by Andrew Carroll. 3 “Remembering a Victory for Human Kindness: WWII’s Puzzling,

Poignant Christmas Truce” by David Brown in Washington Post. 4 To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914–1918 by Adam

Hochschild

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An Entry from the (Contra)Dictionary

By Crimethinc.

Obedience:

On Christmas Eve, 1914, an informal truce broke out

between German and British troops stationed across from

each other in Belgium. The Germans began by decorating

the trees around their trenches with candles, then started

singing Christmas carols, and both sides shouted Christmas

greetings across the decimated wasteland that lay between

them. A few brave soldiers stuck their heads above the

fortifications and, not being fired upon, tentatively made

their way forward to meet in the middle of No Man’s Land.

More followed, and soon the enemy combatants were

exchanging gifts—whiskey, jams, cigars, chocolate—and

warm embraces.

This surprise truce enabled both sides to recover the bodies

of their slaughtered comrades, rotting where they had fallen

in No Man’s Land. Soldiers of both armies joined in funerals

and mourned the dead together. The following day everyone

gathered for a football match in the open field; it was a close

game, and there was much good cheer and merry-making.

We can only imagine what a senseless abomination the war

must have seemed to everyone there that afternoon.

By January, the commanding officers had prevailed and the

young men who had laughed, sang, cried, and played

together the a few days earlier were once again shooting,

stabbing, and bombing each other.

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“I then came to the conclusion that I have held very firmly ever since, that

if we had been left to ourselves there would never have been another shot

fired.”

Adolf Hitler, then a Corporal of the 16th Bavarians, saw it differently:

“Such a thing should not happen in wartime,” he is said to have remarked.

“Have they no German sense of honor?”