Dan Snow's History Hit - The 1914 Christmas Truce (Part 2)

Episode Date: December 28, 2021

Part Two of our episodes on the famous Christmas Truce. On Christmas Eve 1914 many sectors of the Western Front in France and Belgium fell silent. Troops from all sides put down their weapons and sang carols, exchanged gifts and buried their dead in No Man's Land. The following day the truce continued in many, but not all areas, and troops gathered in crowds between the lines. there may even have been a bit of a kick about. In this episode, three distinguished historians, Peter Hart, Taff Gillingham and Rob Schaefer tell us about the events of the truce itself. We also hear extracts of letters and diaries from the men involved, including some broadcast here for the first time in English. This episode was first released on 24th December 2020.Please vote for us! Dan Snow's History Hit has been nominated for a Podbible award in the 'informative' category: https://bit.ly/3pykkdsIf you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

This is History's Heroes. People with purpose, brave ideas, and the courage to stand alone. Including a pioneering surgeon who rebuilt the shattered faces of soldiers in the First World War. You know, he would look at these men and he would say, don't worry, Sonny, you'll have as good a face as any of us when I'm done with you. Join me, Alex von Tunzelman, for History's Heroes. Subscribe to History's Heroes wherever you get your podcasts. Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History. Yesterday, the 27th of December 2021, we rebroadcast one of the most successful podcasts we ever produced.

It's on the Christmas Truce of 1914. And that was part one. So today we're publishing part two. You all know the story. On Christmas Eve 1914, various sectors of the Western Front fell silent. Troops sang carols, they shouted across to each other, they fraternised, they exchanged gifts. And the following day, those truces continued along many, many parts of the line. People met in no man's land. There was a kind of carnival atmosphere. They even had a bit of a kick about football occasionally. It was a hugely inspiring, a hugely resonant break in the interminable bloody warfare of the Western Front. A very special moment that has meant so much to

generations at the time and subsequently. On this special episode, we've got three very distinguished historians. We've got Peter Hart, who interviewed many, many veterans while working for the Imperial War Museum back in the day. We've got Taff Gillingham, and we've got the German historian Rob Schaefer. They're telling us about the events of the truce itself. We're also going to hear actors reading out extracts from the men as well, including some broadcast here for the first ever time in English. And if you want to watch the accompanying documentary that we made, our brilliant drama documentary,

first time History Hit TV has ever done drama, you can go over there and you can check out all the documentaries we've got on history at the moment. We've got Ray Mears, the survival expert, British broadcasting legend. He's on History Hit TV talking about the Roman invasions of Britain. We've got our drama documentary on the Christmas truth, and we've got our brutal dramatization of the recently discovered World War II Panzer Commander's diary as he struggles through the depths of a Russian winter at the gates of Moscow. It's all happening on History TV at the moment. It's like Netflix for history, a whole channel devoted to history for a very small subscription because it's Boxing Day. You go, you follow the link in the description of this podcast, you click on that link, you use the code BOXINGDAY, simple as that, no spaces, BOXINGDAY,

and you get 50% off your first six months. So please go and check it out. In the meantime, though, this is the story of the Christmas Truce. In December 1914, the British army was pretty exhausted. It had bled itself white on the fields of France and Belgium. The hugely powerful German army had been halted, and the British and French had then expended yet more of their limited resources in trying and failing to push them back before the end of the year. One officer, watching a particular British attack, had called it little better than murder. By Christmas Eve, both sides were hunkered down

in shallow, flooded trenches. Taff Gillingham is a historian and an expert provider of uniforms, props and extras to big TV and film productions. He's the mastermind behind our new Christmas Truce TV show on History Hit TV. I asked him about how the British were feeling towards their German adversaries. In terms of how the average British soldier thought about the Germans, I think the real thing to remember is that that regular professional British army of 1914, war was purely business to them. Had the British government said in August 1914, right, you're off to fight the Belgians or the French or the Russians, they would just as happily have trotted off to war and gone and shot at Frenchmen or Belgians. There was nothing personal about it in those early days, which I think plays a crucial part later in the truce. But there'd been an awful lot of Germans living in Britain

before the war. A lot of them had emigrated to Britain. It was incredibly common to find Germans as waiters in restaurants and as barbers serving customers all over the country. So there'd always been a lot of contact with German people. And the two countries had always had quite a close relationship. So I don't think there was any particular animosity at the outbreak of war. Rob Schaefer is a German historian who's done much to bring German accounts of the war to an English-speaking audience through his translation and tireless archival research. He is sure that the truce was a reflection of shared culture and values.

