Mutual congratulations, exchange of gifts, playing football and singing together. This is not a description of a New Year's party, but a vivid episode of relations between soldiers of warring armies in one of the bloodiest wars in history - the First World War. We checked whether this was all for real.

The First World War claimed about 9 million soldiers' lives, and about a third of them occurred in Great Britain and Germany. Cruelty sometimes reached the extreme, and against this background, the reports about the holiday that British and German soldiers allegedly organized for each other in Flanders on the eve of Catholic Christmas in 1914 look surprising. According to various sources, this was not just a cessation of shooting, but a warm and humane attitude towards the enemy, even to the point of mutual refreshments and exchange of souvenirs. And this is against the backdrop of a parallel burial of comrades who, a few hours ago, fell from the bullets of their current rivals in a football match. Paul McCartney dedicated the song Pipes Of Peace to this event, which topped the British charts for two weeks, and he generally calls the video for it his favorite. The 2005 film is also dedicated to the truce. "Merry Christmas", which has collected many awards and is still popular during the New Year holidays.

Video for Paul McCartney's song Pipes of Peace

A fair question arises: is everything here true? These days, even short-term ceasefires in smaller wars can be extremely difficult to achieve, and conflict flares up again after the slightest spark, let alone any expression of sympathy.

This is how one of the German soldiers described these events:

“The morning had barely dawned when we saw the British waving to us from the trenches. We all waved back too. Gradually they began to get out of the trenches. Our soldiers put out the small Christmas trees they brought to us at the front and lit candles on them. Everyone got out of the trenches, and it didn’t even occur to anyone to start shooting.”

The memoirs of a British soldier do not contradict his words:

“All of our people got out of the trenches and sat down on the embankment. The Germans did the same and started speaking broken English. I climbed to the top of the embankment and asked them in German to sing some folk song. They sang, then we sang, and both sides applauded each other.”

Entire scientific books have been written about the Christmas Truce. That's what tells about the significant events of December 24, 1914, historian Stanley Weintraub:

“Branches of various shapes appeared from the trenches. Mostly they were in English or, from the Germans, in broken English. The Germans rightly assumed that the enemy would not read traditional Gothic letters, and few Englishmen would understand spoken German. The most common German message was "You don't shoot, we don't shoot." Some British units displayed "Christmas" banners and waited for a response. More posters appeared on both sides.

As a result, a spontaneous truce was established. The soldiers left their trenches, meeting in the middle to shake hands. The first step was to bury the dead, whose bodies had previously been inaccessible due to shelling.

They then exchanged gifts. Chocolate cake, cognac, postcards, newspapers, tobacco. In several places along the trenches the soldiers exchanged their rifles for soccer balls and began to play.”

British riflemen Andrew and Grigg at a meeting with German army soldiers
Photo: IWM

A football match (or even matches) on neutral ground, which is often written about, deserves special attention. Here it is worth highlighting the position of professor of modern British military history Mark Connelly:

“I spent many years researching the Christmas Truce, studying war diaries and documents from the Imperial War Museum. My research suggests that we have no conclusive evidence of a football match.

There is ample evidence that a match was discussed that day, with some letters from soldiers telling loved ones of unfinished plans to play. But it seems that things never came to that. This is understandable - the neutral zone was in terrible condition, so it would be difficult to play in it and no one was going to allow enemy soldiers to play in their zone. In addition, at least one letter indicates that the soccer ball could not be found."

Connelly notes that the key “evidence” of supporters of the theory that the match took place - a letter from a certain doctor from the front, published in The Times on January 1, 1915 - refers to someone else’s story, that is, the doctor himself did not see the game. In addition, information about the unit was removed from the letter, so it is not possible to verify this fact.

There is evidence that French soldiers also took part in the truce, but in smaller numbers, since their relations with the Germans were much more strained due to historical circumstances. It is noteworthy that on December 7, Pope Benedict XV called sides to an official truce, noting that “the guns could be silent even on the night when the angels sing.” His proposal was rejected as “impossible,” but, according to Stanley Weintraub, “the law of unintended consequences was at work.” As a result, not only the angels sang, but also themselves soldiers.

The informal truce ended within 24 hours. How wrote Welsh military doctor Captain James Dunn: “At 8:30 I fired three shots into the air and hung a flag with the words “Merry Christmas.” I climbed out onto the embankment and saw on the German side a banner on which was written “Thank you.” The German captain appeared there, we both bowed, saluted each other and returned to the trenches. He fired two shots into the air, and the war began again.”

Thus, popular descriptions of the Christmas Truce of 1914 are, for the most part, true. Both historical documents and the memories of the soldiers themselves speak about this.