The True Story of the Christmas Truce by Anthony Richards

Author:Anthony Richards
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History / Military / World War I
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2021-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

The Christmas Truce Elsewhere

RATHER THAN BEING ONE single organised event, the Christmas Truce could best be characterised as a spontaneous occurrence of smaller local arrangements which spread to encompass the Flanders region in particular, where the BEF was holding the line. Outside Flanders, the French offensives in Artois and Champagne were continuing, which provided little opportunity for either side to devote much attention to Christmas festivities. Yet away from Flanders there were certainly instances where ceasefires and fraternisation extended to include French and Belgian soldiers. The extent of this involvement in the larger Christmas Truce was notably different, and fraternisation with the Germans was rarely conducted in quite the same way as it played out in the British sector. For one thing, while there were definitely instances of camaraderie encouraged by the Christmas atmosphere which were embodied by singing and other festivities, there was very little meeting in large groups in No Man’s Land.

Why was this? One of the most important aspects to consider is that although the British, French and other Allies were notionally fighting together against a common foe, each nation’s army was arranged in quite distinct ways and liaison between them was organised at a higher level than that of the ordinary troops in the trenches. Each part of the front was clearly delineated from the other, and it is therefore no surprise that so many differences could be discerned between one sector and the next, even where those areas touched. Adjacent British sectors would usually operate quite independently anyway, with one experiencing fraternisation while its neighbour might not, and the added factor of different nationalities would mean even greater differences between one area and its neighbour. The war poet Robert Graves, a captain in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, made reference to this relationship with the French when he observed that ‘there’s never any connexion between the two armies, unless a battle is on, and then we generally let each other down.’1

It may be helpful to distinguish between the different attitudes exhibited by each nation and the reasons why each was fighting, since these factors would greatly influence any feelings of benevolence which might have existed between them. German Artillery volunteer Rickner had arrived at the front in October 1914, and later reflected on how the typical German soldier tended to regard his enemies:

Everybody thought of a war against France, nobody thought of England. And we were very disappointed and astonished when we learned … that England had joined France and Russia. In any case, we thought our duty [was] to enter the army as soon as possible, everybody thought the war would be just like the war of 1870–71 against France, would last about four or five months.2

This attitude was widely shared by Germans. Why were the British involved in a war which didn’t really concern them? This uncertainty and confusion perhaps encouraged any feelings of goodwill which might already have been felt by German soldiers towards the British, and which would be given the chance to bloom by the atmosphere and circumstances of Christmas 1914.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.