'No shoot' on Christmas Eve, 1914

Palm Beach Post ^ | 12/24/01 | Tom Blackburn,

[LarryLied]

As the guns of August spoke to start World War I, the British foreign secretary, Edward Grey, said, "The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them again in our lifetime."

As a prediction, his poetic quote held up. Over the next 35 years, democracy guttered out across the continent until the Allies of World War II rolled back the darkness.

But there was a moment when it almost seemed as if Lord Grey had spoken rashly. It came at Christmas in 1914.

Trench lines already stretched from the Swiss border to the North Sea. But on Christmas Eve, what to the wondering British and French eyes should appear but triangular objects bearing tiny, white lights.

Oh Tannenbaum! That's what the Germans had erected across no-man's-land, and that's what the Germans were singing. In some spots across from the British, they encored with God Save the King.

"No shoot tonight," shouted the enemy across from the Scottish 6th Gordons. "Sing tonight, Jock! Sing tonight."

The Scots grabbed their rifles to repel an attack. And then they began singing back. The across-the-lines caroling was no localized disturbance. Similar scenes took place all along the line. In a new book, Silent Night, Stanley Weintraub re-creates the night and the day that followed from scores of letters, diaries and memoirs.

"Wonderful day," many of the writers repeated. The quotes here, except for Lord Grey's, are from Mr. Weintraub's book.

On Christmas day, all was calm, if not bright. Soldiers emerged from their holes. Some places, they agreed on a truce to bury the dead. In others, they just did it.

And then the unnatural moles, restored to manhood, did other things. "I awoke at dawn," one remembered, "and on emerging on all fours from my dugout, became aware that the trench was practically empty. I stood upright in the mud and looked over the parapet. No-man's-land was full of clusters . . . of khaki and gray . . . pleasantly chatting together."

"What were we supposed to do?" asked another officer. "Shoot? You could not shoot unarmed men. Let them come? You could not let them come into your tenches; so the only thing feasible at the moment was done -- and some of our men met them half-way."

The British had more plum and apple marmalade than the digestive system can endure, but the Germans loved the stuff. So gifts were exchanged, marmalade for barrels of beer. Soccer games broke out, Saxons vs. Anglo-Saxons. The official history of a victorious Saxon unit records the score, 3-2, along with the "droll scene" of both sides first chasing down a pair of rabbits for lunch.

Inevitably, both sides' generals -- far away in their chateaux -- heard of what was going on. And didn't approve. Stories are told of shots fired -- high -- to warn fraternizing enemies back into their trenches when the brass appeared.

The Kaiser found a German word for it: "Die Schüzengrabenfreudschaft" ("trench friendship") and declared it verboten. But his army started it with those Christmas trees and carols.

Officially, the undeclared truces were dismissed as minor. But too many letters home and to newspapers made the sanitized version unbelievable. Under an eight-column headline, "Major who sang carols between the trenches," the London Daily Sketch ran a photo of Maj. Archibald Buchanan-Dunlop doing just that for a crowd in British and German helmets.

The night was hardly silent. Mr. Weintraub's title comes from a song from the German trenches that the other side could join in British or French.

"And then (the enemy) sang Silent Night -- Stille Nacht," one of the 2nd Queen's riflemen recalled. "I shall never forget it. It was one of the highlights of my life."

The world resumed its follies the next day, but with the knowledge that there's a better way to live. Christmas proves it.

[LarryLied]

Silent Night : The Story of World War I Christmas Truce by Stanley Weintraub is #10 at Amazon. 4 detailed reviews are HERE.

[Alberta's Child]

I read a very touching story years ago about Christmas in 1944 in a small village in France. The people had spent months scraping up enough money to buy an organ for their church, and Christmas Eve was supposed to be the unveiling of the new instrument. The people gathered from miles around for Midnight Mass, including a detachment of French soldiers from a nearby base who brought a group of shackled German prisoners with them.

The new organ awaited on one side of the altar, but before the Mass began the priest climbed the steps to the altar and told the congregation that he had some very bad news. The church's organist had come down with pneumonia and would not be able to play.

