Thread: Christmas Football Match

now there was definitely a truce on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1914.

It is reported that soldiers sang carols and crossed into no mans land to exchange small gifts, but it is also commonly said they had football matches.

Does anyone have any pictures, or proper proof this happened?

I'm sorry I don't have any knowledge of that time period, but my brother-in-law was in the Canadian army later than WWI and WII, probably in the 60s or 70s, and he has a story of serving in a peace keeping mission on a border, where people from both sides of the conflict brought seasonal offerings on December 24th.

Yeah there was a documentary on the History Channel a few years back about this, i believe it to be true and can understand it happening after all they were only human...

What was interesting about this programme is that it interviewed soldiers from both the Allies and Axis armies..

There is an excellent book on this subject. SILENT NIGHT. The Remarkable Christmas Truce of 1914. It was written by Stanley Weintraub and published by Simon and Schuster UK Ltd in 2002 (ISBN 0-684-86622-6) It may well be now out of print but you might be able to pick up a second hand copy somewhere. And YES, it did really happen.

Hope this is of some help to you.
Regards,
Jasmor58

Have just done a quick check on Amazon. The are still listing this title as available but with limited supply.
Regards,
Jasmor58

The war was not about its foot soldiers who were used for fodder, it was a political thing at the time just like many wars after WW1.

There is now a download for members with "Celtic Thunder" singing the song Christmas 1915 ... A song about the truce of 1914. The lyrics are below. The download link can be found Here

1915 on Christmas Day
On the western front the guns all died away
And laying in the mud on bags of sand
We heard a German sing from no man's land
He had tenor voice so pure and true
The words were strange but every note we knew
Soaring ore the the living dead and dammed
The German sang of peace from no man's land


They left their trenches and we left ours
Beneath tin hats the smiles bloomed like wild flowers
With photos cigarettes and pots of wine
We built a soldier's truce on the front line
Their singer was a lad of 21
We begged another song before the dawn
And sitting in the mud and blood and feed
He sang again the song all longed to hear


Silent night, no cannons roar
A king is born of peace for evermore
All's calm, all's bright
All brothers hand in hand
In 19 and 15 in no man's land


And in the morning all the guns boomed in the rain
And we killed them and they killed us again
At night they charged we fought them hand to hand
And i killed the boy that sang in no man's land


Silent night, no cannons roar
A king is born of peace for evermore
All's calm, all's bright
All brothers hand in hand
And that young soldier sings
And the song of peace still rings
Though the captains and all the kings
Built no man's land

Sleep in heavenly peace