The Christmas Truce, when British and German soldiers were said to have suddenly stopped fighting on the Western Front for a few hours on Christmas Day 1914, is written in history.
Adding to the Christmassy mood in the trenches was the snowy Christmas Eve weather. That first December of the war was a sodden affair. Trenches became mud pits, especially for the allies, who in the early days didn’t have the duckboards (wooden planks) which the superior German trenches were fitted with.
But on Christmas Eve, a cold snap struck northern France, freezing the mud and delivering a storybook dusting of snow to the battlefields.
With snow and trees in place, all that was missing for that real Christmas feel was gifts and merry company. For one extraordinary evening, the men found those things too.
“In some sectors, you couldn’t put your head above the parapet for fear of snipers and artillery fire,” Professor Stanley says.
“Indeed, about 80 British soldiers were killed in fighting on Christmas Day.”
But at other locations along the line, the miracle began to unfold.
“The Germans would call out ‘Hey Tommy’ and, gradually, officers would come out to negotiate a truce in No Man’s Land.
Eventually, the men crawled out of the trenches to meet the men they’d been trying to kill just hours earlier. The official excuse was that they were burying the dead, but in reality, this was all about goodwill and the Christmas spirit.
The men exchanged badges and buttons, tobacco and sausage, all the while showing each other pictures of their families.
The men weren’t allowed to visit each other’s trenches. That would have disclosed the number of machine guns and other confidential information.
But at other locations along the line, the miracle began to unfold.
It’s Thursday,24th, December, 1914 11.57p.m.
A man, scrambles up on the firing step from the sodden duckboard below. White clouds billow from his numb lips as he sighs with relief. He is finally free of the cold water that lapped at his boots. leaning forwards onto the frozen mud, he positions his rifle on the parapet. As he stares through the wire past the shattered trees, a line of small lights begins to flicker. The constant hiss, crack and whirl of a thousand guns fall silent. Listening hard he becomes aware of a melody sung by gentle voices of mere boys. The crescendo fills the stark space bouncing off the sandbags to his rear. As they reach the end of the sweet tune, he clears his throat and begins to sing. The bright moon fell and the winter sun coloured the horizon, they sang carols and hymns exchanging season’s greetings beside the makeshift crosses of midwinter graves.
Close to 11am, a solitary frame dodging the shell pocked pools delivers a message of peace. A truce. One by one the tattered frames climb up, stretch and stand tall in no mans land. A handshake. With cigarette in hand, he bows his head and accepts the offered flame. They laugh and talk of young curvaceous girls they long to hold. Gifts exchanged; a cheer erupts as the ball arches out of the trench. Two hours pass as they become teenagers once more, having a kick about with the lads as the enemy for a short time became a friend in the war to end all wars.
Clement James Barker was born in Witnesham, Suffolk on 14th, December, 1883. His parents, Frederick and Agnes ran The Barley Mow public house in the village. In September, 1897 he left Northgate Grammar school, Ipswich and began an apprenticeship with Mr. Groom, where he stayed for 5 years learning the art wood carving but Clement looking for a life of adventure joined the army in 1901.
By sheer luck his war record survived, one of the charred collections named WO363. They describe the 18-year-old as 5ft 7inc, 128lbs with a dark complexion, brown eyes and dark brown hair. A year later he become Lance Corporal of his regiment, the Grenadier Guards. However, in early 1903 the offer was discontinued after he was charged with receiving stolen goods and a second count of stealing from a comrade, for which he spent 56 agonising days in jail. The experience must have been life changing for the young Clement as he did not to make the same mistake again. After extending his service he once again began to climb the ranks and by 1912 he was appointed Sergeant, reaching Lance Sergeant (A Corporal acting as Sergeant). That spring he married his sweetheart Margaret Isles at St Phillips church, Buckingham Palace Road, London, surrounded by his comrades, He then spent two years treasuring married life before the world changed irreversibly.
In July, 1914, war broke out in Europe and Clement and his school friend Russell Dale were sent to the western front. There they were to experience the terrifying realism of their chosen career. Five months of foul weather, violent storms and endless rain turned the trenches into a quagmire. With poor drainage its reported water collected 3ft deep causing trenches to collapse and the soldiers to experience the agony of trench foot. The young men shivered in inadequate dress in the barren wilderness of earth.
It’s Friday, 25, December, 1914.
The sound of infectious laughter echoes through no mans land. A sound so sadly missed by boys who became men that year. As they conversed and swapped treasured possessions, the man stands back and take his time to survey the scene. He feels a surge of peace fill his soul, as tiny hairs stand upright on pimples all over his skin. A Picture captured in his head ready to share with his loved ones he missed so dear. He snaps back to the moment as his childhood friend clips him on the back letting out a raucous laugh at a risqué joke, he had heard many times before. A cheer erupts as the ball arches out of the trench. He ducks and dives on the attack as the ball flies between the Bully beef cans that mark out the goal. The Germans fight back and finish the match throwing light hearted jeers at their foe.