In the midst of the disappointed silence, one of the German prisoners spoke to a soldier who was guarding the group. The soldier whispered for a few minutes with his commanding officer, who nodded back to him and ordered the prisoner to stand up. The prisoner was unshackled and led to the organ, then sat down and played through the entire Mass while a soldier stood guard next to him.

People who remembered the scene years later insisted that they had never heard a more talented organist than that German prisoner.

[samuel_adams_us]

My grandfather, an army corporal and medic in WWI told me a story about this. I couldn't believe what I was hearing when he finished, just sounded way to crazy for a war, but I believed him and I am definately going to do more research on this now.

[LarryLied]

I had heard there was a little of this but nothing on this scale. Once again, the media repressed the news.

Alberta's Child...great story. Must be so many more out there too.

[Alberta's Child]

You might be interested to know that there is a large number of people of German descent living in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Many of them are descended from a group of German prisoners who were captured in Europe by Canadian soldiers and sent to the Canadian prairies as prisoners of war.

They hardly lived as prisoners, though. The prairies were so stark and unforgiving in the winter that nobody bothered keeping a close watch on them. They were simply left in small settlements to fend for themselves, and they interacted regularly with the Canadian who farmed in the area and lived in the small prairie towns. Many of them learned to play ice hockey for the first time.

When the war was over, the prisoners were sent back to Germany as any POWs would be. However, most of them were so fond of Canada that they immediately began applying to emigrate to Canada, to go back and live in the same places where they had been "held" as prisoners of war.

[LarryLied]

Same here. Says a lot about our countries doesn't it? How many of our servicemen who were captured wanted to go live in the countries they were held?

In 1944, German POW's escaped from Camp Papago Park POW camp in Phoenix, Arizona. The plan was to build a boat, float down the Gila River to the Colorado,out to the Gulf of California and then to Mexico. What they didn't know was that maps which showed the Gila as a river the size of the Rhine weren't quite correct. They found mud puddles and washes instead of a river. All were recaptured. In 1990, I was in AZ when the former POW's held a reunion. One of the guys said they sat down and cried when they found a wash where they thought a river ran.

[LarryLied]

btt

[Centurion2000]

bump ... hope the Pakis and Indians don't light off their war later tomorrow.

[Cloud William]

Says a lot about our countries doesn't it? How many of our servicemen who were captured wanted to go live in the countries they were held?

My father-in-law entered the service in June, 1944. During his training as a Naval aircrewman, he was stationed at several naval bases, one being located in Corpus Christi, Texas. There his training squadron was familiarized with the big Martin PBM "Mariner" patrol bombers that they would soon be flying over the Pacific Ocean.

There were German prisoners of war held under Marine guard at that base, presumably captured in North Africa or Italy. Rather than build separate a separate mess hall for the POWs, they were simply fed in the same building as the enlisted Navy men and Marines. The prisoners were fed first - always.

[LarryLied]

Wonder how many we had here altogether. Surfing around the net, there seems to have been camps all over the place. Thanks for the anecdote!

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from the FRchives and probably years past. Adding to the GGG catalog.

• Christmas on the Battlefield - The 1914 Christmas truce. [2001]
• Christmastime 1914: Soldiers Halted War for Day of No Hate [2002]
• WWI - THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE, 1914 [2002]
• The Christmas Truce [2003]
• Last survivor of 'Christmas truce' tells of his sorrow [2004]
• Last survivor of 'Christmas truce' tells of his sorrow (1914 - 1942 - 2004) [2004]
• The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Christmas Truce of 1914 [2004]
• Last allied witness of WWI Christmas truce dies [2005]
• Peace Breaks Out on Christmas Eve [2005]
• THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE OF 1914 [2005]
• Joyeux No"l (A Movie about the WWI Christmas Truce) [2006]
• The Christmas Truce of 1914 [2008]
• This Week in History: The Christmas Truce of 1914 [2011]
• How English and German soldiers bonded during WWI Christmas Day Truce by telling jokes about the [2014]
• The Spirit of the 1914 Christmas Truce [2014]
• 'I shall never forget it': 100 years since WWI Christmas truce [2014]
• PHOTOS: Soldiers in Afghanistan play soccer in memory of World War One truce [2014]
• FReeper Canteen ~ The Christmas Truce ~ 02 January 2017 [2017]
• Christmas in the Trenches, The True Story [2017]