I’m not a historian in any capacity but I do have an appreciation for it. Before World War II the first one was called The Great War. WWI was only a few decades removed from major conflicts in other parts of the world but the change in military technologies became so profound that the countries who participated didn’t want something so grievously terrible to happen again. Ironically this union of countries convening to create a peace would lead to WWII as predicted by some like John Maynard Keynes in his book “The Economic Consequences of the Peace”. All this to set the stage that WWI was so brutal many agreed some forms of combat are too atrocious. This kind of arbitration between rivals makes me think of how military uniforms were implemented largely to prevent unnecessary deaths from friendly fire.
In 1914 something magical happened on Christmas Eve. After months of torrential battle, where leaving the trench and entering No Man’s Land was likely death, in the calm of night some Germans began singing Christmas carols. The English hearing this also began to sing and finally decided to meet in the middle. While the battle lines extended across multiple fronts with soldiers from multiple countries engaged in different areas this seemed true of most of the war front. Whether it occurred Christmas morning or the day before people of different nations decided instead of shooting each other they could sing, play soccer, trade cigarettes and booze, offer services like haircuts, and help their enemies in retrieving the fallen. While there were engagements in various parts of the war line it appeared (according to journals) that most everyone decided enjoying a holiday was worth the (very severe) admonishment of superiors. This unofficial truce is maybe the only in (known) history. Even in the dimmest of times sometimes the better parts of ourselves can prevail over the worst. I just wanted to spread hope and cheer for the holidays and even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, I hope you can appreciate this bit of history. To more honestly represent the situation I sourced some details from this History.com article.
ooglykraken 