The events of Christmas 1914 are, in my opinion, a clear indicator that the cultural similarities between the British and the Germans, which include the shared Christmas tradition, were in many cases stronger than any kind of culturally driven hatred or state propaganda on both sides. And you can rationally explain a ceasefire negotiation with the need to bury the fallen, but that doesn't explain why soldiers of the Bavarian 16th Reserve Infantry Regiment, for example, in which the young Adolf Hitler served, danced with British troops in no man's land. And it doesn't explain why in front of the lines held by the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division many hundreds of German and British soldiers met

up and mixed between the lines, singing hymns and exchanging gifts and letters, or why group photographs of smiling German and British soldiers exist. It doesn't explain why British soldiers warned their German foes about impeding artillery strikes or why fraternization continued in some places well into January. As such, it is a British thing, an Anglo-German thing. On the German and British side, we can see men who share a deep cultural bond and who are not only fighting one another, but also share the same deprivations, the weather, terrain conditions in a foreign country

or far removed from their families and their loved ones at home. This is a cultural bond, and that is the driving force for the Christmas truce. Taft points out that when it came to trucing, the Brits had plenty of enticing barter. The British public and British industry responded fantastically to having their British expeditionary force in France and Belgium at the end of 1914. All sorts of companies provided gifts and chocolate and woollen goods and comforts. Local towns, local villages were all sending out comforts for the troops. But the most significant gift was the gift from Princess Mary who set up a gift fund towards the end of 1914 to send a gift

from herself and the women of the empire to all of those soldiers and sailors who were serving in well literally across the world at Christmas 1914 and it was a staggering undertaking because every single soldier fighting on the western front received a gift. All of those in all sorts of far-flung stations of empire, troops who were stationed at home, even bereaved wives and mothers got a gift as well. But the main gifts that went to the soldiers in France and Belgium was the very distinctive brass Princess Mary gift tin and it fell into roughly two categories as far as the soldiers were concerned, which was about two-thirds of them were for smokers and a third were for non-smokers. The smokers gift set had a packet of cigarettes and tobacco. The non-smokers set had what was called the acid tablet which was basically

like acid drop sweets but set in a big slab inside the tin in a wrapper which you then broke off bits and obviously sucked just like you would a normal sweet. In addition to those gifts, the smokers got additional gifts, like they might get pipes or a lighter. The non-smokers had a writing set. And there were all sorts of other things. There were scarves, there were scissors, there were all sorts of other bits and pieces which made up these gifts. It's often thought that chocolate was in the packs,

but the only people that received chocolate in their Princess Mary tins were nurses. On Christmas Eve, in some, though not all, sections of the front line, something completely remarkable happened. but the only people that received chocolate in their Princess Mary tins were nurses. On Christmas Eve, in some though not all sections of the front line, something completely remarkable happened. It was cold, clear and quiet. Let's start with the testimony of William Quinton of the Bedfordshire Regiment. Something in the direction of the German lines caused us to rub our eyes and look again. Here and there, showing just above their parapet, we could see very faintly what looked like very small coloured lights. What was

this? Was it some pre-arranged signal and the forerunner of an attack? Peter Hart is a historian and he worked for years at the Imperial War Museum interviewing veterans about the Great War to save those precious memories for posterity. Things really start to change on Christmas Eve. Now, why is that? Well, that's the day the Germans celebrate Christmas. The German family would celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. That's when they would have the big meal. That's when they'd give the presents.

Malcolm Kennedy of the Cameron Rifles describes the feeling. For the time being, all horrors and discomforts of the war seem to have been forgotten. The Christmas spirit was in the air. A lot of the traditions of the German Christmas are what we fondly think are ours. Christmas trees, that comes from Germany. Prince Albert brought it in, Queen Victoria's hubby. That's where it comes from. On Christmas Eve, the Germans start to celebrate their Christmas. Their post is delivered from home. They've got their letters from their family. That makes them feel warm, even if they're freezing cold. They start to put up Christmas trees. They're sent lots of Christmas trees from home. They put them up in the trenches. They decorate them with candles and lights,

although I'm not sure how the lights work. But there's lots of accounts that the Christmas trees appear above their trenches with lights. And they start singing carols. How do the British react? Well, they're suspicious. You know, someone's singing Silent Night in German. Alf Lovell of the London Rifle Brigade describes what he saw that night. Climbing the parapet, I saw a sight which I shall remember to my dying day. Right along the whole of the line were hung paper lanterns and illuminations of every description, many of them in such positions as suggest that they were hung upon Christmas trees. And as I stood in wonder, a rousing song came over to us. Our boys answered with a cheer, while a neighbouring regiment sang lustily the national anthem.

Our boys answered with a cheer, while a neighbouring regiment sang lustily the national anthem. Some were for shooting the lights away, but almost at the first shot there came a shout in really good English. Stop shooting! Then began a series of answering shouts from trench to trench. It was incredible. Hello! Hello! You English we wish to speak! After this, we remained the whole night through, singing with the enemy, song for song.

Peter Hart explains how it escalated. They join in, they applaud, they start to shout things backwards and forwards across No Man's Land. And there developed a warmer atmosphere than you might well have expected. Exactly as British generals said, warmth might happen if you live in close conjunction with the enemy. The Germans are there. They're clearly human.

