Special | The genuine Christmas Truce

In no man's land, or 'No Man's Land'As Anglo-Saxons like to say with a certain epic flavor, there was one of the most exceptional events in memory during a conflict. Occurred between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 1914, in the trenches of the First World War. An unexpected, spontaneous and ephemeral armistice that, according to many of its protagonists and testimonies, had football as a common thread.

Discussed by many others, raised to myth by literature, film and advertising, the Christmas Truce regains a special meaning in these times that run, while humanity fights another battle, more silent but with a not inconsiderable lethality, against the coronavirus, COVID-19, which also opens the doors on Christmas dates to another kind of sentimental truce, without neglecting for a single moment the slightest sanitary precaution, to commemorate life even when most of it is bad news.

This story unites the British and German soldiers, but also to Sir Richard Attenborough, Michel Platini, Theo Walcott, Paul McCartney, the Oscars and even, against their will, to Adolf hitler. As Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes's father wrote, it was about “an amazing sight, a human episode amid the atrocities of war“.

Franz Ferdinand is more than just an 'indie' rock band. First of all, it was the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne whose assassination, on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo, precipitated the start of the First World War. The Great War, as they knew it then, because of course they did not know that there would be a second after a few decades. In fact, they believed it would last for a few months. But things got complicated.

An apparent conflict between Austria-Hungary and SerbiaWith imperialism as a backdrop, he soon invoked the major powers. I supported the former Germany (and later Italy would join, in the so-called Triple Alliance). The other side, known as the Triple Entente, encompassed UK, France and Russia. In the end, however, the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria, the United States, Japan would be united … A lot of 70 million soldiers.

For the case at hand, Germany drew up a plan to quickly invade France, which for practical purposes consisted of taking Luxembourg and Belgium, in August, before advancing towards Paris, where the French army and the first detachments of the British Expeditionary Force awaited them. And that forced them to back down. By the end of the year, the so-called Western Front had already been established in the area closest to the border of France and Belgium.. Static trenches that would last for years.

Although most documents indicate that two-thirds of the troops involved in this front, about 100,000 soldiers participated in the Christmas TruceIn other words, in the cessation of hostilities, there is more discussion about the place where they started to play soccer. The one that generates the most consensus is Ypres, Belgium, known as the City of Peace although it gave name not one but three battles (the first, in November of that same year) during the First World War.

But the National Library of Scotland, for example, places it among Pont Ballott and Hobbs Farm, a little further south. And there are also books that talk about a halfway point, Ploegsteert. Perhaps it is that several games were played. Or that, in times of war, many soldiers, disoriented, did not even know where they were exactly.

On the reasons that led to the truce, when In just five months of fighting the British had already lost about 90,000 men, by up to 300,000 Germans, there is also debate. Especially when Pope Benedict XV had already proposed that they lay down their arms for 12 hours on Christmas Day but the high officials had refused.

That was the key: the Christmas truce was a matter for common soldiersThat is why it does not appear in war notebooks but in personal letters or in oral tradition. A kind of insubordination without consequences between soldiers who did not fight in the same war as their superiors. It is known, for example, that the British had ordered aggressive attacks between December 14 and 19, so it went from one extreme to the other to reach December 24 and 25.

And how did the Truce actually come about? Well, in the simplest way, the testimonies of both sides do coincide in that, whose trenches were separated by just 30 meters, which allowed them to sniff the food of their enemies and, especially in this case, listen to the Christmas carols they sang.

“It was a beautiful moonlit night, with the frozen land, almost all covered in white. And suddenly, from the German trenches they began to sing 'Stille Nacht' (Silent Night, of Austrian origin). I will never forget it, it was one of the highlights of my life “, he narrated Albert Moren, of the Second Queen's Regiment.

They took turns singing various Christmas carols in their respective languages. Meanwhile, the section of Lieutenant Hugo Klemm, who owned some Christmas trees with candles who had been sent – the Germans by train, the English had food and cigarettes delivered by ship – broke the ice crossing to the English trench to give one to his theoretical enemies.

“Suddenly, lights began to appear along the German parapet, which were evidently Christmas trees adorned with candles “, confirmed Graham Williams, 5th London Rifles. “When we started singing 'O Come, All Ye Faithful', they immediately joined in singing the same hymn with the words 'Adeste Fideles'. And I thought, well It is the most extraordinary thing that can happen, that two nations sing the same Christmas carol in the middle of the war“.

