Transcript

12.19.25 · History Hour

0:01
Speaker 1: This is half hour history and I'm your host, Joseph
0:06
Bolt here at RADIOI. We want this show to be
0:10
listener driven, so if you have any comments or suggestions,
0:13
please give our studios a call at eight five nine
0:16
four to two six three nine zero. Let us know
0:19
what you think. Today, we're going to start the show
0:24
with excerpts from the following The Week dot Com from
0:31
an article entitled The Christmas Truce of World War One
0:34
as told by the Soldiers who were There, written by
0:38
the Week's staff, December twenty nineteen. And NPR dot org
0:44
A Century Ago when the Guns fell Silent on Christmas
0:48
heard on Morning Edition with Ari Shapiro in December two
0:53
thousand and four fourteen. And Medium dot com The Fascinating
0:59
Story of the the World War One Christmas Truth written
1:02
by Sal Writes December of twenty twenty, The chaplain Kit
1:07
dot com Silent Night, The Story of the Christmas Truce
1:12
of twenty fourteen by Nina Bajikl in December of twenty fourteen,
1:21
and finally the Worldwar dot org Trench Warfare no author
1:27
or date given. It was a beautiful moonlit night, frost
1:35
on the ground, white almost everywhere, and about seven or
1:40
eight in the evening, there was a lot of commotion
1:42
in the German trenches and there were these lights, I
1:48
don't know what they were, and then they sang silent
1:52
Night Stealer Knock. I shall never forget it. It was
1:59
one of the highighlights of my life. I thought, what
2:03
a beautiful tune. Private Albert Morinn of the Second Queen's Regiment.
2:13
First the Germans would sing one of their carols, and
2:16
then we would sing one of ours. Then we started
2:19
up Oh Come all you faithful, and the Germans immediately
2:23
joined in singing, and I thought, well, this is a
2:28
most extraordinary thing. Two nations both singing the same carol
2:34
in the middle of the war. Rifleman Graham Williams of
2:40
the fifth London Rifle Brigade a famous saying is war
2:49
is never good and peace is never bad. Living in
2:53
a world of differing backgrounds and opinions and systems, conflict
2:58
is likely to arise a mong young people. War creates
3:02
havoc and leaves many in despair. The Great War, commonly
3:08
known as World War One, began twenty eight July nineteen fourteen.
3:14
In such testing times, we all need a glimmer of light.
3:22
On the night before Christmas nineteen fourteen, when in the trenches,
3:28
Captain Arthur O'Sullivan of the British Army's Royal Irish Rifles
3:33
was stationed in the Rue Dui, France, he heard a
3:38
German accent float across the air. The voice said, do
3:44
not shoot after twelve o'clock, and we will not do
3:48
so either. Then if you English come out and talk
3:54
to us, we won't fire. Let us have peace, even
3:58
if just for a night. One Irish rifleman ventured out
4:04
of his trench to test the invitation. After arriving back
4:09
safely with the German cigar as a gift, others made
4:12
their way onto the still battlefield. No man's land, an
4:18
ancient term, was a nightmarish wasteland between the enemy lines,
4:24
littered with tree stumps and snarls of barbed wire created
4:28
by the constant bombardment of modern artillery. Sometimes no man's
4:34
land spanned just one hundred feet wide, with enemy troops
4:39
that were so close they could hear each other and
4:42
even smell their cooking. That evening, no man's land gradually
4:47
filled with soldiers meeting each other halfway, and so began
4:53
the unofficial Truce of nineteen fourteen and the glimmer of
4:58
light that turned the first Christess of the war and
5:02
to a momentary peace. In the weeks leading up to Christmas,
5:08
life was miserable on the front line, says historian Alan
5:11
Wakefield of the Imperial War Museum. The weather was wet
5:16
and frigid. The trenches were basically large ditches, collapsing and
5:21
filling with water. Artillery and machine guns forced the armies
5:26
to dig trenches to protect themselves, although soldiers could easily
5:30
become trapped or killed because of direct hits from artillery.
5:34
Fire fighting in these areas would grind to a stalemate.
5:40
Inside a trench, all that's visible is just a few
5:43
feet on either side, ending at the trench walls front
5:47
and back, and then a patch of leaden sky visible above.