They are not the pickle-hugged monster. You can see them. They're over there celebrating Christmas. That's not monstrous, saying that. That's recognisably human, isn't it? I find the accounts of the soldiers who experienced that night to be some of the most powerful from the First World War, because the entire event seems so unexpected and incongruous. Here's Graham Williams of the London Rifle Brigade. Then suddenly lights began to appear along the German parapet, which were evidently

makeshift Christmas trees adorned with lighted candles which burnt steadily in the still frosty air. William Quinton of the Bedfordshire Regiment. We were very suspicious and were discussing this strange move of the enemy when something even stranger happened. The Germans were actually singing. Not very loud, but there was no mistake in it. We began to get interested. Suddenly, across the snow-clad no-man's land, a strong clear voice rang out, singing the open lines of Annie Laurie. It was sung in perfect English and we were spellbound. No other sound but this unknown singer's voice. To us it seemed that the war had suddenly stopped. Stopped to listen to this song from one of the enemy, not a sound from friend or foe. As the last notes died

away, a spontaneous outburst of clapping arose around our trenches. Encore, good old Fritz. And here's Albert Moran of the King's Royal Surrey Regiment. It was a beautiful moonlit night, frost on the ground, white almost everywhere. And about seven or eight in the evening, there was a lot of commotion in the German trenches. And there were these lights. I don't know what they were. And then they sang Silent Night. I shall never forget it. It was one of those highlights of my life. I thought, what a beautiful tune. As dusk fell on Christmas Eve, in some places along the lines, the British army started to hear the Germans singing,

very often singing Stille Nacht, and on the other side, the British would respond with Silent Night. In some places, German soldiers got quite close to the British and called out, and some British soldiers went out to meet them and exchanged gifts, which was a sort of a precursor to what would happen the following day. Christmas morning dawns it's very frosty it's very cold the ground's absolutely frozen solid and I think it's important to say this doesn't happen everywhere. The Christmas truce is a collection of individual incidents that happen spontaneously

all along the front line, mostly between the British and Germans in some places, between the Belgians and Germans in some places, between the French and Germans. Although it's fair to say that because France and Belgium have been occupied by the Germans, they're not quite so keen on trucing as the British are. What has entered historiography as the Christmas truce was very much an Anglo-German affair, as I said before. So it mostly played out between German and British troops. But the situation was a lot different, where French, Belgian and German troops faced one another. Brandy, cigarettes and cigars had crossed the lines

in some sectors of the Franco-German front line in the weeks ahead of Christmas. So there had been local truces between French and German troops for different reasons. And there is a rather moving and heartwarming story of the Belgian-German Christmas truce as the Hoge Brugge in Dixmude. But these were exceptions. And the simple reason for that is that for the French and Belgians, this was a much more concrete and personal war. They fought on their home soil against a foreign occupier.

And the fighting continued virtually everywhere, except for that section of the front which was held by the British Expeditionary Force. And even there it has to be said that some units kept fighting. In most of northern Belgium and France, fighting continued as well. One unit, the Hertfordshire's, had lost a couple of men to snipers. Someone in charge was obviously not in a festive mood. Here's Clifford Lane of that regiment. Towards midnight a Chinese lantern was raised above the enemy parapet. We were immediately ordered to open fire and thus what was undoubtedly a friendly gesture was brutally repulsed. Peter Hart points out that when it did come to trucing,

language wasn't quite the barrier that we might think. Now, one thing that's interesting is a lot of the Germans could speak English. They're better educated than our lads, I fear. But that's not all. Many of them had worked as waiters or in butcher shops in London, in Manchester, in the great cities. There were lots of Germans who'd lived in England and therefore they could shout out across no man's land. And of course, the British, you know, cheery, chirpy, cockney staff would shout back.

So you've got lots of people. How are you doing, Tommy? And then the British would shout, waiter, waiter, because they'd been German waiters. And this sort of banter goes across no man's land. And that's going on on the night of the 24th, Christmas Eve. That's the sort of thing that's happening. So who starts the Christmas truce? Well, that's interesting, because the Germans say it was the British, and the British say it was the Germans.

I marginally think it was the Germans. One reason for this confusion may be that, do you want to be entirely honest about who started when you think who might read it? If you have an account in, say, a newspaper, a letter that you send to a newspaper or something or in a report, you're not going to say in a report to headquarters, oh, I started the truth because you'll be in trouble. So I think that's one of the reasons that the Germans say it was the British and the British say it was the Germans. I think that's one of the reasons that the Germans say it was the British and the British say it was the Germans. But in those places where, certainly in some places, the British commanders have made it very clear they're not going to tolerate this.

And in those places, the fighting continues. There's a lot of men killed in the fighting on Christmas Day. But in those places where the fighting has stopped, nearly always instigated by the Germans, German soldiers will get out first. I mean, they're already in much more of a festive mood. I mean, Christmas was, I think, probably true to say, a bigger thing for the Germans than it was for the British. And what happens, it's foggy. Along most of the front, it's pretty foggy at the start.

