The 'Christmas Truce' Of 1914 Is A Myth
The hundredth anniversary of the Great War has brought about ample press coverage of the epic struggle that determined the course of European and Western civilization over the last century. As a historian by background who has written quite a bit on the Great War, it’s always nice to see the media cover things that otherwise have been long forgotten outside the ranks of historians and buffs.
However, what the media chooses to cover about 1914-1918 adheres to a sort of group-think that I have elsewhere termed The Narrative: trenches, lions led by donkeys, the horror, a nearly exclusive focus on the Western Front (plus one-offs like Gallipoli that include English-speaking troops) — and did I mention the horror?
For all the emphasis since the 1960’s in the English-speaking world’s popular culture on “the horror” of 1914-1918 — as shorthand, this may be termed the Oh! What a Lovely War approach — there has long been a sub-genre focusing on the Christmas truce. Now, at the centenary of that event, which has generated its own cottage industry, with several books, the media has gone in whole-hog. There are countless press stories on the alleged events of Christmas 1914, despite there being considerable doubt about what actually transpired.
A lack of much evidence notwithstanding, it seems clear that at several places on the Western Front, which in the weeks leading up to Christmas had settled into static warfare, a far cry from the mobile bloodbath of August through November, British and German troops, violating orders against fraternization with the enemy, met in no-man’s land and exchanged drinks, some food, and may have even played a bit of football. It’s obvious why officers would omit such revelry from unit diaries, since this was a clear violation of standing orders.
That said, while some fraternization did occur between British and German troops on December 25, 1914, evidence for it is highly anecdotal. Moreover, the French were in no mood to drink and be merry with the Germans, who were occupying a good chunk of French soil, not to mention that in the five months leading up to Christmas, 300,000 French soldiers died trying to keep even more of their country from falling into German hands. Fraternization incidents between French and Germans were very much the exception that first war Christmas.
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