History.com: During World War I, on and around Christmas Day 1914, the sounds of rifles firing and shells exploding faded in a number of places along the Western Front in favor of holiday celebrations in the trenches and gestures of goodwill between enemies.
Starting on Christmas Eve, many German and British troops sang Christmas carols to each other across the lines, and at certain points the Allied soldiers even heard brass bands joining the Germans in their joyous singing.
At the first light of dawn on Christmas Day, some German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no-man’s-land, calling out “Merry Christmas” in their enemies’ native tongues. At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans unarmed they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs. There was even a documented case of soldiers from opposing sides playing a good-natured game of soccer.
Some soldiers used this short-lived ceasefire for a more somber task: the retrieval of the bodies of fellow combatants who had fallen within the no-man’s land between the lines. Keep Reading
h/t Anonymous.
I’m sure this kind of civility will happen in Afghanistan this Christmas. Not.
While “LOL” means “laughing out loud,” there is no internet abbreviation for tears rolling down ones cheeks.
Merry Christmas to all
An amazing event.
Meanwhile far back from the water filled trenches at HQ, for both sides, the generals debated how to get these men to start killing one another again ASAP.
Wow . . . that left me moved, teary. It hit home for me. I had kin on both sides of that war. My German granddad had just barely visited his beloved English cousin in 1912 when that cousin was KIA a few years later on the Western Front. I thank the Good Lord Almighty my grandfather had resigned his commission in the German army just before the beginning of the war. Thank you, MJA, for providing this. God bless you and Merry Christmas and Hanukkah to all!
This actually happened. In that insane war, this little bit of sanity took place. And it was not well received by their commanders, who ladled out punishments for the “Trangressions” of the troops. Merry Christmas to all…
Christian against Christian, thank you Jews