The Real (Decidedly-Less-Sentimental-Yet-Still-Wonderful) Story of WWI's Christmas Truce
Episode Stats
Summary
One of the most famous stories to come out of World War One is that of the christmas truce of 1914, in which French and German forces engaged in a spontaneous and unofficial ceasefire and spent the holiday fraternizing with each other. In the popular imagination, the truce was a time which enemies put aside their differences to sing carols, exchange gifts and even play soccer, and represented a sentimental flowering of peace and goodwill. How much of the popular legend is true and how much is myth? My guest today will unpack that for us.
Transcript
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brett mckay here and welcome to another edition of the art of manliness podcast and one of the
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most famous stories to come out of world war one is that of the christmas truce of 1914 in which
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german and british forces engaged in a spontaneous and unofficial ceasefire and spent the holiday
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fraternizing with each other in the popular imagination the christmas truce was a time
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which enemies put aside their differences to sing carols exchange gifts and even play soccer
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and represented a sentimental flowering of peace and goodwill how much of the popular legend around
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the christmas truce is true and how much is myth my guest today will unpack that for us his name is
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peter hart and he served as oral historian at the imperial war museum for 40 years and is the author
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of several books on military history including the great war combat history of the first world war
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today on the show peter gives us some background on the start of world war one what led up to the
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christmas truce and what life was like for soldiers in the trenches we then discuss how the christmas
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truce began and what happened during it including whether the soldiers really played soccer what
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the leaders of the participating militaries thought of the unofficial ceasefire how long the truce lasted
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and how it ended peter explains that while the truce was certainly motivated partly by sentiment it was
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primarily done for more practical and even strategic reasons we enter conversation with why even though the
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real christmas truce is a less romantic event than commonly conceived it's still a wonderful story
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about our shared humanity out of the shows over check out our show notes at aom.is slash christmas truce
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peter hart welcome to the show thank you very much looking forward to this brad so you are a historian
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who has spent his career researching and writing about world war one and i wanted to bring you on
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the show because it's christmas time and i think a lot of people listening have probably heard about
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a singular event that happened in world war one in 1914 where you had this temporary truce between the
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germans and the british on the western front and they started celebrating christmas together started
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singing christmas carols and exchanging gifts and it's become this you know legendary story so i wanted
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to have you on to talk about you know what really happened you know what's true and what's not
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but i think before you can understand what happened with the christmas truce you need to have a bit of background
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on what world war one was like at this point so the war started in july 1914 and you have this collision
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between two opposing alliances which included france and britain on one side and then you had germany
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and austria hungary on the other when the war kicked off how did people think it was going to go i mean did
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everyone think it would be over pretty fast and what was the strategy of these opposing forces
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well some people thought it would be fast but a lot of the professionals didn't especially the british
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ones people like kitchener secretary of state for war and senior officer haig they thought it would last
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years but the french and germans they're they're at the root of it and they're both aiming for a quick
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end to the war and the reason they're doing that is that they're not sure they can survive
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a war of attrition i mean that would take the germans first they had something called the schlieffland plan
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named after their chief of staff up to 1906 and he knew they couldn't win a war of attrition so what
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he planned to do was to hold the russians in the east and knock the french army out as quickly as
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possible but that's not really very easy it's a huge army it's pretty good and they've got a load of
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fortresses along the franco-german border so he planned to hold them in the south and launch a massive
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assault violating the neutrality of belgium and luxembourg and then drive into northern france
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and that that was the idea his successor a chap called von moltke he he was more worried about the
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russians so he sent more reserves to the russian front and he also slightly weakened the troops in
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the south but the result was that was that was at the germans best hope of winning the war that was
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all the all they had really it wasn't as you know hold the germans back and knock the french out
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the russians they planned to invade east prussia but that's another story and they were defeated
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at the battle of tannebo the french had their own fabulous theory a plan 17 i've always wondered what
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plans one to 16 were like and that's based on the french belief in the attack so they're just going
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to charge forward they believe in the moral superiority of the attack so they charge into well
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alzace-lorraine basically and and it it's not quite as simple as that that the plan is basically
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designed to knock the germans out as quickly as possible so both sides are sort of doing the
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same thing and both plans fail that's the problem but joff that's the french commander chief he reacts
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quickest reorganizes we get the battle of the marne which where the germans are utterly defeated and in
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many ways that sort of decide decides the war it's just about when germany will lose from then on it's