5:53
Trenches in World War One were constructed with sand banks,
5:57
wooden planks, woven sticks, tangled barbed wire, or even just
6:04
stinking mud. The trench systems on the Western Front of
6:08
World War One were roughly four hundred and seventy five
6:11
miles long, stretching from the English Channel to the Swiss Alps,
6:15
though not in a continuous line. Despite the use of
6:20
wooden plank, duckboards, and sandbags to keep out the water.
6:24
Soldiers on the front lines lived mired in mud. The
6:28
mud in Belgium buried in consistency from water to the
6:33
thickness of dough ready for the oven. The constant damp
6:37
often led to a condition known as trench foot, which,
6:41
if left untreated, would require amputation to stave off severe
6:45
infection or even death. Trenches became trash dump, filling with
6:51
broken ammunition boxes, empty cartridges, torn uniforms, scattered helmets, soil bandages,
6:59
shrap and bone fragments. Trenches were also places of despair,
7:06
becoming long graves when they collapse from the weight of
7:09
the war. So they do small scale truces where they
7:15
actually get out of their trenches and do repair work
7:18
on the trenches in sight of each other, says Wakefield,
7:21
who wrote a book called Christmas in the Trenches. Nobody
7:25
is firing at each other because they are both just
7:28
trying to make life a little more bearable. This is
7:32
the first chance you are really getting to see the enemy,
7:35
because normally in trench war you are under the ground.
7:39
In a letter home, a British soldier named Ernest Morley
7:42
writes that his men decided to give the Germans a
7:46
gift on Christmas Eve, two songs, then five rounds of
7:51
a rapid gunfire. They started with the carol while shepherds watched.
7:58
We finished that and paused pairing to give them the
8:01
second item on the program, rights Morley. We heard answering
8:06
strains arising from their lines. Then they started shouting across
8:11
to us. Therefore we stopped any hostile operations and commenced
8:15
to shout back. One of them shouted a Merry Christmas, English,
8:19
We are not shooting tonight. Germans lit lanterns and put
8:24
them above the trenches riflemen. Morley writes that the British
8:28
tried to outdo them. Opposite me, they had one lantern
8:32
and nine candles in a row, and we had all
8:36
the candles and lights we could muster stuck up on
8:39
our bayonets. The sun rises on Christmas Day and all
8:46
is calm, and the morning came and we didn't shoot,
8:51
and they didn't shoot. So then we began to pop
8:55
our heads up and over the side and jump down
8:57
quickly in case they shot. But they didn't shoot. And
9:02
then we saw a German standing up waving his arms
9:04
and we didn't shoot, and so it just gradually grew.
9:10
Marmaduke Walkington of the London Regiment I shouted to our
9:17
enemies that we didn't wish to shoot, and that we
9:20
make a Christmas truce. I said I would come from
9:23
my side and we could speak to each other. First
9:26
there was silence, and then I shouted once more and
9:28
I invited them, and then the British shouted no shooting.
9:33
Then a man came out of the trenches, and I
9:36
on my side did the same, and so we came
9:39
together and we shook hands a bit cautiously. Captain Joseph
9:45
Sewald of Germany's seventeenth Bavarian Regiment, I don't know if
9:52
we had breakfast that morning. I suppose we did. We
9:56
had a drink. Everything was peaceful, and eventually one of
9:59
the Germans held up a card with Merry Christmas written
10:02
on it and come on over the top. Everybody was
10:07
dubious in our trench, saying should we or shouldn't we?
10:12
And then one or two Germans came up, and eventually
10:14
we decided, well, they haven't got any rifles on them,
10:17
and so we went over. Private Stan Brown of the
10:23
first Regiment. British Lieutenant M. S. Richardson writes a letter
10:29
to his family where he describes German soldiers cautiously emerging
10:33
from the trenches. He says the situation was so absurd
10:37
that another officer of ours and myself went out and
10:40
met seven of their officers. They exchanged gifts in the
10:43
area of the trenches called no man's land. One of
10:46
them presented me with a pack of cigarettes, and we
10:49
gave them a plum pudding, and then we shook hands
10:52
with them and saluted each other. Writes Richardson, what a
10:57
sight little groups of Germans and British extending almost the
11:02
length of our front. Out of the darkness. We could
11:05
hear laughter and see lighted matches, and a German lighting
11:08
a Scotchman's cigarette, and vice versa, Captain John Ferguson of
11:14
the second Seaforth Highlanders. What I had still believed to
11:20
be madness several hours ago, I can now see with
11:22
my own eyes Bavarians and English until then the greatest
11:27
of enemies, now talking and exchanging items. A single star
11:32
stood still in the sky directly above them, and was
11:35
interpreted as a special sign. More and more joined in
11:39
the entire line greeted each other. Joseph Winsel, German soldier.