At another point, the researcher explains Iain Christopher Adams of the University Central Lancashire, “after much groping, They agreed that two men from each side would go out and meet. The 19 year old lieutenants Ian Stewart, the youngest BEF officer (British Expeditionary Force) who knew how to speak some German in that place, left accompanied by Sergeant Minnery“.

“Stewart perceived that the conversation resembled meeting a fan of a rival soccer team. He received a cigarette, which made him feel bad, and photographs of the Saxon regiment football team. In gratitude, he gave the German officer, a man his age and with an English level similar to his German, a can of 'bully beef' (corned beef). “Not surprisingly, many Germans were chattering English because they had worked in England.

From the German side, it counted soldier Josef Wenzl I couldn't believe what I saw with my eyes. What until a few hours before had been insane became one Englishman after another approaching past halfway to our trench.. And so, Bavarians and English, until then the greatest enemies, shook hands, talked and exchanged objects! They were, among others, chocolates or straws, as also detailed by H. Scrutton, of the Essex regiment.

And so, the Christmas Truce was defined under a tacit pact that in England is known under the motto 'You no shoot, we no shoot' (If you don't shoot, neither do we), which according to legend some German soldiers intoned.

But the most likely version is that this improvised armistice was just sealed when soldiers from both sides they negotiated what to do with the countless corpses that lay in that no-man's-land, between one trench and the other. They agreed to bury them. And, crude as it sounds, they could already count on something similar to a soccer field.

The truth is that they did not play on a green blanket in the style of the current ones, since the meteorological files place that December 1914 in the area with record rains since 1876. A terrible humidity accompanied by cold and, of course, sinkholes produced by the pumps they had not stopped falling. Spotless pitch, wow.

And who starred in the game? It was mainly two infantry corps. On the British side, the 2nd Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. On the German front, the 133rd regiment of Saxony.

In addition, they had a football past for a while. Explain Pehr Thermaenius in the book 'The Christmas Match: Football in No Man's Land 1914', that the Argylls came from the Scottish working class, so football was their favorite sport, and that in 1889 they had been proclaimed champions of the Army Cup in its first edition, in minor tournaments in India, and in 1908 and 1909 of the South Africa Army Championship. Champions in South Africa just a century before the World Cup in Spain, although in a different way.

For its part, Regiment 133 came from Zwickau, whose football team – the Fussballclub 02 Schedewitz – would record 18 casualties during the war in 1914 aloneSo that they could well be soldiers of this trench, most likely participants in the Christmas Truce. The commanding officer of 133 at the start of the war, Alfred Von Kostch, explained that one of the duties of the support troops was to organize soccer tournaments for the soldiers returning from the front line to play. But this time they didn't even need to go back.

The broadest testimony of how the party originated is that offered by the German Lieutenant Johannes Niemann, 133rd Regiment, in the BBC Radio documentary ‘Christmas Day passed quietly’ in 1968.

“A Scottish soldier appeared with a ball and in a few minutes a real match was taking place”

Lieutenant Johannes Niemann, 133rd Regiment

Suddenly, a subordinate threw himself into the underground shelter to tell us that both German and Scottish soldiers had come out of their trenches and were fraternizing all over the front. I drew my binoculars cautiously over the parapets. And I saw the incredible image of our soldiers exchanging cigarettes, brandy and chocolate with the enemy!, he recounted.

And here comes the good:! At one point, a Scottish soldier appeared with a soccer ball that seemed to appear out of nowhere and, in a matter of a few minutes, a real match was being played. The Scots marked their goal with their strange helmets and we did the same with ours. It was not easy at all to play on the frozen ground, but we continued, strictly abiding by the rules, except in the details that it lasted an hour and there was no referee!

“A lot of the passes went too long, but all the amateur footballers, although they had to be very tired, played with enormous enthusiasm“abounded Niemann, who even put a point of humor:” We Germans really blush when a gust of wind revealed that the Scots were not wearing underpants under their skirts, and we whistled every time we saw the butt of one of our enemies from the day before, “he joked.

The lieutenant always maintained that the final score was 3-2 for the Germans, a version that became popular especially after Robert Graves, who had served in World War I in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, took her for good in his short story 'Christmas Truce', 1962.

