itcouldbeamazing:It Could Be Amazing’s 12 Days of Christmas : Day 11 Though there was n

itcouldbeamazing: It Could Be Amazing’s 12 Days of Christmas : Day 11 Though there was no official truce, about 100,000 British and German troops were involved in unofficial cessations of fighting along the length of the Western Front. The first truce started on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1914, when German troops began decorating the area around their trenches. The Germans began by placing candles on their trenches and on Christmas trees, then began to sing Christmas carols. The British responded by singing their own carols. The two sides continued by shouting Christmas greetings to each other. Soon thereafter, there were excursions across No Man’s Land, where small gifts were exchanged, such as food, tobacco and alcohol, and souvenirs such as buttons and hats. The truce also allowed a breathing spell where recently killed soldiers could be brought back behind their lines by burial parties. Joint services were held. In many sectors, the truce lasted through Christmas night, but it continued until New Year’s Day in others. In a letter recently found, a soldier named Sgt Barker wrote to his brother Montague: “…a messenger come over from the German lines and said that if they did not fire Xmas day, they wouldn’t so in the morning. ‘A German looked over the trench - no shots - our men did the same, and then a few of our men went out and brought the dead in (69) and buried them and the next thing happened a football kicked out of our Trenches and Germans and English played football. 'Night came and still no shots. Boxing day the same, and has remained so up to now…” -- source link

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