12-22-14<\/p>\n
A century ago this week, one of the most miraculous of Christmas miracles occurred. It is known today by some people, but largely has been forgotten. At the time it was scarcely acknowledged and, when discussed, was often criticized. Had it been more widely respected and discussed \u2013 if its effects had spread in place and time \u2013 we would be living in a different world today.<\/p>\n
I refer to the \u201cChristmas Truce\u201d of World War I.<\/p>\n
The \u201cGreat War,\u201d so called at the time, was what I have called in my historical writing the most useless of history\u2019s many useless wars. It had been a ticking time bomb, so to speak, for years. Rival monarchies of Europe, and their growing economies and colonial empires, were increasingly restive and jealous of each other. Germany was late to the game of unified nations (only having become a country in 1871), and asserted its merchant marine, except that England wanted to preserve her own supremacy; and wanted to stretch its borders to include the German-speaking minorities in neighboring countries, which no neighbor was willing to cede.<\/p>\n
Also, the war rolled out as a family feud \u2013 as ugly as the drunken wedding-reception brawls you see on TV news \u2013 since most of Europe\u2019s \u201croyalty\u201d were related and interrelated, swapping titles for land, to the point that hemophilia was almost as common as dusty crowns and musty robes. Royal cupids shot arrows for the sake of trade advantages and national alliances, many of which proved temporary anyway. It was a pile of dry twigs, a bonfire waiting to be set aflame. When the fire was lit \u2013 by a crazed anarcho-patriot from Serbia shooting an Austro-Hungarian archduke \u2013 the response became a virtual wildfire, then like a forest-fire of Western Civilization, monarchs tripping over each other to declare war left and right. Secret alliances were revealed; new alliances were formed; old alliances were abrogated. <\/p>\n
Doddering royals and their overly decorated retinues strutted, waved flags, and called the masses to defend them. It was like a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta except for the bloodthirsty nature of it all. And the gore. And the new inventions of death \u2013 \u201cBig Bertha\u201d guns that could land shells six miles away; Zeppelins that could survey and drop bombs from the air; mustard gas that killed soldiers from the inside out; destruction of civilian populations; airplanes that could shoot, drop bombs, and attack each other in the air; submarines that could sink ships from unseen places in the seas.<\/p>\n
The war, begun with a burst of patriotic fervor on all sides by the docile masses, was maintained by propagandists and absurd atrocity stories. But after the first few months, the soldiers in the trenches \u2013 in Belgium and France, principally, where British and French soldiers squared off against German counterparts \u2013 faced each other, sometimes dug in as close as 60 yards apart. And for three years there was virtual stalemate: despite advances and retreats, offenses and repulses, campaigns and campaigns, hardly any land changed hands. Battles made headlines, but the details consisted of tens of millions of the dead, their drained blood and rotting corpses feeding the weary soil.<\/p>\n
The first winter of the war heaped cruelty upon cruelty. Cold, wet rain and snow turned battlefields and trenches into flooded swamps. Dysentery, rot, and gangrene visited the soldiers, just as the horrors of snipers and \u2018round-the-clock shelling frayed their nerves. The \u201cNo Man\u2019s Land,\u201d between sets of trenches, was in fact no land for any living creature, as even trees and bushes were destroyed by the constant withering gunfire.<\/p>\n
But a funny thing happened \u2013 if you could call Peace breaking out \u201cfunny.\u201d It was more Happy than Funny. During Christmas week, a hundred years ago this week, strange things occurred. Strange to the war culture that had been whipped up; strange to the hatred that was force-fed the common soldiers; strange to the history and practice of warfare. Peace sprouted, if not fully \u201cbreaking out.\u201d<\/p>\n
It became known as \u201cThe Christmas Truce,\u201d and there was a danger that it would spread. Danger?<\/p>\n
Many legends subsequently arose after the Christmas Truce, such as a soccer game between fraternizing German and English troops (not true), but a lot of facts were documented about those days before Christmas. Evidently German soldiers made the first moves. Accounts say that during a lull in the fighting, Germans under a white flag delivered pastries sent from home, to the English, with a request that the Allies hold fire over Christmas so the Germans could sing and worship. The Brits apparently assented, returned Christmas goodies of their own and, when hearing the singing, joined in from across No Man\u2019s Land.<\/p>\n