Precisely another Welsh Rifleman, Bertie Fesltead (who lived until 2001, at the age of 106), remembered however that “no it was properly a match. There could be 50 people on each side and it lasted probably half an hour“. Other voices place the meeting between two and four in the afternoon. And they are probably all right, since, as the British Sergeant Clement Barker, “they mounted matches at least three or four points from the front“.

More poetry added Kurt Zhemisch of the Saxon regiment, when he exclaimed “how wonderfully fabulous and how strange it was. The English officers felt the same. Christmas, the celebration of love, managed to bring enemies to death for a day … I told them we didn't want to shoot on the second day of Christmas either (actually, it refers to December 25), and they accepted it“.

He Corporal George Ashurst brought up another issue, the composition of the ball, by explaining the anecdote that “while a few Germans were having fun sliding down a small frozen pond right at the back of their trenches, quite a few of our boys used a sandbag to play soccer“.

He detailed in his diary – exhibited at the National Football Museum in Manchester – the British Lieutenant Charles Brockbank, that “there was a crowd between the trenches and someone pulled out a small rubber ballSo of course he started a football game. “

He Private Collier of the Argyll, he assured “that some of the men from the platoon had made a ball of paper, rags, and string, and that was what they used the ball during about 20 minutes, until it shattered and the match was over“A story that demystifies the big game, but at the same time adds authenticity. Street football taken to the trench.

But what happened on December 24 and 25, 1914 on the Western Front of World War I was nothing more than a mirage, a fairy tale if you will, which collapsed like a house of cards the day after. Perhaps there are few testimonies that better summarize the cruelty of a battle than that of the Private M. Rivett, Lincolnshire Regiment.

“What a change the next day! Our battalion was back in the trenches. Peace and good wishes had already been forgotten. Each man was trying his best to kill as many enemies one by one as he could.“he wrote.

The press, especially the English one, took a few days to report an exceptional truce, with images, some testimonies and, as the weeks passed, with scraps of many of the letters that the soldiers were sending to their families. He also crossed the pond: “The trenches trade pistols for wine,” headlined the New York Times. In general, the reaction to such an unexpected armistice ranged from miracle to rebellion.

And this last was the line that was taken from the highest levels, where what happened during Christmas 1914 was soon considered high treason, so that it never happened again. And that the war dragged on, that in certain areas like the one at hand on the borders between Belgium and France the trenches lasted for four long years, and that from the German side some timid attempt was made.

But attrition of battles, with more victims and grudges, the progressive professionalization of what had originally been street people sent to the front without eating or drinking it, and orders from above made something similar impossible to a new truce, and even less with a football game in between.

It's more, Some sectors took advantage of what happened at Christmas to learn more and better about the enemy trenches. –Still very precarious, muddied up to the top by the described weather conditions and unhealthy due to the number of corpses and rats– to attack better. The war changed. To worst.

In the contest, the British and the allied side prevailed, if there are winners in a war. But in the game of the trenches the victory had been for the Germans. So, even if it was symbolic, anyone in the sport understands that every loser deserves a rematch. And the English had it a century later.

In a fortunately more appropriate setting, the Electrical Services Stadium, in Hampshire, United Kingdom, this time the match was played. It was not a neutral zone, but the headquarters of Adelrshot Town FC and, in turn, located in the place known as the 'military city', that is, it houses the English military.

Before 2,547 spectators, this time they were the British troops who took the victory, with light and stenographers, for a lonely goal to zero. He Lieutenant Calum Wilkinson had the privilege of scoring the goal, watched from the stands by countless authorities, including Sir Bobby Charlton.

“I have felt chills“Wilkinson declared, moved not only by the centennial celebration but also by the prolegomena. Not in vain, a young lyrical singer, Marilena Grant, was in charge of singing the 'Silent Night' alternating English and German. Just like the original event.

In addition to this meeting, the tributes took place in 2014 coinciding with the centenary of the magical party. In Belgium, at the point where it was supposedly played, Michel Platini discovered a sculpture on behalf of UEFA. “Soccer is a universal language that opens our hearts, which favors contact between cultures and unites people across borders, “he proclaimed in his speech.

Also the English federation (Football Association) and the Premier League encouraged celebrations, as a program between the schools of the country, a U-12 tournament (in the style of Brunete) in the very town of Ypres or a contest to design a memorial, whose scrutiny was carried out by a jury headed by Theo Walcott. It was won by a ten-year-old boy. “This sculpture brings to life a moment of peace thanks to football in wartime“would describe the then Arsenal forward.

