Christmas Truce of 1914: When Enemies Met in No Man's Land

The Christmas Truce of 1914 was a series of unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front, when British and German soldiers stopped fighting around Christmas Day, sang carols across the trenches and met in no man’s land to shake hands, exchange gifts and bury their dead. It happened only five months into the First World War, on a front where tens of thousands had already been killed. The truce has since become one of the most famous and moving episodes of the war.

Background: the first winter of the war

By December 1914 the war of movement had ended. After the First Battle of the Marne and the bloody First Battle of Ypres, a line of trenches ran from the Belgian coast to Switzerland. In Flanders the trenches were often wet and flooded, and in places the opposing lines were only 30 to 100 metres apart, close enough for soldiers to hear each other talk.

Many soldiers on both sides had gone to war expecting it to be over by Christmas. Instead they faced a cold, muddy winter and heavy losses. Many units had suffered further casualties in small, costly local attacks during December, and the bodies of the dead lay unburied between the lines. On 7 December Pope Benedict XV appealed for the guns to fall silent at least for Christmas night, but the warring governments did not agree to any official pause.

Large quantities of Christmas mail and gifts reached the front. British troops received a brass gift tin paid for by a public fund in the name of Princess Mary, the King’s daughter, usually containing tobacco or cigarettes and a Christmas card. German units received parcels, and thousands of small Christmas trees were sent to the front.

Even before Christmas, an informal “live and let live” attitude had appeared in some quiet sectors. Soldiers sometimes avoided firing at men fetching water or eating breakfast, and some units had already arranged brief pauses to collect the wounded. The historian Tony Ashworth later described a whole system of such unspoken understandings that ran through the war alongside the official fighting.

What happened

Most accounts of the truce come from the British sector, which then ran south from the Ypres salient in Belgium into French Flanders. On Christmas Eve, in many places, German soldiers placed lighted trees on their parapets and sang carols such as “Stille Nacht” (“Silent Night”). British soldiers replied with carols and songs of their own, and the two sides began shouting greetings across no man’s land.

On Christmas morning men from both sides climbed out of their trenches, at first cautiously, and met between the lines. They shook hands, swapped cigarettes, tobacco, chocolate, food, alcohol, buttons and cap badges, showed each other family photographs and in some cases had their pictures taken together. Some Germans had worked in Britain before the war and spoke English well.

The truce usually began with a few brave individuals. An officer or a handful of volunteers would walk out first, sometimes with a lantern or a white flag, and agree a temporary ceasefire with their opposite numbers. Officers on both sides often joined in, exchanging drinks and settling how long the pause would last. Near Frelinghien, according to men of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, the Germans sent over barrels of beer from a local brewery in return for a plum pudding.

Accounts suggest that the truce was most common where British units faced German regiments from Saxony and Bavaria, although there were many exceptions. In other places men simply stood on their parapets in full view of the enemy, something that would have meant almost certain death a day earlier.

One of the most important purposes of the truce was practical. Bodies of men killed in earlier attacks still lay in no man’s land, and both sides used the pause to recover and bury their dead. In some sectors joint burial services were held, with prayers read in English and German.

The truce was far from universal. In some places officers forbade any contact, and in others firing continued; soldiers were killed on Christmas Day itself. Where the truce did take hold, it often lasted through Boxing Day, and in a few places it continued informally until New Year or beyond, with both sides firing deliberately high when ordered to resume.

Football in no man’s land

The image of soldiers playing football between the trenches has become the best-known symbol of the truce. Letters and diaries from soldiers on both sides mention kickabouts, sometimes with a real ball and sometimes with a tin or a bundle of rags. A diary kept by Lieutenant Kurt Zehmisch of a Saxon regiment, for example, records British and German soldiers playing together.

However, the evidence points to informal games involving small groups of men rather than full-scale international matches. Later stories of organised games with referees and final scores are difficult to verify, and some were recorded decades after the event. Historians generally accept that football was played in some places but warn against exaggerating it.