And what becomes apparent is you can see the Christmas trees, the German Christmases alight. And gradually, the Germans start shouting across, and people start showing themselves. And it's Christmas Day, you don't shoot them. And people get more and more bold on both sides. As the sun rose on a frosty, misty battlefield, the singing of the night before gave way to something even more extraordinary. Shouted greetings, waving, and finally, full-on fraternisation.

Tommy! They're singing the Christmas carols again, and they're gradually engaging, and gradually the bolder spirits start to sort of climb out of the trench and wave, that kind of thing. And you get both sides starting to respond to each other. And then once you're visible, no-one's shooting. So you move into no-man's land, and you actually go and meet each other. And then once you're visible, no one's shooting. So you move into no man's land and you actually go and meet each other. It's quite an amazing process. It involves an incredible

amount of trust. And that's interesting because they don't trust each other. So it's a strange phenomenon. One of the most interesting contemporary accounts is from Edward Hulse, an officer in the Scots Guards who was killed the following spring. The silence seemed extraordinary after the usual din. From all sides birds seemed to arrive and we hardly ever see a bird generally. Later in the day I fed about 50 sparrows outside my dugout, which shows how complete the silence and quiet was. There is no one pattern fits all. Lots of things happen, it's all different. In some areas, they go out and meet in Nomanzan,

and the officers intervene. Now, why do the officers intervene? What the officers do, they don't stop it. But what they're determined to do is stop the Germans getting too close to their own lines. They don't want the Germans to see what's happening. But the officers have another motive. They want to go out, get as close to the German line as they can. And you have people like Bruce Bounce for that. They'll say they were wearing an old overcoat and a muffler hat. They were not exactly in disguise, but they didn't want the Germans to know they were an officer. This is happening up and down the line. Officers are involved often to control the process

and to get what they can out of it. So that's one thing that happens. There's an exchange of gifts. Now, what do they give each other? Well, I think we get the better out of this, the British, because what happens is the Germans will give you cigars, or perhaps a drink, a bottle of beer, German beer, German lager. What do we give them? Oh, tin of Bullybeam. Well, I'm not sure that's a good exchange,

but there's small exchanges of gifts. Lots of them refer to cigars being given. What else might happen in no man's land? So photographs taken, there are many, many photographs. That's why we, there's never been the slightest doubt that this was a widespread process photographs taken and they engage in banter some of them debate the war that's not a good idea it doesn't generally go too well but it's an interesting process that's happening and then as the process develops well we're out in no man's land why don't we tidy up those bodies and this is a real motivation for the truth the officers and the men on both sides

are very keen to clear the corpses from no man's land and often you bring the bodies you share the work out and you're doing that so you'll collect up the German bodies in your half of no man's land and take it to their side they'll do the same because again they don't want them to get too close to the wire. The main cause was that the dead in no-man's land needed to be buried, and Christmas seemed to be the perfect time to do that. The chronicler of Infanterie Regiment No. 13, a Westphalian unit, recorded, for example, that in the night from Holy Night, the 24th to the 25th, a German patrol in no man's land was called at from the British side. Someone was shouting from the trenches at the Germans in no man's land,

asking for a party of officers to come forward to negotiate a ceasefire to bury the fallen. In those places where the units had taken part in those disastrous attacks in mid to late November, there's a lot of dead soldiers in no man's land, mostly British, but probably a third of them probably German. And so they take the opportunity to bury those men in no man's land just where they fell. British and Germans very often all buried together and sometimes even with a joint service, a joint burial service. You listen to Dan Snow's history. It's about the christmas truce today more coming up this is history's heroes people with purpose brave ideas and the courage to stand alone including a pioneering surgeon who rebuilt the shattered faces of soldiers in the first world

war you know he would look at these men and he would say don't worry sonny you'll have as good a pioneering surgeon who rebuilt the shattered faces of soldiers in the First World War. You know, he would look at these men and he would say, don't worry, Sonny, you'll have as good a face as any of us when I'm done with you. Join me, Alex von Tunzelman, for History's Heroes. Subscribe to History's Heroes wherever you get your podcasts. In the days after the truce, letters started to appear in the British papers as family members sent the letters of servicemen in. This one was published in the Daily Telegraph. At about 9am on Christmas Day, an English officer, accompanied by two of his men, came across and asked for a ceasefire until midnight to bury the dead. This was willingly granted.

Another was written by an officer in the rifles. The officer came out. We gravely saluted each other. And then I pointed to nine dead Germans lying in midfield and suggested burying them, which both sides proceeded to do. We midfield and suggested burying them, which both sides proceeded to do. We gave them some wooden crosses for them, which completely won them over, and soon the men were on the best of terms and laughing. At least in one sector, the British and Germans came together for one of the most memorable religious services of the First World War. Lieutenant Arthur Pelham Byrne described it in a letter home.

