cyberjosh
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The Most Amazing Christmas - True Story
On December 19, 1914, on the battle fields of WWI something amazing took place between the warring British and German soldiers along the Western Front. Coming up upon the eve of Christmas something within the spirit of the two troops changed. The British and German soldiers ceased to fire at one another and came out of their trenches in an event that would go down in history forever, known as the Christmas Truce. One British lieutenant named Geoffrey Heinekey recorded part of this amazing event in his journal:
“A most extraordinary thing happened. . . . Some Germans came out and held up their hands and began to take in some of their wounded and so we ourselves immediately got out of our trenches and began bringing in our wounded also. The Germans then beckoned to us and a lot of us went over and talked to them and they helped us to bury our dead. This lasted the whole morning and I talked to several of them and I must say they seemed extraordinarily fine men. . . . It seemed too ironical for words. There, the night before we had been having a terrific battle and the morning after, there we were smoking their cigarettes and they smoking ours.â€Â
As night fell on Christmas Eve the British soldiers noticed the Germans putting up small Christmas trees along with candles at the top of their trenches and many began to shout in English, "We no shoot if you no shoot". The firing stopped along the many miles of the trenches and the British began to notice that the Germans were coming out of the trenches toward the British who responded by coming out to meet them. They mixed and mingled in No Man's Land and soon began to exchange chocolates for cigars and various newspaper accounts of the war which contained the propaganda from their respective homelands. Many of the officers on each side attempted to prevent the event from occurring but the soldiers ignored the risk of a court-martial or of being shot.
Some of the meetings reported in diaries were between Anglo-Saxons and German Saxons and the Germans joked that they should join together and fight the Prussians. The massive amount of fraternization, or maybe just the Christmas spirit, deterred the officers from taking action and many of them began to go out into No Man's Land and exchange Christmas greetings with their opposing officers. Each side helped bury their dead and remove the wounded so that by Christmas morning there was a large open area about as wide as the size of two football fields separating the opposing trenches. The soldiers emerged again on Christmas morning and began singing Christmas carols, especially "Silent Night." They recited the 23rd Psalm together and played soccer and football. Again, Christmas gifts were exchanged and meals were prepared openly and attended by the opposing forces. Stanley Weintraub, who documented much of this event, quotes one soldier's observation of the event: "Never . . . was I so keenly aware of the insanity of warâ€Â.
In the spirit of friendship and perhaps just tiredness of war the Germans and British broke the conventional lines of conflict and hostility and fraternized with one another in what would be one of the most touching and meaningful Christmases ever to go down in history. Though the fighting resumed half-heartedly soon thereafter, history could never change that event when the human spirit had won out over war, hate, and conflict and displayed love even to one’s enemy.
On December 19, 1914, on the battle fields of WWI something amazing took place between the warring British and German soldiers along the Western Front. Coming up upon the eve of Christmas something within the spirit of the two troops changed. The British and German soldiers ceased to fire at one another and came out of their trenches in an event that would go down in history forever, known as the Christmas Truce. One British lieutenant named Geoffrey Heinekey recorded part of this amazing event in his journal:
“A most extraordinary thing happened. . . . Some Germans came out and held up their hands and began to take in some of their wounded and so we ourselves immediately got out of our trenches and began bringing in our wounded also. The Germans then beckoned to us and a lot of us went over and talked to them and they helped us to bury our dead. This lasted the whole morning and I talked to several of them and I must say they seemed extraordinarily fine men. . . . It seemed too ironical for words. There, the night before we had been having a terrific battle and the morning after, there we were smoking their cigarettes and they smoking ours.â€Â
As night fell on Christmas Eve the British soldiers noticed the Germans putting up small Christmas trees along with candles at the top of their trenches and many began to shout in English, "We no shoot if you no shoot". The firing stopped along the many miles of the trenches and the British began to notice that the Germans were coming out of the trenches toward the British who responded by coming out to meet them. They mixed and mingled in No Man's Land and soon began to exchange chocolates for cigars and various newspaper accounts of the war which contained the propaganda from their respective homelands. Many of the officers on each side attempted to prevent the event from occurring but the soldiers ignored the risk of a court-martial or of being shot.
Some of the meetings reported in diaries were between Anglo-Saxons and German Saxons and the Germans joked that they should join together and fight the Prussians. The massive amount of fraternization, or maybe just the Christmas spirit, deterred the officers from taking action and many of them began to go out into No Man's Land and exchange Christmas greetings with their opposing officers. Each side helped bury their dead and remove the wounded so that by Christmas morning there was a large open area about as wide as the size of two football fields separating the opposing trenches. The soldiers emerged again on Christmas morning and began singing Christmas carols, especially "Silent Night." They recited the 23rd Psalm together and played soccer and football. Again, Christmas gifts were exchanged and meals were prepared openly and attended by the opposing forces. Stanley Weintraub, who documented much of this event, quotes one soldier's observation of the event: "Never . . . was I so keenly aware of the insanity of warâ€Â.
In the spirit of friendship and perhaps just tiredness of war the Germans and British broke the conventional lines of conflict and hostility and fraternized with one another in what would be one of the most touching and meaningful Christmases ever to go down in history. Though the fighting resumed half-heartedly soon thereafter, history could never change that event when the human spirit had won out over war, hate, and conflict and displayed love even to one’s enemy.