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very strange the great war that battle in september 1914 does sort of set the uh the scene
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so uh and from then on that's where you get the trench fighting developing and and perhaps where
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we're going to talk next yeah so i think when people think of world of one they think of trench
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warfare but trench warfare didn't start right away uh it kind of developed over the course of the war
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and it kind of you kind of spread like a fungus almost that's a great analogy so how did how did
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trench warfare start how did you go from charging at each other to burying you know digging out these
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trenches to fight each other well like most things it's not quite as simple as we sometimes pretend all
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of us and and the thing is the french would dig in the germans would dig in when they had to early
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on even in august there were trenches in the south but it sort of occurs and what happens is why do you
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dig in well you dig in you you meet the enemy and uh the firefight begins you have to take cover
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otherwise you'll be dead so use your entrenching tool to scrape a little bit of a hole and then
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and then you you know the fire that the german fire say doesn't go away so you join up the holes you
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create a trench and gradually it builds up from there and after a while it holds all linked together
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to form a trench and then you start to get uh behind it you start to get communication trenches then
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you get a support line for the reserves then a reserve line and the trench system builds up and
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that's how it happens and it's promote it spreads that's how it happens in one place but it goes from
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place to place because there's something called the the race to the sea which is a great name for
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something because they emphatically weren't racing for the sea in late september and october what they
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were trying to do is outflank each other and if you can picture it's like a game of leapfrog they sort
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of jump up and each time they smash into each other dig the trenches and then try higher smash into each
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other again and move forward the north smash into each other again until eventually they reach the
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north sea which is why it's called the race to the sea but that's not what they were trying to do
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and so when that grim business is finished you've got trenches stretching from switzerland to the north
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sea that's how it happened so you said there was trenches starting in august but by what time
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was like the clear like the western front that we we know today when was that established
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uh around about uh october october november by november definitely uh once it gets through to
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the sea it it's sort of it it takes a little while to fill in in some places you understand what i mean
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sure but but yeah it was a a terrible business because they weren't ready for it not no no nobody
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was ready for it the french the british the germans we weren't ready for it well because i think a lot
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when people were going into this war they were still working under the assumption that war would be like
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battles in the 19th century where we would charge at each other and there wouldn't be this
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war of attrition so sort of they certainly believed in the power of the offensive they believed
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they knew about the new weapons but they believed that the machine guns the artillery would mean that
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the defense couldn't hold and you know what in 1918 that's true the defense couldn't hold but in 1914
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the defense could because they could get into their trench they could put barbed wire in front of it
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they could put their batteries behind them dig some more lines and the power of the offensive
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fire just wasn't enough there weren't enough guns because you needed thousands of guns to break
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through and they didn't have them until 1917 18 the british certainly not so it's a complex business but
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once the trenches are there it's going to be painful so give us an idea what trench warfare was like
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what was life like in the trenches murder uh murder absolute murder i mean i i i mean we're sat here
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in the comfort of our homes and i'm looking outside now it's uh it's cold probably below zero out there
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it's uh raining a bit no snow but picture it then just i mean if i stand for a bus i'm bald i stand for
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a bus and i stupidly forgot my hat wait for about 10 15 minutes my head starts to hurt i start to feel
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really cold and miserable now imagine in 1914 december 1914 up to your knees in freezing cold water and
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slushy mud you cannot get out of it there are there's no woods to have duckboards to get you above the
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water the trenches are too shallow if you get above the water you get shot by the other side both sides
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have snipers you've got artillery shells crashing down you've got a dull repetitive diet endless bully
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beef it's just awful and can you imagine being in the line in those circumstances just say
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ow just sitting there with your legs in water freezing cold water for hour after hour after hour
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for days oh i can't you know and people being killed around you as well just you know your best
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mate can be killed shot through the head and oh terrible no and this was like it was the same for
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the germans too like they were suffering just as much as the british they were suffering as well
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they were better organized and because of the nature they were generally on the defensive by then
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and so they generally were on the high ground so drainage and water drained down onto the british
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so to speak but yeah they were suffering it's just as cold just as muddy just as awful the weather's
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just the same for both sides the germans are slightly better organized but that's it and how close
