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Peace in No Man's Land, Christmas 1914 An Unofficial
Christmas Truce at the Front During World War I 
 

by Jennifer Rosenberg

[...]


Sometimes the two enemies would yell at each other.
Some of the German soldiers had worked in Britain
before the war and asked about a store or area in
England that an English soldier also knew well.
Sometimes they would shout rude remarks to each other
as a way of entertainment. Singing was also a common
way of communication. 

During the winter it was not unusual for little groups
of men to gather in the front trench, and there hold
impromptu concerts, singing patriotic and sentimental
songs. The Germans did much the same, and on calm
evenings the songs from one line floated to the
trenches on the other side, and were there received
with applause and sometimes calls for an encore.4 
After hearing of such fraternization, General Sir
Horace Smith-Dorrien, commander of the British II
Corps, ordered: 

The Corps Commander, therefore, directs Divisional
Commanders to impress on all subordinate commanders
the absolute necessity of encouraging the offensive
spirit of the troops, while on the defensive, by every
means in their power. 

Friendly intercourse with the enemy, unofficial
armistices (e.g. 'we won't fire if you don't' etc.)
and the exchange of tobacco and other comforts,
however tempting and occasionally amusing they may be,
are absolutely prohibited.5 

[...] 

On December 7, 1914, Pope Benedict XV suggested a
temporary hiatus of the war for the celebration of
Christmas. Though Germany readily agreed, the other
powers refused. 

Even without a cessation of war for Christmas, family
and friends of the soldiers wanted to make their loved
ones' Christmas special. They sent packages filled
with letters, warm clothing, food, cigarettes, and
medications. Yet what especially made Christmas at the
front seem like Christmas were the troves of small
Christmas trees. 

On Christmas Eve, many German soldiers put up their
Christmas trees, decorated with candles, on the
parapets of their trenches. Hundreds of Christmas
trees lighted the German trenches. The British
soldiers could see the lights but it took them a few
minutes to figure out what they were from. British
lookouts reported the anomalies to their superiors.
Could this be a trick? British soldiers were ordered
not to fire but to watch them closely. Instead of
trickery, the British soldiers heard many of the
Germans celebrating. 


Time and again during the course of that day, the Eve
of Christmas, there were wafted towards us from the
trenches opposite the sounds of singing and
merry-making, and occasionally the guttural tones of a
German were to be heard shouting out lustily, 'A happy
Christmas to you Englishmen!' Only too glad to show
that the sentiments were reciprocated, back would go
the response from a thick-set Clydesider, 'Same to
you, Fritz, but dinna o'er eat yourself wi' they
sausages!'6 

In other areas, the two sides exchanged Christmas
carols. 

They finished their carol and we thought that we ought
to retaliate in some way, so we sang 'The first Noël',
and when we finished that they all began clapping; and
then they struck up another favourite of theirs, 'O
Tannenbaum'. And so it went on. First the Germans
would sing one of their carols and then we would sing
one of ours, until when we started up 'O Come All Ye
Faithful' the Germans immediately joined in singing
the same hymn to the Latin words 'Adeste Fidéles'. And
I thought, well, this was really a most extraordinary
thing - two nations both singing the same carol in the
middle of a war.7 

The Christmas Truce
This fraternization on Christmas Eve and again on
Christmas was in no way officially sanctified nor
organized. Yet, in numerous separate instances down
the front line, German soldiers began yelling over to
their enemy, "Tommy, you come over and see us!"8 

Still cautious, the British soldiers would rally back,
"No, you come here!" 

In some parts of the line, representatives of each
side would meet in the middle, in No Man's Land. 

We shook hands, wished each other a Merry Xmas, and
were soon conversing as if we had known each other for
years. We were in front of their wire entanglements
and surrounded by Germans - Fritz and I in the centre
talking, and Fritz occasionally translating to his
friends what I was saying. We stood inside the circle
like streetcorner orators. 

Soon most of our company ('A' Company), hearing that I
and some others had gone out, followed us . . . What a
sight - little groups of Germans and British extending
almost the length of our front! Out of the darkness we
could hear laughter and see lighted matches, a German
lighting a Scotchman's cigarette and vice versa,
exchanging cigarettes and souvenirs. Where they
couldn't talk the language they were making themselves
understood by signs, and everyone seemed to be getting
on nicely. Here we were laughing and chatting to men
whom only a few hours before we were trying to kill!9 
Some of those who went out to meet the enemy in the
middle of No Man's Land on Christmas Eve or on
Christmas Day negotiated a truce: we won't fire if you
won't fire. Some ended the truce at midnight on
Christmas night, some extended it until New Year's
Day. 

One of the main reasons Christmas truces were
negotiated was in order to bury the dead. Though some
had died recently, 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 somber 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 just a
few rare instances, joint services were held for both
the British and German dead. 

Yet many soldiers enjoyed meeting the un-seen enemy
and were surprised to discover that they were more
alike than he had thought. They talked, shared
pictures, exchanged items such as buttons for food
stuffs. An extreme example of the fraternization was a
soccer game played in the middle of No Man's Land
between the Bedfordshire Regiment and the Germans. A
member of the Bedfordshire Regiment produced a ball
and the large group of soldiers played until the ball
was deflated when it hit a barbed wire entanglement. 

This strange and unofficial truce lasted for several
days, much to the dismay of the commanding officers.
This amazing showing 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. 

This experience has been the most practical
demonstration I have seen of 'Peace on earth and
goodwill towards men.10 

1. Lieutenant Sir Edward Hulse as quoted in Malcolm
Brown and Shirley Seaton, Christmas Truce (New York:
Hippocrene Books, 1984) 19.
2. Leslie Walkinton as quoted in Brown, Christmas
Truce 23.
3. Andrew Todd as quoted in Brown, Christmas Truce 32.
4. 6th Division of the Gordon Highlanders Official
History as quoted in Brown, Christmas Truce 34.
5. II Corp's Document G.507 as quoted in Brown,
Christmas Truce 40.
6. Lieutenant Kennedy as quoted in Brown, Christmas
Truce 62.
7. Jay Winter and Blaine Baggett, The Great War: And
the Shaping of the 20th Century (New York: Penguin
Books, 1996) 97.
8. Brown, Christmas Truce 68.
9. Corporal John Ferguson as quoted in Brown,
Christmas Truce 71.
10. Oswald Tilley as quoted in Brown, Christmas Truce
97-98.






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