‘Born in a Herdsman’s Shed’ – A Christmas truce

As the soldiers of both sides cheerily departed for the front lines in France and Belgium in August 1914 the politicians told them it would ‘all be over by Christmas’. But it wasn’t. Instead, on that first Christmas of the War, the soldiers – many of them volunteers from Ireland, indeed a great number of them probably hurlers and footballers – found themselves bogged down in deadly trench warfare, sometimes less than a hundred metres apart.

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 1914 something magical and mysterious happened – the killing stopped – and men from both sides gingerly left their positions and fraternised in the ‘No Mans’ Land’ between the trenches.

For that first Christmas away from home, family and friends of the soldiers wanted to make their loved ones’ Christmas to be special. They sent packages filled with letters, warm clothing, food, cigarettes, and medications. Yet what made Christmas at the front really seem like the traditional festival was the arrival of so many small Christmas trees in the trenches.

On Christmas Eve, many German soldiers put up their Christmas trees, decorated with candles, on the parapets. Hundreds of the trees lit up the trenches. The British ‘Tommies’ could see the lights but it took them a few minutes to establish what they were. They could hear the Germans celebrating and calling out to them. In some parts of the front line, the two sides took turns to sing Christmas carols to each other.

This friendliness on Christmas Eve and again on Christmas Day was in no way officially sanctioned nor organized. Some of those who went out to meet the enemy in the middle of No Man’s Land negotiated a truce: ‘We won’t fire … if you won’t fire’. Some ended the truce at midnight on Christmas night, others extended it until New Year’s Day.

One of the main reasons Christmas truces were negotiated was in order to bury the dead. There were corpses out in No Man’s Land that had been there for several months. Along with the revelry that celebrated Christmas was the sad and sombre job of burying their fallen comrades. On Christmas Day, British and German soldiers appeared on No Man’s Land and sorted through the bodies. In a few rare instances, joint services were held for both the British and German dead.

Many soldiers enjoyed meeting the un-seen enemy and were surprised to discover they were more alike than they had thought. They talked, shared pictures and exchanged items such as regimental badges for foodstuffs. An interesting example of the fraternization was a soccer game played in the middle of No Man’s Land between a British regiment and the Germans, which the Germans won by three goals to two.

The strange and unofficial truce lasted for several days, much to the dismay of the commanding officers. This amazing show of Christmas cheer was never again repeated and as World War I progressed, the story of Christmas 1914 at the front became something of a legend. It showed that even in the most hell-like of conditions, the essential goodness of human beings prevails and the spirit of the infant Christ can overcome enmity and bring people together.

The Irish poet, Thomas Kettle, was killed in the War in September 1916. He captured that Christmas spirit in a poem he wrote to his little daughter, Betty, shortly before he died:
“So, here while the mad guns curse overhead,
And tired men sigh with mud for couch and floor,
Know that we fools, now with the foolish dead,
Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor –
But for a dream, born in a herdsman’s shed,
And for the secret scripture of the poor.”

Thomas Kettle