Burying the dead was awful, too awful to describe, so I won't attempt it. We then had a most wonderful joint burial service. Our padre arranged the prayers and psalms, etc., and an interpreter wrote them out in German. They were read first in English by our padre and then in German. It was an extraordinary and most wonderful sight. The Germans formed up on one side, the English on the other,

the officers standing in front, every head bared. Yes, I think it was a sight one will never see again. I mean, there's reports of the Germans ice skating on a pond. That's wonderful. Sliding. I don't think they were ice skating. They're sliding, aren't they, on the ice? There's even a report of a... There's a sort of view halloo british officer starts that obviously and they chase a hare about there's all the arguments about whether they were playing in football i think it's much more interesting than the british launch a bit of a hunt for a poor i

can imagine that hare just going for its daily constitutional there's suddenly loads of germans and brits chasing it in no man's land that's the sort of thing that's happening what else are they doing they're improving their drainage so no one's shooting at you improve the trenches improve first the drainage not bothering us let's improve the uh the parapet oh let's dig this trench a bit deeper or this barricade some of the trenches are just barricades really uh the water's too deep. There's no drainage, so you have to go up rather than down. So improve your trenches. That's going on as well. Improve your communication trenches. And both sides are engaged in this. It's a multifaceted thing. It's not one size fits all. On Christmas we see a truce all along the line with British soldiers and fraternizations in no man's land.

And in some sectors that lasted only a few hours, a couple of days. And in others it lasted two weeks and more. In some sectors there was dancing and an exchange of souvenirs. In other sectors the troops just stayed in their trenches and didn't fire upon one another. sectors the troops just stayed in their trenches and didn't fire upon one another. In the sector of my home regiment for example, Infantry Regiment 56, Scottish troops broke through the walls of one of their forward saps to connect it with the German positions. Thus they linked up their trench with the German trench and they used that bit to exchange presents, to meet and have a chat. use that bit to exchange presents, to meet and have a chat.

And the Westphalians christened this new trench Konventionsgraben, the Convention Trench. Unsurprisingly, managing a totally ad hoc truce on a battlefield between different nationalities of men who had been trying to kill each other until very recently was not a smooth or uniform process. Now, what can go wrong? Well, what can go wrong is you start trying to make a truce with soldiers that won't have it. Now in particular this is on the 1st Corps

commanded by Sir Douglas Haig and the 2nd Corps commanded by Smith Dorian. Now these two are the original BEF, they're the original regulars. Now there may not be many of them left but they were much more under discipline apparently and there are reports of them shooting down Germans attempting to make a truce. The truce does not take place along the whole of the British line. There is a violent response in some places. What can go wrong? Well, you're making a truce and your battalion and the battalion next to you isn't. People get shot. There are misunderstandings. There are accounts of soldiers going out to the German wire, or one German came to the British wire, no blindfold. Now, the rule of war at the time was if you came up to the British trench,

you had to wear a blindfold if you were negotiating some sort of truce. And so they took him prisoner, prisoner of war. And the report was that the bloke was upset, but very upset. But you also have misunderstanding. So you have one of the monarchers goes out into no man's land and he gets too close to German wire. They said, prisoner. He tries to run for it and someone shoots him. These things can go wrong and they do go wrong. But given a fair wind and cooperative units, then a truce was established and held, but not everywhere. It's very interesting, up at Wolverham, the commanding officer of 1st Norfolk, very obviously afterwards, was like, what on earth happened there?

And he insists that every one of his platoon commanders actually writes a report and say what happens. And nearly all of them are saying, well, you know, it wasn't us. It wasn't us. No, no, the troops next to us, you know, down there, they'd all got out. And the Germans were getting near and we couldn't possibly let the Germans get close to ours and see in our trenches. So the only thing we could do was get out and meet them as sort of dressed up as this sort of, well, the only thing we could do was get out and meet the Germans.

Very clearly a sort of a massive exercise in sort of protecting one another's backs. But in most places, it's about swapping buttons, it's about swapping food, swapping photographs, swapping stories. A lot of Germans had lived and worked in Britain before the war. There are accounts of British soldiers having their hair cut by their pre-war barber. There are German soldiers who give letters to British soldiers and say, please send this to my girlfriend in Suffolk and ask if my motorbike's all right. They're playing cards, they're, like I say, swapping hats and German spiky helmets. So this sort of just general good feeling all across the line in these places where it's happening. Just you think that while you were eating your turkey and that, I was out talking and shaking hands with the very men I had been trying to kill a few hours before. It was astounding.

