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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/christmas-truce-of-1914-letter-from-trenches-shows-football-match-through-soldiers-eyes-9942929.html
A First World War soldier’s account of the Christmas truce of 1914 has been released for the first time, chronicling “one of the most extraordinary sights anyone has ever seen”.
Captain A D Chater was serving with the 2nd Battalion Gordon Highlanders when peace came briefly to the English and German trenches on the Western Front.
His letter to his “dearest mother”, describing the famous moment former enemies risked their lives to walk out into no-man’s land to wish each other a happy Christmas and play football, has been released by Royal Mail with his family’s permission.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04n67xq
There are now no living veterans of WW1, but it is still possible to go back to the First World War through the memories of those who took part. In a unique partnership between the Imperial War Museums and the BBC, two sound archive collections featuring survivors of the war have been brought together for the first time. The Imperial War Museums' holdings include a major oral history resource of remarkable recordings made in the 1980s and early 1990s with the remaining survivors of the conflict. The interviews were done not for immediate use or broadcast, but because it was felt that this diminishing resource that could never be replenished, would be of unique value in the future. Among the BBC's extensive collection of archive featuring first hand recollections of the conflict a century ago, are the interviews recorded for the 1964 TV series 'The Great War', which vividly bring to life the human experience of those fighting and living through the war.
Dan Snow narrates 'Voices of the First World War', a new oral history, which will be broadcast in short seasons throughout the commemorative period.
The Christmas Truce
In a special programme for Christmas Day, Dan Snow looks at the few hours of impromptu ceasefire that took place between 24th and 25th December 1914. According to veterans' recollections, in several places along the Western Front German and British troops mingled in No Man's Land and some even played football. Drawing on the recordings of soldiers' memories in the archive collections of the Imperial War Museum and the BBC, Dan examines what actually happened and the myths that built up around the truce.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30433729
One of these men left us an extraordinary account of the spirit of this fraternisation. His name is Louis Barthas, a cooper in Aude departement before the war and a corporal during the four years of the conflict, which he survived.
Barthas wrote: "Shared suffering brings hearts together, dissolves hatred and prompts sympathy among indifferent people and even enemies. Those who deny this understand nothing of human psychology. French and German soldiers looked at one another and saw that they were all equal as men."
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