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were they like how i mean how what was the distance between both sides oh it it varies a lot but often
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two to three hundred four hundred five hundred yards at this stage of the war that's not very
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distance between yeah it's not too far still close in the second world war that would be close
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okay so another interesting thing about world war one is later on the war most of the countries were
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using conscription to fill its ranks but at the very beginning of the war both sides they were using
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professional soldiers these are guys who joined the military because they wanted a career in the
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military what were those guys like and how did they approach warfare and how was that different
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from later on when you had people coming in who were draftees well the french and germans had
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conscription but i know what you mean they had career soldiers as well within that system the british was
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entirely uh regulars with a few territories and even they they were volunteers but the if to look at the
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british regular soldier they were well trained excellent shots they were what i would describe as hard
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bitten they weren't soft men they'd often had a lot of experience some of them even dating back to the
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boer war which after all was only in 1901 too which is not that far before
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1914 they were very good shots they had minimal experience of sort of modern technology often they
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were there were there were gaps in how so how they use machine guns and generally the army weren't great
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at using their artillery in 1914 but i think we're more interested in what the actual men were like
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and i think hard bitten is my choice of words tough tough hard swearing hard living that's the kind of
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men they were a lot of banter a lot of humor they would laugh at things that you and i would probably
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send us screaming away they would just laugh and we always call it you have to you know laugh or cry
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and they weren't going to cry yeah so there's a lot of gallows humor jaded cynical and it kind of
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detached i mean it almost seems like yeah and how how is that different from say soldiers later on
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from britain where they were draftees well in some ways they all start to move towards that but
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certainly when you get the volunteers who weren't regular soldiers in other words the ones who joined
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up for the war they tend to have a brighter sunnier attitude until they meet the reality of war and then
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they start to drift into the same way it takes a bit longer that's all but they do start off with the
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idea that uh where the americans tend to put it where's that goddamn shooting match that's what
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they famously said when they arrived in 1918 and everybody's keen and enthusiastic they think they're
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you know they'll show the hunt sort of thing and the germans are competent soldiers and they they're
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very painful to meet and eventually everybody gets a bit down everybody becomes depressed by it it's it's
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a terrible war all the way through start to finish well you see that dynamic of the difference
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between like the the veteran soldiers and the new guys and all quiet on the western front that's from
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a german perspective but if you've seen the movie yeah you see these young kids coming in they're all
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excited and idealistic and then you have these veterans that are just like meh nuts this is dumb
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cynical old pros and that's what they are they're cynical old pros when we say old i mean i'm 66
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these people old pro regulars can be anything from 22 to 30 the young ones would be 18 there's a big
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difference that's that's what it was like okay so war starts in july by august you had trenches
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starting to form by october well established december comes around and there's this idea
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that both sides would kind of pull back on fighting for the winter because you know the days were getting
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shorter the weather wasn't great for fighting it was a time and that's been the case for instance
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throughout napoleonic warfare his throughout history there'd been a campaign season and then there'd
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been a rest season you know where you recuperate because of the bloody weather that's why yeah
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that's how warfare has been for most of human history they fought when the weather was good
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not in 1914 right okay so they so a lot of people thought there was gonna be this pullback but then
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the british and french make this massive push during december now that that that's that's attributing
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more influence to the british and is is wanted it's the french the french launch a huge push they
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really do they launch hundreds of thousands of men forward in the champagne and artois regions
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one of the offensive is backed by 700 guns which is more than the british have got in total
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and they they launched those assaults in late december we the british only launch one brigade the
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eighth brigade forward in an attack on messines ridge which is near ebbs which is in belgium
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and that attack only involves about two or three battalions and it's a complete and utter failure
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this represents the relative role of the british and the french on the western front in 1914 the
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british are incredibly insignificant the french have something like 90 96 divisions and the british
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well when they started they only had four but by this time it's become 20 or so i'm not too sure
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of the figures i've always been really bad at statistics but the british forces were negligible in
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comparison to the french but they got wiped they got it was the two battalions went forward one was
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the gordon highlanders and i can't remember what the other one was but they got absolutely smashed it
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was uh it was really part of a diversion to divert attention away from the french who in turn were