You will hardly credit this, but it is the truth. Fancy shooting at the Germans and going over to wish them a Merry Christmas. I don't think it has happened in the world's history before. You would have thought that peace had been declared. The whole thing is extraordinary that men were all so natural and friendly. The Germans have no bitter feelings toward us. The truce was widespread, but not everywhere was gripped by festive cheer. As I say, in other places, there's none of this. There's still fighting going on. There's still men getting killed. In some places, British soldiers go over to truce with the Germans,

and the Germans are not having it. Nobody went into the opposition's trenches. It may be that there were isolated cases, but both sides had more bloody sense than to allow the enemy, because they still were the enemy, to actually get into their trenches and see the absolute details, possibly where a sniper's post was, for instance, or weaknesses in the defences. No one's going to allow the enemy into their trench. They met in no man's land. They weren't intended to get involved. And then

the Saxon unit opposite them offered them a barrel of beer. Well, there was a truce. The Germans carried the barrel of beer into No Man's Land and they shared the beer. It was apparently from a French brewery. And the apocryphal story is that it was dreadful beer and the British deliberately shelled the brewery to get their vengeance. Again, it's a lovely story, part of a miserable war, a miserable existence. Now, the one thing that everyone has heard about in connection with the Christmas truce is the mythical football match. You'll be sad but perhaps not wholly surprised to learn there's very little evidence for a football match. Historians are still trying to work out whether it's total mythology or whether there was in fact a kickabout or two.

Football is something that is inextricably linked with the Christmas truce. The evidence for it is difficult to find, but there are signs that there was some football play. Now, was there a big football match with, you know, 11 a side played over with rules, a referee and the rest of it? No, I can say that. I've no problem with that. Was there some sort of kickabout? Well, the evidence for this is mixed. This contemporary letter from Frank Naden of the

Cheshire Regiment contains a tantalising reference. We had a rare old jollification, which included football, in which the Germans took part. Another source, importantly a contemporary diary, comes from Kurt Zemisch of the 134th Infantry Regiment of the German Army. Soon a couple of Englishmen brought a football out of their trench and the game started. This was all so wonderful and unusual. That's also how it seemed to the English officers. That's indeed the effect of Christmas, the festival of love, that the hated enemy should for a short time become a friend.

Some accounts do mention football in one way or another. I don't know one which actually states that German and British soldiers played against one another, but some accounts are ambiguous enough to leave room for interpretation. Football obviously crops up every time that the truce is mentioned. And I think it's important to see it in context, perspective really, because football actually plays a tiny, tiny part in the Christmas truce. All of those activities of sharing stuff, swapping buttons, swapping food, swapping photographs, all of that stuff's going on, singing together, drinking together. And only in a tiny, tiny handful of places is there any sign that the British and the Germans played football together.

Having said that, there's still quite a bit of football. A lot of regiments take the opportunity that the truce has given them to play football themselves. Units like the Queen's Westminster Rifles and the East Lancashires and the Royal Warwicks in their own accounts talk about playing games of football either in front of their own trenches or between their first and second line trenches and then putting the ball away before they go and meet the Germans. There's a lot of analogies about football. We were all milling around like a football crowd. There are a lot of accounts where it says we wanted to play football,

the commanding officer wouldn't let us. We wanted to play football, we didn't have a ball. A company were going to play the Germans tomorrow, but we're relieved. So there's a lot of talk about football, but there are very, very few places where there's any sign that it actually happened. Certainly down at Freelinghain, the German infantry regiment, 133, played a very small proper game, I think, with 2nd Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, because the German accounts actually talk about the Scotsmen, well, they call them Englishmen in kilts, wearing nothing under their kilts. And there's a couple of descriptions there by Germans, including Johannes Niemann, who was a German officer. And there's a corroboration from a soldier of 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders who refers to seeing a four-a-side match. And it

was played on a meadow, so it's flat ground. So it makes sense. It's somewhere that you could easily play a proper game of football. And both the Argyll and the Germans say that the Germans won. The only other place that there's corroboration of a game is up at Wolvergam, where the 1st Battalion Norfolk Regiment, including one company of the 1st 6th Cheshires, they have a kickabout with the men of Infantry Regiment 16, the Germans. And there are a couple of soldiers and an officer there who talk about having this kickabout. And there's also a couple of accounts of other people that clearly made up much later, which talk about enormous games with hundreds of men, which clearly didn't happen. But that's very much a kickabout

rather than a proper game. Because again, it's in it's an aplowed rutted field with crops still in it on a freezing cold day which would just break your ankles if you were trying to sort of run across it and play a proper game i think what you look at is is the corroboration are there more than one account from the same unit referring to it independently and the answer to that is i think yes that there there are signs that the cheshires who were attached to the Norfolk, I think there are signs that there was some sort of game played there. There's a chap called Ernie Williams who was interviewed in an oral history account, and he refers to a giant kickabout. That's what they are. These are just kickabouts with any sort of ball. Not a lovely leather Casey, as we used to call it. No. Sometimes a

tied-up sandbag, just kicking it around, or something like that. Or even a comforter stuffed with straw. That's what they played with. And that's what you'd expect them to play with. Why would they have a ball in the front line? Peter is more sceptical about the account from Johann Nieman. There are some accounts that there was a game between the German 133 Saxon regiment and against a Highland regiment. Now, this I find more difficult. One of the accounts is quite specific

that he's playing against a kilted regiment. And classically, he uses the detail that the wind blew up their kilts so you could see they weren't wearing anything. Now, this is perfect. This is great media work. This is the sort of thing that film cameramen like. This is real history. It's not. It's a good story. Now, my problem with this story is it's too good. It's too perfect. Was it windy that day? No, actually, there was fog that morning. That doesn't tend to go with wind, does it? What unit opposite them wore kilts?