As with any single event, the art world ended up turning its interest on the Christmas Truce. One of the first to reflect it was Sir Richard Attenborough in his 'Oh what a beautiful war!', a 1969 film that recreates a brief encounter of about six minutes between soldiers from both fronts joking and exchanging cigarettes and chocolates.

Much more spreads 'Joyeux Noel', by French director Christian Carion, who in 2005 dedicated an entire feature film directly to the truce, with party included in the plot, which came to Oscar and Golden Globe nominee as a non-English speaking movie. Only three years before, in 2002, Dave Unwin had directed a short, 'War Game', which narrated the football part, based on the children's book of the same title published in 1993 by Michael Foreman.

Speaking of literature, the characters of 'The Fall of the Giants', the umpteenth 'best seller' in novel form by Ken Follett, released in 2010, are involved in a moment of the plot on stage and moment of the truce.

And it goes without saying that he went around the world in record time, things from YouTube and social networks, the emotional and cinematic spot that coinciding with the centenary of what happened, in 2014, made the Sainsbury’s supermarket chain to launch their traditional Christmas campaign.

Although, for classics, two songs that paid tribute to the Christmas Truce and that, decades after being produced, are still valid in the music of these dates. On the one hand, the 'All together now' that Liverpool band The Farm released in 1990, the lyrics of which make a very direct allusion to the unprecedented union of that Christmas Eve in the Belgian trenches.

On the other, the legendary 'Pipes of Peace' by Paul McCartney, who in 1983 published this pacifist song in whose video clip the exBeatle dubbed characters – such as British and German soldiers – with the armistice and the football game as a backdrop. And playing with the polysemy of the verb “play”. “Let us show them how to play the pipes of peace “ (Let teach them how to play / touch / use the peace pipes. “

What if we told you, at this point, that the Christmas Truce did not exist? Or that no football game was played? This is what some theories maintain, based on the meager evidence that was preserved –beyond the mentioned testimonies or the photograph that heads this report–, as many of the soldiers were professionals, ready for anything, as shown by the fact that the war would last four more years. And that close to the positions of the English and German protagonists were the Belgian and French fronts, very active according to the documents of the time.

The truth is that, to cite one fact, The Commonwealth War Graves Commission reported that 364 British soldiers were killed between 24 and 25 December 1914. But these could be from other fronts. Or previously seriously injured. It is not conclusive.

Likewise, there are those who claim that no soldier would have dared to come out of the trench so easily, given that both sides had relentless snipers who took turns shooting 24 hours a day when the body of an enemy rose a single foot from its parapet.

And, of course, there is also some statement against the truce, such as that of Harold Lewis, Gunner in the British Royal Guard, collected by the Imperial War Museum. “It would be arrogant to say that it never took place, but I highly doubt that it had the magnitude that has been described. The German army was rigidly disciplined, ours has an exquisite professional training, and they would never have broken it.. And if someone tried, what were the officers doing in the meantime? I think it borders on the fairy tale“, Lewis questions himself, that however, that Christmas of 1914 was not prominent in the Western Front, then it is not a testimony but an opinion.

Perhaps one of the greatest proofs that it really happened was provided, due to the perceived anger, caporal of the Bavarian regiment 16. “This kind of thing shouldn't happen in times of war. Don't you Germans have a sense of honor?“That corporal was neither more nor less than a certain Adolf hitler. And that 'Silent Night', the one that had been sung in the trenches, was curiously his favorite Christmas carol, to the point that in 1941 he changed one of its verses to “Adolf Hitler watches over the fate of Germany”.

And other caporal, A. Wyatt, of the company A 1º of Norfolks, he confessed in a letter to his parents something difficult to refute: “El partido de fútbol entre británicos y alemanes en primera línea fue real. Yo fui uno de los que jugó“.

El caso es que, edulcorado o no, cada cual tendrá su punto de vista sobre si la Tregua de Navidad ocurrió en toda su plenitud o el tiempo la fue elevando a categoría de mito, incluso para sus protagonistas. La realidad es que el hecho reflejó por un lado que unos mandan y otros mueren. Por otro, que el fútbol no conoce fronteras desde tiempos inmemoriales. Y, en general, que incluso las situaciones más inhóspitas, crueles o bárbaras pueden dejar una rendija para que brote un halo de esperanza sobre el ser humano.