CHRISTMAS TRUCE OF 1914

you know,truces occured during the whole war,the christmas one in 1914 is just the most famous.

because the leadership was pissed and said they'd kill any man fraternising with the enemy. it was even tried a couple of times and both sides decided to shell their own fucking troops to stop it

"These bitches got no skill. About to unleash crouching-tiger-hidden-dragon move on their candy ass"

>that overweight kraut manlet with down syndrome
Really makes u go hmmm... No wonder they lost the war

They won the football game desu

Friendly reminder that after the Brits and Germans started getting all friendly the Teutons tried it with the French, only to be repeatedly shot in the face for being invading fucking faggots.

Yeah then all of them died and got replaced by guess who.

A true french way to kill someone then.

>It showed what Christmas is, how it helps us unite and look at the common goal of hope.
Oh, really? Tell me about the 1915, 1916 and 1917 Christmas truces? Tell me how 1918 Christmastime was in Germany?

>first year after there was barely any fighting.
The war of movement cost a hell of a lot more than an equivalent time of trench warfare...

>christmas is responsible for ww1
>humanity is a shit and deserves to get nuked for a few sins
hella edgy, put that on your facebook feed

>christmas is responsible for ww1
Check your eyes friendo, and reread my post :^)

>Oh, really? Tell me about the 1915, 1916 and 1917 Christmas truces? Tell me how 1918 Christmastime was in Germany?
>I find it so droll when people bring this up because they only did it the first year after there was barely any fighting.
>If it happened in 1917, then it would be truly impressive.

Here you go.
>After Christmas 1914, sporadic attempts were made at seasonal truces; a German unit attempted to leave their trenches under a flag of truce on Easter Sunday 1915, but were warned off by the British opposite them, and later in the year, in November, a Saxon unit briefly fraternised with a Liverpool battalion. In December 1915, there were explicit orders by the Allied commanders to forestall any repeat of the previous Christmas truce. Individual units were encouraged to mount raids and harass the enemy line, whilst communicating with the enemy was discouraged by artillery barrages along the front line throughout the day. The prohibition was not completely effective, however, and a small number of brief truces occurred.[40]

>An eyewitness account of one truce, by Llewelyn Wyn Griffith, recorded that after a night of exchanging carols, dawn on Christmas Day saw a "rush of men from both sides ... [and] a feverish exchange of souvenirs" before the men were quickly called back by their officers, with offers to hold a ceasefire for the day and to play a football match. It came to nothing, as the brigade commander threatened repercussions for the lack of discipline, and insisted on a resumption of firing in the afternoon.[41] Another member of Griffith's battalion, Bertie Felstead, later recalled that one man had produced a football, resulting in "a free-for-all; there could have been 50 on each side", before they were ordered back.[42]

>In an adjacent sector, a short truce to bury the dead between the lines led to official repercussions; a company commander, Sir Iain Colquhoun of the Scots Guards, was court-martialled for defying standing orders to the contrary. While he was found guilty and reprimanded, the punishment was annulled by General Haig and Colquhoun remained in his position; the official leniency may perhaps have been because he was related to H. H. Asquith, the Prime Minister.[43]

>In the Decembers of 1916 and 1917, German overtures to the British for truces were recorded without any success.[44] In some French sectors, singing and an exchange of thrown gifts was occasionally recorded, though these may simply have reflected a seasonal extension of the live-and-let-live approach common in the trenches.[45]

>At Easter 1915 there were recorded instances of truces between Orthodox troops of opposing sides on the Eastern front. The Bulgarian writer Yordan Yovkov, serving as an officer near the Greek border at the Mesta river, witnessed one such truce. It inspired his short story 'Holy Night', translated into English in 2013 by Krastu Banaev.[46]

Truces aint that rare famalamadingdongs

"barely" may be a relative term but the 1st Marne alone saw almost as many killed or wounded as did the entire Franco-Prussian war, and one can add to that the battles of the frontiers (French Plan XVII), the invasion of Belgium, the race to the sea...

The Christmas truce may have come about partially because of the widespread belief on all sides when war broke out that it would be a short, sharp affair and everyone would be home by Christmas. Come December 25 and everyone's hunkered down in miserable primitive trenches far from home, with no idea how long they'll have to be there, one can imagine these soldiers looking for comfort in the traditions of the season and reaching out to share the goodwill of Christmas with their enemies, perhaps even in the naive hope of ending the war themselves.

>how it helps us unite and look at the common goal of hope.
When the enemy is not xtian.

Quite a few were executed for treason.

Fuck me that image can't be real