Only one. The 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlands. Oh, yes. But there's lots of accounts from the 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlands, including from a professional footballer and several officers. None of them refer to a football match. None at all. It's one-sided.

Now, there is some corroboration from the German side, but this worries me. I'm happier with the rough kickabout from the Cheshires and the Norfolk than I am with that one. In all of these cases, if you analyse what's happening, you've got one-sided evidence. So you have evidence from the Cheshires and the Norfolk that they played a game, but none from the German side. And in the 133 Regiment, you've got evidence from the German side, corroborated, although dodgy, but none from the other side. This means that you have to look at balance of probabilities as a historian, as someone who wants to know what happened. Can we be certain? No. Balance of probability. Was there some sort of kickabout? Yes, I think there was some sort of kickabout yes i think there was some sort of

kickabout but that's all it was much more common were kickabouts on your own side and lots of british units there are accounts of kickabouts their side of the no man's land not involving the germans one of the chaps i interviewed from lancashire fusiliers ashurst he refers to being out in the open to a kickabout and he's the the one who refers to Germans doing a bit of sliding on a pond, separate. And you've just got to be careful. People going down the pub tell pub tales, don't they? They exaggerate in the pub. And sometimes they can start over 30, 40, 50 years. That sort of story can become the sort of reality to you. You're not lying. It's just you've told that story for 30 years now and you believe it. And sometimes you

add exciting details just for the audience. And hence is what I think about Scottish Highlanders showing their bottoms. I just think, I don't believe it. I just don't believe it. And that, for me, undermines that account. Do I believe there were hundreds involved in the football match? I'm afraid I don't, because it would have been in official reports. There would be many more have referred to it. So you look at a source and you analyse it. It's miserable historians like me that prevent people from saying, there definitely was a Christmas football match, and it was 2-0 to the Germans or 3-2 to the Germans. We're urging caution. Just look at it. Just analyse it and come to a sensible

conclusion, which I believe many people now have. There was some sort of kick around between the British and the Germans. It was not a football match. It was not a refereed or ruled or in any way a real football match it was just a kickabout in no man's land and i also have to say there is at least one british account written by an officer of the war rickshaws i think on the 26th of december which describes kicking an old cap around with the germans and he goes on to to explain how a Saxon infantryman falls into the barbed wire entanglement and injures himself and I find that entirely believable. The truce held in some places for hours in others for days a pause in the industrial slaughter of the western front. I asked historians why they thought it happened at all. So why a truce?

Why do you want to risk your life and go into no man's land to meet the enemy? Because that's what you're doing. And for me, one of the main motivations is plain and simple curiosity. Who are these people, these Germans, these pickle-howed monsters? What are they like like are they like you they've been just over there you've been fighting them but you don't know anything about them the urge to meet them is very strong and then there are other urges just to get out to be able to stretch your legs to stand tall you know you're in a four-foot trench with 18 inches of water

isn't it nice to get out and stand in a field might be three inches of mud there but to get out and not be sniped one of the veterans i interviewed just said how wonderful it was to be able to stretch your legs you're freezing cold you can't move in a trench you're stuck here in one place freezing cold you can get out you can walk about no one's hands you You can stretch your legs. You can get warm. What other motivations? Well, clear them bodies. All right, it's freezing cold. They're not stinking quite as much as they might have been, but some of them might be your mates. Just to move those corpses, get them properly buried. It's a very human motive. And while the truce is on, I'll

improve my trench. Instead of being four foot deep, I'll make it six foot deep. Perhaps I'll get that bit more drainage. Perhaps I'll get another communication trench. I'll help finish one. Perhaps I'll build a dugout that's actually where I can actually lie down and sleep. These are all motivations for the truce. Is it about the enduring human spirit and desire for peace? I don't think so. That's one thing I'm absolutely confident it wasn't about. The ending of the truce is a bit like the start. It starts in many different ways across the line.

And the ending, it finishes in many different ways at different times. So for some, it's just Christmas Day. Reginald Arms of the North Staffordshire Regiment took one last look around on the evening of Christmas Day. I left our friends on Christmas Day in a quiet mood, stood upon the parapet and had a final look round and not a shot was fired. This is History's Heroes. People with purpose, brave ideas and the courage to stand alone,

including a pioneering surgeon who rebuilt the shattered faces of soldiers in the First World War. You know, he would look at these men and he would say, don't worry, Sonny, you'll have as good a face as any of us when I'm done with you. Join me, Alex von Tunzelman, for History's Heroes. Subscribe to History's Heroes wherever you get your podcasts. And that's it. Next day, they're back to shooting. For some, it lasts almost a week. It's amazing. How does it end?

Well, it ends in many different ways. You get a new battalion come into the line. Remember, the British are changing over all the time. New battalion arrives. We're not having any of this truce. Open fire. Well, that ends the truce quick enough. An embittered individual.

