By Mike Lavelle
There is dual tension evident in the Christmas season. On the one hand, Christmas is a time in which we have proclamations of the unity of humanity, which tells us that it is the season of good will and peace. Yet on the other hand, wars are still being fought, evil still abounds, and crime still happens. However, there is still an ideal that exists and sometimes something amazing happens that reminds us that Christmas is a special time, a sacred time, a day unlike none other, a day that points to a reality that suspends our normal way of thinking and behaving.
There is great true story that illustrates this. The year is 1914. The place is the Western Front in Belgium. It is wet and cold. It is a hard and dangerous place to be and perhaps a lonely place to be during the holidays. There is much loss of life and sickness. Historian Priscilla M. Roberts claims that “By the end of 1914, fighting on the Western Front had cost Germany 667,000 casualties, the French 995,000, the British 96,000 and the Belgians 50,000.”
The soldiers were tired of war. They suffered from sleep deprivation, bad food, rats, lice, and the cold weather sometimes brought on frostbite. They had to be on guard against artillery bombardments, machine gun fire, and sniper fire. However, it was the Christmas season and so, Christmas care packages filled with traditional treats from home came to the troops, in this most miserable of places (as I experienced when I was deployed overseas in Desert Storm).
As Christmas approached, the festive mood and the desire for a lull in the fighting increased, as much welcomed parcels from home started to arrive. Belgians, French, British, and German troops received what we today call care packages filled with traditional treats according to their culture, which likely included tobacco, chocolate, candies, and such.
A British Daily Telegraph correspondent wrote that on one part of the line the Germans had managed to slip a chocolate cake into British trenches with a message suggesting a ceasefire later in the evening so they could celebrate the holiday further. The German troops proposed a concert at 7:30 PM, at which point they would place candles on top of the walls of their trenches.
The British accepted the invitation and sent some of their tobacco as a return present. That evening, at the stated time, German soldiers began singing traditional Christmas songs. It is reported that the first song was Silent Night; some of the Scots then accompanied the German singers with their bagpipes. Then the English troops sang some of their Christmas songs. One account says that after Silent Night, the British responded with the first Noël. At some point, the English began to sing “O Come all ye Faithful” and the Germans joined in, but using the Latin words.
The night passed and Christmas Eve arrived. Amazingly, it was a good day as the rain stopped and clear skies arrived, almost as if it was a sign. Then something unexpected and odd happened, here and there, along the 700 miles. War gave way to singing and even in some places, meetings in the middle, between enemies, in so called no-man’s land. Gifts from the care packages, of chocolate, candy, tobacco and such were exchanged, along with uniform items (which still happens. I once exchanged uniform items with a Russian major not too long after the fall of the Soviet Union).
Many Germans spoke English and some English spoke German, so there was some light hearted exchange, right there in the middle of a battlefield, in the middle of a war, among enemies! Some troops actually played soccer with enemy soldiers. In another place, it was reported that a shared memorial service for fallen troops, of both sides, was held.
The British high command, 27 miles behind the front, heard of this fraternization between troops. The troops were warned on the dangers of being friendly with the enemy. Fraternization with the enemy in any war is not tolerated, but it was Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and well, the military leadership really didn’t know what to do – so they did nothing.
British and German Soldiers – 1914 Photo from the Imperial War Museum/AP
It was the most unusual of Christmas celebrations. Some troops, ordered to shoot, purposely shot above the heads of the other soldiers. In one case, it was reported that a ricochet round killed an English soldier and the German soldier apologized. It seemed that not too many wanted to be soldiers that night and day, and history records that in some areas, there was little fighting through the rest of the year. It is hard to fight someone that you have to come to know, even briefly.
We all know this is not how war is waged. The troops on both sides were warned by the military leadership there would negative consequences if this did not stop. However, some of the officers took a very relaxed view of this and let it continue. This is not how to wage an effective war, not at all. History records the memory of an English soldier, Bruce Bairnsfather, who wrote, “I wouldn’t have missed that unique and weird Christmas Day for anything.” He further writes, “I saw one of my machine gunners, who was a bit of an amateur hairdresser in civil life, cutting the unnaturally long hair of a docile German, who was patiently kneeling on the ground whilst the automatic clippers crept up the back of his neck.”
The following year, a few units again arranged ceasefires with their opponents over Christmas. However, it was nothing like the winter of 1914; this was, in part, due to clear orders from the leadership of both sides prohibiting such fraternization, even on Christmas Eve or Day.
This is not indeed a way to wage war. It is hard to kill another you have laughed with, had a drink with, sang a song with, and shared photos of home with. Some of these units were transferred away. Christmas 1915 was not to be a repeat – accordingly, constant artillery fire was ordered.
Our world would be a better place if we had more acceptance and less rejection; more love and less hate; more unity and less divisiveness. Yes, I know, there are bad actors who do evil in our world and often, force has to be used to stop them. I get it. I have spent time in war and have experienced the death of young men, some whom I have personally known. I have spent a few Christmas seasons celebrating Christmas in odd locations like an austere foreign desert, on top of a frozen mountain, and on a warship patrolling in the Indian Ocean – and there is an incongruity felt.
However, Christmas proclaims the possibility of peace, as unrealistic as it may seem in our world, a world in which we have enemies and there are those who seek to harm us. One way to honor and recognize the Christmas season is to strive to be a peacemaker in our own lives, as hard as it sometimes seems.