11:48
Some of the soldiers used the day of peace to
11:51
bury the dead. This gesture meant a lot in terms
11:55
of respect for the dead. On both sides, joint burials
11:58
were conducted. It was an extraordinary and most wonderful sight.
12:03
The Germans formed up on one side, in the English
12:05
on the other, the officers standing in front every head
12:08
beard Second Lieutenant Arthur Pelham Byrne of the six Gordon Highlanders.
12:17
Second Lieutenant Wilbert Spencer watched many of his men fall
12:21
a week earlier, on Christmas Day. He had the strange
12:24
sensation of shaking hands with some of the German soldiers
12:27
who had killed many of his friends. They carried over
12:31
our dead, he writes in a letter to home. I
12:35
won't describe the sites I saw and which I will
12:38
never forget. We buried the dead as they were. Spencer
12:43
took a photograph that day at the Imperial War Museum.
12:47
Historian Wakefield describes the black and white image. The photograph
12:52
here shows four British soldiers in the foreground beside a
12:55
recent Doug grave and a mixed group of Germans and
12:59
British in the background, actually digging fresh grapes for other casualties.
13:04
The earth is flat and bare, with a huge blank sky.
13:08
A small white cross sticks out of the ground. Whenever
13:14
the truce is portrayed in songs and plays, there's always
13:17
a soccer match between the Germans and British. So I
13:20
asked the historians to show me accounts of the game. Well,
13:24
we don't really have any evidence of that, said William
13:27
Spencer from the National Archives. There's nothing recorded in the
13:30
unit war diaries to say a soccer match took place.
13:35
I asked Wakefield of the Imperial War Museum for evidence
13:40
of the match. It's contentious, he said, but ultimately the
13:45
idea of any organized football or soccer game just doesn't
13:49
stand up in the documentation. Some estimates are that about
13:54
thirty thousand British soldiers in between all armies, maybe up
13:58
to one hundred thousand soldiers were involved in the truce,
14:01
and Wakefield says maybe maybe a hundred may have played
14:06
soccer games against the Germans that day. In other words,
14:09
it was hardly central to the story of the truce.
14:16
A truce was widespread, but not universal. It's unclear how
14:20
extensive it was, and while some evidence indicates that it
14:24
that it extended over more most of the British held
14:27
front line that stretch across Belgium, there are other accounts
14:31
that say the truce took place only in certain segments
14:34
and portions of the land. Evidence suggests that in many
14:40
places the firing continued. In at least two places, a
14:43
truce was attempted, but soldiers fraternizing were shot by the
14:47
opposing forces. The phenomenon took several forms across the Western Front.
14:55
One account mentions a British soldier having his hair cut
14:59
by as pre you wore German barber. Another account talks
15:03
of a pig roast. In some places, the two sides
15:08
held prayer services together. They exchanged mementos like small brass
15:13
buttons from their uniforms. A button was given to nineteen
15:18
year old corporal Eric Rowden, who wrote in his daily
15:22
that day I went out and found a German who
15:25
spoke English a little, and we exchanged buttons and cigarettes,
15:30
and I had two or three cigars given to me,
15:32
and we laughed and joked together, having forgotten the war altogether.
15:42
Not everyone was in favor. Such things should not happen
15:48
in wartime? Have you Germans no sense of honor left
15:52
at all? A quote from Corporal Adolf Hitler of the
15:58
sixteenth Bavarian When commanders learned about this truce, they were furious.
