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WWI’s Christmas Truce: When Fighting Paused for the Holiday
History.com ^

Posted on 12/24/2023 7:35:05 PM PST by Tench_Coxe

On Christmas Eve 1914, in the dank, muddy trenches on the Western Front of the first world war, a remarkable thing happened.

It came to be called the Christmas Truce. And it remains one of the most storied and strangest moments of the Great War—or of any war in history.

(snip)

What happened next would, in the years to come, stun the world and make history. Enemy soldiers began to climb nervously out of their trenches, and to meet in the barbed-wire-filled “No Man’s Land” that separated the armies. Normally, the British and Germans communicated across No Man’s Land with streaking bullets, with only occasional gentlemanly allowances to collect the dead unmolested. But now, there were handshakes and words of kindness. The soldiers traded songs, tobacco and wine, joining in a spontaneous holiday party in the cold night.

Bairnsfather could not believe his eyes. “Here they were—the actual, practical soldiers of the German army. There was not an atom of hate on either side.”

And it wasn’t confined to that one battlefield. Starting on Christmas Eve, small pockets of French, German, Belgian and British troops held impromptu cease-fires across the Western Front, with reports of some on the Eastern Front as well. Some accounts suggest a few of these unofficial truces remained in effect for days.

(Excerpt) Read more at history.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: 19141225; christmastruce; thegreatwar; truce; ww1; wwi
Merry Christmas, Free Republic.
1 posted on 12/24/2023 7:35:05 PM PST by Tench_Coxe
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To: Tench_Coxe

They should have all flipped their commamders off and went home, dashing the globalists first world war to kill off millions of european men.

If no one shows up for a globalist war, will the officers and political leaders fight instead? Hell no they won’t. They won’t willingly go imto the grinder.


2 posted on 12/24/2023 7:46:04 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Tench_Coxe

WW I started in August 1914. The First Battle of the Marne took place 6–12 September, 1914. French and British troops forced a German retreat by exploiting a gap which appeared between the 1st and 2nd Armies, ending the German advance into France. The German Army then retreated north of the Aisne and dug in there, establishing the beginnings of a static western front that was to last for the next three years.

The Christmas Truce occurred just three months after the start of the trench warfare. The men were already so fed up with fighting, cold, miserable, wet, muddy and diseased conditions that they essentially told their officers “Forget it” and held the impromptu truce. Little did they know that the war would slog on another four years.


3 posted on 12/24/2023 7:47:34 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (“Occupy your mind with good thoughts or your enemy will fill them with bad ones.” ~ Thomas More)
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To: Tench_Coxe

https://www.businessinsider.com/christmas-day-military-battles-2017-12#1868-us-president-andrew-johnson-pardons-former-confederate-soldiers-2


4 posted on 12/24/2023 7:47:40 PM PST by Sacajaweau ( )
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To: Tench_Coxe
Sabaton, "Christmas Truce", 08:08:38

John McCutcheon, "Christmas in the Trenches", 00:13:59

Christams Truce of WOrld War I - Joyeux Noel (2005 film)

5 posted on 12/24/2023 7:55:43 PM PST by MacNaughton
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6 posted on 12/24/2023 8:14:57 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: Tench_Coxe

Is this One Step Beyond about the same thing?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0507851/plotsummary/?ref_=tt_ov_pl


7 posted on 12/24/2023 9:09:20 PM PST by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls.)
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To: Tench_Coxe

Celtic Thunder sings a song about it……. Beautiful video,

https://youtu.be/JG3l-OBdcPI?si=PP0v5bQzTUc3fbNB


8 posted on 12/25/2023 3:14:58 AM PST by Apple Pan Dowdy (... as American as Apple Pie. Normal is not coming back, but Jesus will. )
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To: frank ballenger

For it’s time; a good series mostly.

One of the better episodes.


9 posted on 12/25/2023 3:57:45 AM PST by wally_bert (I cannot be sure for certain, but in my personal opinion I am certain that I am not sure..)
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To: Apple Pan Dowdy

That is very good. Thank you for posting.


10 posted on 12/25/2023 9:01:01 AM PST by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and harder to find.)
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To: Secret Agent Man

Sadly, even if there was no big war...we would be starting to fight in smaller groupings. Happens every day.
Within families, between families, between extended families, neighborhoods, sectors, cities, counties, states, nations.

...and the brave keep falling to honor the names, of the ones who have gone before...


11 posted on 12/25/2023 9:58:29 AM PST by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and harder to find.)
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