Mutual congratulations, an exchange of gifts, a joint game of football and songs. This is a description of not the New Year's matinee, but a bright episode of relations between the soldiers of the warring armies in one of the bloody wars in history - the First World War. We checked whether it really was.

The First World War claimed about 9 million soldiers' lives, and about a third of them came to the share of Great Britain and Germany. Cruelty sometimes reached the limit, and against this background messages about the holiday that British and German soldiers allegedly arranged for each other in Flanders on the eve of the Catholic Christmas of 1914 look amazing. According to different sources, it was not just a termination of shooting, but a warm and humane attitude towards the enemy up to mutual treats and exchanging souvenirs. And this is against the background of parallel burial of comrades, a few hours ago, falling from the bullets of the current rivals in the football match. Paul McCartney devoted to this event the song of Pipes of Peace (“The Pipes of the World”), who led the British hit parade for two weeks, and he generally calls the clip to it to his beloved. A truce is also dedicated to the 2005 film "Merry Christmas", which has collected many awards and is still popular on New Year's holidays.

Video clip for the song Paul McCartney Pipes of Peace

A fair question arises: is everything true here? Nowadays, even a short-term ceasefire in less large-scale wars can be achieved extremely, and the conflict flashes again after the slightest spark, not to mention some manifestations of sympathy.

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

“The morning barely dawn, as we saw the British who waved us from the trenches. We all waved back in response. Gradually, they began to get out of the trenches. Our soldiers put up small Christmas Christmas trees that brought us to the front, and lit candles on them. Everyone got out of the trenches, and it never occurred to anyone to start shooting. ”

The memories of the British soldier do not contradict his words:

“All of ours got out of the trenches and sat on the embankment. The Germans did the same and began to say in broken English. I climbed to the top of the embankment and in German asked them to sing some kind of 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 significant events on December 24, 1914, historian Stanley Weintraub:

“Blacks of various shapes appeared from the trenches. Basically they were in English or - from the Germans - in broken English. The Germans rightly suggested that the enemy would not read the traditional Gothic letters, and few of the British would understand the conversational German. The most common German message was "you do not shoot, we do not shoot." Some British divisions put the banners "Christmas" and were waiting for an answer. There were still posters on both sides.

As a result, a spontaneous truce was established. The soldiers left their trenches, meeting in the middle to shake hands. First of all, it was to bury the dead, whose bodies were previously inaccessible due to shelling.

Then they exchanged gifts. Chocolate cake, cognac, postcards, newspapers, tobacco. In several places along the trenches, soldiers changed their rifles to football balls and began to play. ”

British arrows Andrew and Grigg at a meeting with the soldiers of the German army
Photo: IWM

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

“I devoted many years to the study of the Christmas truce, studied military diaries and documents of the Imperial Military Museum. My research suggests that we have no convincing evidence of the football match.

There is a lot of evidence that the match was discussed that day - in some letters, soldiers tell their loved ones about incomplete plans to play. But, it seems, the matter did not come to this. This is understandable - the neutral strip was in terrible condition, so it would be difficult to play on it and no one was going to allow the enemy soldiers to play in their zone. In addition, at least one letter indicates that it was not possible to find a football ball. ”

Connelli notes that the key “proof” of supporters of the theory of the match is a letter from a certain doctor from the front, printed in The Times on January 1, 1915, ”the doctor did not see a story. 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 took part in the ceasefire, but in fewer quantities, since their relationship with the Germans were much more stretched due to historical circumstances. It is noteworthy that on December 7, Pope Benedict XV He called The parties to the official truce, noting that "guns could be silent at least that night when angels sing." His proposal was rejected as “impossible”, however, according to Stanley Weintraub, “the law of unforeseen consequences worked.” As a result, not only angels sang, but also themselves Soldiers.

The informal truce ended in a day. How He wrote Wales military doctor Captain James Dunn: “At 8:30, I shot in the air three times and hung a flag with the inscription" Happy Christmas. " I got to the embankment and saw a panel from the German side, on which it was written "thank you." A German captain appeared there, we both bowed, fled each other and returned to the trenches. He gave two shots into the air, and the war began again. ”

Thus, the popular descriptions of the Christmas truce of 1914 for the most part correspond to the truth. This is evidenced by historical documents and the memories of the soldiers themselves.