16:10
Various orders were sent down straight after Christmas in nineteen
16:14
fourteen and were heavily reinforced in nineteen fifteen for this
16:20
particular occurrence not to happen again. Germans were warned that
16:29
if they staged another truce, they would be shot, and
16:35
British soldiers were threatened with court martial. Pope Benedict the
16:45
fifteenth called for a temporary holiday truce on that Christmas
16:53
of nineteen fourteen, but no formal resolution was settled by
16:59
inn of the countries involved. It was then that British, Belgium, French,
17:10
Irish and German soldiers, exhausted from the endless fighting, decided
17:19
to act on their own will, put down their rifles,
17:26
step out of their trenches and bring about an unauthorized
17:33
cease fire. Over the years, the event has been seen
17:40
as a kind of miracle, a rare moment of peace
17:46
just a few months into a war that would eventually
17:50
claim over fifteen million lives. Many of the men who
18:00
took part in the Christmas Truce of nineteen fourteen refused
18:07
to fire on their opponents again until the day they
18:13
were rotated out and other soldiers came to take their place.
18:24
Even though the events of that night in nineteen fourteen
18:30
did not bring about any form of resolution to the war,
18:36
it did give the soldiers on the battle field a
18:39
glimmer of light in the darkness. This glimmer of light
18:47
and the Christmas gift they very much needed, was hope.
18:55
The truce has been remembered as a testament to the
19:00
power of hope and humanity in a truly dark hour
19:06
of history. And although the Christmas Truth may have been
19:13
for just one night in the conflict, the fact that
19:18
it remains so widely commemorated speaks to the idea that
19:24
at its heart it symbolizes a very human desire for peace,
19:32
no matter half leading. I would like to close with
19:44
excerpts from the poem a Christmas Truce, written by United
19:52
Kingdom poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. Christmas Eve, in the
20:02
trenches of France, the guns were quiet, the dead lay
20:10
still in no man's land. Freddy France, Friedrich frank. The
20:22
moon like a metal hung in the clear, cold sky.
20:30
In the trees behind the lines, A lone bird sang,
20:36
A soldier poet noted it down a robin holding its
20:43
winter ground. Then silence spread and touched each man like
20:51
a hand. But it was Christmas Eve, belief filled the night.
21:00
Are on watch. A rifleman scoured the terrain. No sign
21:07
of life, no shadows or shots from snipers, nothing to
21:14
note or report. The frozen foreign fields were acres of pain.
21:24
Then flickering flames from the other side danced in his
21:28
eyes as Christmas trees and their dozens shone. Candle lit
21:35
on the parapets, and they started to sing. All down
21:40
the German lines. Men who would drown in mud, be
21:47
gassed or shot, or vaporized by falling shells, or lived
21:54
to tell, heard for the first time. Then silent night,
22:03
and when it was done, the British soldiers cheered. A
22:08
Scotsman started to bawl the first noel, and all joined
22:14
in till the Germans stood, seeing across the divide, the
22:22
sprawled mute shapes of those who had died. All night
22:29
along the Western front, they sang the enemies carols hymns,
22:37
folk songs, anthems in German, English, French. Each battalion choired
22:47
in its grim trench. So Christmas dawned, wrapped in mist,
22:56
to open itself and offer the day like a gift
23:02
for Harry Hugo Hermann hints with whistles, waves, cheers and laughs.
23:14
Then it was up and over every man to shake
23:19
the hand of a foe as a friend, or slap
23:23
his back like a brother would, exchanging gifts of biscuits, tea,
23:30
and stew I showed him a picture of my wife.
23:36
She thought her beautiful. They buried the dead, then hacked
23:45
spades into hard earth again and again, till a score
23:51
of men were at rest, identified and blessed my shepherd.
24:00
I shall not want. And all that marvelous festive day
24:06
and night they came and went, the officers and file,
24:16
their fallen comrades, side by side, beneath the makeshift crosses
24:23
of midwinter graves, beneath the shivering, shy stars and the
24:32
pinned moon, and the yawn of history, the high bright
24:39
bullets which each man later only aimed at the sky.
24:54
That concludes the show for the week. I'm your host,
24:57
Joseph Bolt and this has been Radio Eyes half hour history.
25:02
Thank you for listening this Christmas season and always. I
25:09
wish you peace and good will for you all.