There was one account, a wonderful account, of an embittered individual who'd lost a brother or a family and he just sneaks aside and shoots a German. They were all appalled. They said the British army lost its honour that moment but it's just what kind of happened. Sometimes it was almost by agreement and as a wonderful account of the Second Royal Welsh Fusiliers, they drunk all the beer a couple of days later and what they do is two officers stand opposite each other fire the revolver salute each other and back to the war sometimes it's the guns the royal artillery or the german artillery they're not in the truce and they open fire and that ends

the truce there's a myriad of different ways it ends but it ends everywhere because it's not reality. The truce isn't reality. It's like a fairy tale. It's like an interregnum. It's just a break in the real business of war. That's what they're there for. And that's what they get back to. When it came to it, the troops went back to war willingly. They'd enjoyed the truce. It had been a chance to do what they wanted to do. But that's it. It's all about them. It's not a flowering of sort of the human spirit. It's not a sort of goodwill to all men. It's not any great love of the Germans. It is all about them. They've got what they wanted out of it. They've got a break. They've improved the trenches. They've got rid of them buddies. And now it's time to go back to reality. It's time to go back to war. They fully endorsed the reasons their country was at war.

In some places, they agree to carry on the truce on again the following day. In some places, they don't carry on meeting, but they carry on just not shooting at one another for a couple of days. And in different places, it gradually fizzles out. In some places, the sort of no-shoot policy carries on for several days until eventually the artillery starts and brings a real final closure to the troops. They believed the Germans had to be thrown back. They believed in what they were fighting for. That's the truth.

That's what really comes out in letters. Would they have liked the war to have ended? Yes, with Britain victorious. That's not any desire for peace. That's a desire to win the war. It's different. And when it comes to it, those people that they met in Noman's land, that they were photographed with, that they shook hands with, they played football with, those people, within a matter of days, they were willing to shoot at, to put a bullet through their brain, to burn it if it came to it. And that is the real human nature. That's, if you like, the blackness of the human spirit. You could see a man, you could shake hands with him, smoke his cigar, and you're perfectly willing to kill them. And I think that that's something that's often missed. You know, this was not man's humanity to man.

This was a bunch of cynical, hard-bitten, very hard soldiers just taking the opportunity just to have a couple of days off and a couple of days rest from all that misery and mud not really because for a start the the generals aren't fools and they ordered the artillery to fire it just have a sort of a bombardment just to remind people what's happening and that there are no there are no real instance of a big christmas truce again uh not in the same way there There are isolated instances, that's all there is for the rest of the war. The Christmas truce didn't happen again for a number of reasons, apart from one very, very minor truce with one unit where a couple of officers were given a

hard time over it. In most places, the British army had made sure that artillery would continue all the way through Christmas day, that offensive machine gun fire would carry on, that sniping would carry on, to make sure that there was no conditions for the troops to start. In fact, it's probably true to say that there was probably more firing on Christmas Day than there had been in some of the days leading up to it. But I think the other thing to remember is that by Christmas 1915, there was no taste for it either. Those pre-war regular soldiers, those hard-bitten regulars who just wanted to take a day off out of the muck and mud in 1914, had nearly all gone. So, you know, not that they'd all been killed, but many of them had been,

they'd gone home, they'd been posted to other units, they were training soldiers, or they'd been captured. But by Christmas 1915, the vast majority of men by that time in France were territorials, or they were new army men of Kitchener volunteers, people who joined the army specifically to kill the Germans. Not a professional army who'd have just as happily killed the French or the Belgians or anyone else, but people who specifically had joined the army to kill the Germans. And by that time, a lot of them were already in a position where they'd had friends or relatives who'd been killed. So they got no interest in meeting with the Germans for a truce. 3,356 British and Indian soldiers lost their lives

over Christmas 1914 in the trenches. 77 on Christmas Day itself. But along miles of battered moonscape battlefield, there had been a halt to the killing. That extraordinary moment would become a symbol of hope that fellowship between men might prove stronger than the giant war machines that sought to control them. And perhaps we might end up living in peace. I feel the hand of history upon our shoulders. All this tradition of ours, our school history, our songs,

this part of the history of our country, all were gone and finished. Thanks, folks, you've made the end of another episode. Congratulations, well done you. I hope you're not fast asleep. If you did fancy supporting everything we do at History Hit, we'd love it if you would go and wherever you get these pods, give it a rating, five stars or its equivalent. A review would be great. Thank you very much indeed. That really does make a huge difference. It's one of the funny things the algorithm loves to take into account. So please, however they do that, it can seem like a small thing,

but actually it's kind of a big deal for us. So I really appreciate it. See you next time. See you next time. This is History's Heroes. People with purpose, brave ideas, and the courage to stand alone. Including a pioneering surgeon who rebuilt the shattered faces of soldiers in the First World War. You know, he would look at these men and he would say, don't worry, Sonny, you'll have as good a face as any of us when I'm done with you. Join me, Alex von Tunzelman, for History's Heroes.

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