As night fell that historic Christmas day Clement slid back into the trench and took up the mighty sword and relied the events to his wife. The letter he penned 4 days later to his brother Montague was found by his Nephew Rodney and was revealed in 2012 on BBCs Antiques roadshow. He writes of conversations about how fed up the Germans were and how many had deserted or given themselves up as prisoners rather than fighting for the cause. He finished stating how things were “looking quite rosy”.
I found his friend Lance Corporal Russell Charlie William Dale by sheer luck. Seeing two Ipswich lads of a similar age in the same battalion and regiment I had to investigate. Feeling they just had to have known each other. It turned out that they knew each other spending their youth in the same well-trodden streets. Dale did not survive the war. He died at Ypres on 13th,December, 1917 the records state he dies from wounds. The same day Clement earnt a meritorious award and was mentioned in despatches within the London Gazette. I like to think the two events are connected that the boys were together that Dale did not die alone.
Clement survived the war and left the Army in 1920 when he took up a job with the Ministry of Defence. He died in 1943, in Colchester. Its not clear where he is memorialised.
Singing Breaks Out in the Trenches on Christmas Eve
At about 10 p.m., Bairnsfather noticed a noise. “I listened,” he recalled. “Away across the field, among the dark shadows beyond, I could hear the murmur of voices.” He turned to a fellow soldier in his trench and said, “Do you hear the Boches [Germans] kicking up that racket over there?”
One of the British sergeants answered: “You come half-way. I come half-way.”
An illustration of soldiers fraternizing on Christmas Day 1914, drawn by World War I British soldier and cartoonist Bruce Bairnsfather.
Virginia Mayo/AP Photo
British and German Soldiers Meet in the 'No Man's Land'
What happened next would, in the years to come, stun the world and make history. Enemy soldiers began to climb nervously out of their trenches, and to meet in the barbed-wire-filled “No Man’s Land” that separated the armies. Normally, the British and Germans communicated across No Man’s Land with streaking bullets, with only occasional gentlemanly allowances to collect the dead unmolested. But now, there were handshakes and words of kindness. The soldiers traded songs, tobacco and wine, joining in a spontaneous holiday party in the cold night.
Bairnsfather could not believe his eyes. “Here they were—the actual, practical soldiers of the German army. There was not an atom of hate on either side.”
And it wasn’t confined to that one battlefield. Starting on Christmas Eve, small pockets of French, German, Belgian and British troops held impromptu cease-fires across the Western Front, with reports of some on the Eastern Front as well. Some accounts suggest a few of these unofficial truces remained in effect for days.
For those who participated, it was surely a welcome break from the hell they had been enduring. When the war had begun just six months earlier, most soldiers figured it would be over quickly and they’d be home with their families in time for the holidays. Not only would the war drag on for four more years, but it would prove to be the bloodiest conflict ever up to that time. The Industrial Revolution had made it possible to mass-produce new and devastating tools for killing—among them fleets of airplanes and guns that could fire hundreds of rounds per minute. And bad news on both sides had left soldiers with plummeting morale. There was the devastating Russian defeat at Tannenberg in August 1914 and the German losses in the Battle of the Marne a week later.
By the time winter approached in 1914, and the chill set in, the Western Front stretched hundreds of miles. Countless soldiers were living in misery in the trenches on the fronts, while tens of thousands had already died.
Not Everyone Was Pleased With the Truce
At least one account has survived of a Christmas Truce gone bad: the story of Private Percy Huggins, a Briton who was relaxing in No Man’s Land with the enemy when a sniper shot to the head killed him and set off more bloodshed. The sergeant who took Huggins’ place, hoping to avenge his death, was then himself picked off and killed.
In another account, a German scolded his fellow soldiers during the Christmas Truce: “Such a thing should not happen in wartime. Have you no German sense of honor left?” That 25-year old soldier’s name was Adolf Hitler.
Neither was high command pleased with the festivities. On Dec. 7, 1914, Pope Benedict had implored leaders of the battling nations to hold a Christmas truce, asking "that the guns may fall silent at least upon the night the angels sang." The plea was officially ignored.
So when a truce spontaneously broke out, the leaders of all the armies were reportedly horrified. British General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien wrote in a confidential memorandum that "this is only illustrative of the apathetic state we are gradually sinking into." Some accounts of the Christmas Truce hold that soldiers were punished for fraternization, and top command issued orders that it should never happen again.
For the rest of World War I—a conflict that would ultimately claim roughly 15 million lives—no Christmas Truces appear to have occurred. But in 1914, these curious holiday get-togethers reminded all those involved that wars were fought not by forces but by human beings. For years after, the Truce became fodder for everything from artwork to made-for-TV-movies to advertisements and popular songs.
