General Chat

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/dec/19/christmas.lornamartin

I have started this thread to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1914 Christmas Truce; I hope to add to it daily with history facts, poems and verses, please feel free to get involved.

Shaun





1914 CHRISTMAS TRUCE

On 24 December 1914, something extraordinary happened amid the hellish killing fields of the Western Front. German and Allied troops, mercilessly slaughtering each other just hours earlier, laid down their arms and embraced Christmas together.

In one of the most poignant events in human history, sworn enemies dropped their weapons, clambered out of trenches and crossed the shell-blasted mud of no-man’s land to shake hands, sing carols and exchange gifts.

The Allied troops brought Bully beef, rum and cigarettes to the party. In exchange, the Germans traded sausages, coffee and cognac.

THE "Christmas truce" is a term used to describe a series of unofficial cessations of hostilities that occurred along the Western Front during Christmas 1914.

World War One had been raging for several months but German and Allied soldiers stepped out of their trenches, shook hands and agreed a truce so the dead could be buried.

The soldiers also used that truce to chat with one another and, some claim, even play a football match. Unofficial truces between opposing forces occurred at other times during World War One but never on the scale of that first Christmas truce.

Similar events have occurred in other conflicts throughout history - and continue to occur.

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