After that, there was an impromptu Peace Offensive. Undoubtedly spurred by the words of love and peace that permeated Christmas carols, soldiers from each side soon left their lines and met in between. They exchanged cigars and drinks, and they sang Christmas hymns together. This reportedly spread along the entire 27-mile battle line, south of Ypres and east of Armentieres, site of the song about les Mademoiselles. <\/p>\n
Superior officers, up the chain of command, tried to prevent this fraternization \u2013 the root of the word meaning \u201cbrother.\u201d But it was futile. Many of the \u201cenemies\u201d could understand each other, and when they couldn\u2019t, chocolates and cigars and beer and photos of each other\u2019s sweethearts, wives, and children, served as a common language. So were familiar Christmas carols and hymns, no matter what words each man sang. So were prayers, as candles and torches lit the scenes.<\/p>\n
A British soldier recalled the Christmas Truce almost two decades later: \u201cOn Christmas morning we stuck up a board with \u2018A Merry Christmas\u2019 on it. The enemy had stuck up a similar one. \u2026 Two of our men then threw their equipment off and jumped on the parapet with their hands above their heads. Two of the Germans done the same and commenced to walk up the river bank, our two men going to meet them. They met and shook hands and then we all got out of the trench. <\/p>\n
\u201c[The Company Commander] rushed into the trench and endeavoured to prevent it, but he was too late: the whole of the Company were now out, and so were the Germans. He had to accept the situation, so soon he and the other company officers climbed out too. We and the Germans met in the middle of no-man’s-land. Their officers was also now out. Our officers exchanged greetings with them. \u2026 One of their men, speaking in English, mentioned that he had worked in Brighton for some years and that he was fed up to the neck with this damned war and would be glad when it was all over. We told him that he wasn’t the only one that was fed up with it.\u201d (Frank Richards, \u201cOld Soldiers Never Die,\u201d 1933)<\/p>\n
Another history records: \u201c[The British] Brigadier General G.T. Forrestier-Walker issued a directive forbidding fraternization: \u2018For it discourages initiative in commanders, and destroys offensive spirit in all ranks. \u2026 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.\u2019\u201d (Stanley Weintraub, \u201cSilent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce,\u201d 2001)<\/p>\n
To the military brass, such fraternizing, these celebrations, even prayers and hymn-singing \u2013 maybe ESPECIALLY prayers and hymn-singing \u2013 were discouraged. \u201cDiscouraged\u201d is too mild a word; historian Weintraub records that \u201cstrict orders were issued that any fraternization would result in a court-martial.\u201d Summary executions of soldiers who fraternized with the enemy were also threatened.<\/p>\n
It is tempting to think of how the 20th century would have been different if peace had in fact broken out. No more carnage, no harsh \u201cpeace terms,\u201d no crushing reparations, no nation-building with resentments, no post-war economic crises; likely no rise of Communism and Lenin and Stalin; or social disruptions and Fascism and Mussolini and Hitler. Probably no seeds of the Second World War and the subsequent Cold War.<\/p>\n
Hardly less consequential, the men who dared to stop killing, and to sing hymns and pray with other men \u2013 most of whom probably died in short order, themselves \u2013 would have rejoined their families and led normal lives. A special moment in history, virtually unprecedented; and I don\u2019t think repeated, anywhere, since.<\/p>\n
Such moments should not be rare \u201cmiracles.\u201d They are what God intended for us, His children. Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.<\/p>\n
There have been, and still are, many such opportunities. What a concept. Men singing Christmas hymns of love and peace, and actually listening to the words. And acting on them. <\/p>\n
+ + +<\/p>\n
A song written by Garth Brooks was built around the Christmas Truce, moving its location to Belleau Wood, the French site of a mighty battle in 1918. So: slightly fictionalized lyrics, but the powerful memory and message of the Christmas Truce comes forth in this video. I have chosen a cover version for its excellent and powerful graphics and slide show. <\/p>\n