Key people

• Bruce Bairnsfather (1887–1959): a British officer of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment who witnessed the truce near Ploegsteert (Plugstreet) Wood and described it in his book Bullets and Billets (1916); he later became famous for his cartoons of trench life.
• Henry Williamson (1895–1977): then a young private in the London Rifle Brigade, he took part in the truce and later wrote about it in his novels.
• Pope Benedict XV (1854–1922): called publicly for a Christmas truce in December 1914.
• Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien (1858–1930): commander of the British II Corps, who had warned before Christmas against friendly contact with the enemy and afterwards demanded an investigation.

Reaction and consequences

News of the truce reached the public through soldiers’ letters, many of which were printed in British local and national newspapers in late December 1914 and early January 1915, sometimes with photographs. Press coverage was largely sympathetic and was not suppressed, though the episode was soon overshadowed by the grim fighting of 1915.

Military commanders were alarmed. Fraternisation threatened discipline and the willingness of soldiers to fight, and both armies issued strict orders against it. In later years raids and artillery bombardments were often ordered over the Christmas period to prevent any repeat. A few small, local truces took place at Christmas 1915, but nothing on the scale of 1914 happened again. Some soldiers also disapproved of the truce, feeling that friendly contact with the enemy betrayed comrades who had been killed. The war would continue for almost four more years, through battles such as the Somme, until the Armistice of 11 November 1918.

Myths and facts

Myth: the whole Western Front stopped fighting. The truce was patchy. It was widespread in the British sector but much rarer where French and Belgian troops faced the Germans, and in many places fighting carried on.

Myth: there was one great football match that Germany won. Specific scores, such as a German win by 3–2, come from accounts recorded long after the war and cannot be confirmed. Smaller informal games are much better documented.

Myth: the truce was a mutiny. Soldiers did not refuse to fight in protest against the war. The truce was a spontaneous, temporary pause, and most men returned to their duties afterwards, many still believing in their cause.

Fact: the photographs are genuine. Several photographs taken by soldiers on Christmas Day 1914, including the one at the top of this article showing men of the Northumberland Hussars with German soldiers, are held by the Imperial War Museums.

Timeline

• 1914, 7 December: Pope Benedict XV calls for a Christmas truce.
• 1914, 24 December: German soldiers light Christmas trees on their parapets and sing carols; British troops respond.
• 1914, 25 December: soldiers meet in no man’s land, exchange gifts and bury their dead.
• 1914, 26 December: the truce continues in many places through Boxing Day.
• 1915, early January: British newspapers publish soldiers’ letters and photographs of the truce.
• 1915, 25 December: only a few small, local truces take place.
• 2014, 11 December: a memorial marking the football played during the truce is unveiled near Ploegsteert in Belgium.

Legacy

The Christmas Truce has become a powerful symbol of shared humanity amid industrialised war. It has inspired books, songs and films, including the French film Joyeux Noël (2005), and was recreated in Paul McCartney’s 1983 music video for “Pipes of Peace” and in a widely seen British supermarket advertisement for its centenary in 2014.

Memorials stand near the old front lines, including one at Frelinghien in northern France and a football-themed memorial near Ploegsteert unveiled by UEFA in 2014. Each December, schools, football clubs and armed forces in Britain and Germany mark the anniversary. The centenary in 2014 was marked by commemorative football matches between British and German army teams and by ceremonies in Flanders attended by representatives of both countries.

The truce is sometimes used to argue that ordinary soldiers did not want to fight. Historians caution that the letters written at the time show a mixture of curiosity, goodwill and continued commitment to the war. Many of the men who shook hands in no man’s land went on to fight in the great battles of 1915 and 1916, and a large number did not survive.

Why it matters

The Christmas Truce showed that ordinary soldiers, even after months of slaughter, could recognise their enemies as fellow human beings. It also showed how quickly that impulse could be suppressed once the machinery of modern war resumed, which is why the truce still fascinates people more than a century later.