[AnAmericanMother]

Merry Christmas.

My granddad was in WWI. He was commissioned in the Engineers, never saw combat. So was our next door neighbor when we first married. He was infantry and was gassed in the Argonne Forest. It crippled him for the rest of his life - he died of emphysema and lung cancer.

A sad retelling of the tale of the Christmas Truce:

[Colt .45]

My Great-Uncle was gassed with mustard gas at St. Miheil in 1918. It blistered his lungs. My grandfather told me that he used to say it was like being gassed all over again when a blister popped. He was asleep in the bottom of the trench when the attack occurred and breathed the gas for approximately 2 minutes. He survived the war only to die in 1924 from complications (gangrene of the lungs) from his being gassed. He was 26 years old when he died.

But the miracle of 1914 happened before gas was used. The first use of gas was by the Germans in 1915. But for one day (Dec.25th, 1914) men laid down their arms and found the dignity of being men again. After that day it became business as usual.