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mainly doing it to try and pin german troops to the western front to allow the russians a bit of leeway
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on the eastern front so it was it was all there's reasons for things but it was a cruel business and
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the french keeps smashing into the germans throughout this period yeah it just seemed that
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the british weren't equipped to hold the line they haven't worked out i mean what would eventually win
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the war is something called the all-arms battle hours light years away they just didn't have the
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firepower all they really had was their rifles which are they were very good with you can only fire 15
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shots a minute and you only carried 150 or so so what use is that and very few machine guns no hand
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grenades no trench mortars they were just lacking in the the basic means they need the firepower they
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need to make a successful attack and of course underpinning all that a lack of artillery we just
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didn't have enough artillery and actually we didn't have enough shells it's just the perfect storm the
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french were better off but the british the british attacks were just total failures so what was morale
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like at this point well morale was low it's it's just and those lads who were killed are just lying
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in no man's land there's accounts of one crawling back in two or three days later just in in a terrible
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state with maggots and things oh dear no just just awful well so then christmas eve arrives and there's
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something in the air along the trenches there the british headquarters the generals they were afraid that
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the germans were planning an attack on christmas eve but that didn't happen so what happened instead
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well it's yeah one of the british generals smith dorian issued the thing saying we mustn't have
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live and let live i you've got to keep on your toes you've got to keep because the germans could
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attack germans tend to do what you don't want them to do they were a feared of an attack but what
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happened instead is that the germans and it's generally the germans that started they started
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singing christmas carols silent night things like that they put up lights christmas sort of lights
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they put up christmas trees and this isn't everywhere i need to make sure we we understand
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collectively that this is just in places on the british front it's not everywhere but this sort of
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is happening and people are thinking this is a trick and and the british start to respond they
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they start singing backwards and forwards so one-sided singer a carol and the other lot lot singer
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carol and they'd even applaud each other across no man's land because they can hear it's not that far
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and it's spontaneous it's not planned by anybody and it is but and it isn't everywhere it's it's quite
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quite uh quite amazing really but it doesn't happen it happens in different places along the the front
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correct well the french and germans have just been hammering hell out of each other and and feelings
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are still slightly raw it does happen in some places but it isn't such a widespread thing as on the
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british front uh definitely not and then the other thing you know besides you know singing carols
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they started talking to each other what a lot of people don't know about what europe was like during
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world war one is that a lot of germans had lived in london bad yeah so they knew waiters port butchers
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there was many reasons and though some of the banter was uh two pints of beer waiter that kind of
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shouting things across you know i want to hair cook somewhere hair hairdressers the usual banter
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shouted across no man's land and they were shouting back and but a lot of them of course hardly anybody
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english could speak german but a lot of them who'd been lived in london and manchester and birmingham
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they could speak english so there was quite a bit of banter going on over that night christmas eve
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we're going to take a quick break for your word from our sponsors
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and now back to the show all right so christmas eve the germans sing carols they start talking to
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each other put up christmas lights and then the next day is christmas this is the day that the british
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traditionally celebrate christmas did the good spirits from the previous night carry over to
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christmas day in some places yes and it's an amazing process of what happens it's uh some of the germans
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show themselves above above the trenches and it it would be it would be quite bad to just shoot
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someone who's being friendly i can't explain that if you don't understand that you're probably not
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human if you know what i mean but it's just not natural to shoot someone who's singing carols and
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waving at you from the other side of the trenches and and it's this gradually people show more of
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themselves both sides start doing it people start almost walking into no man's land there are some
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terrible accidents which nobody likes to remember there was certainly one chap who was shot because
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he went too far and uh somebody shot him somebody perhaps who wasn't taking part in the truth and
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and this sort of thing happened in some places but in many places they just spontaneously start talking
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moving into no man's land just a few at first but then gradually there's more and more confidence
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that the truce will hold if there is no formal truce it's crucial to remember that but that that no one
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will start killing each other and they start going into no man's land and and meeting there isn't a
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lot of barbed wire at this time and the ground isn't torn to bits the ground is basically farmland
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the ground there's not enough shells to tear it to bits so it's not shell holes everywhere it's grass
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mostly and they start to celebrate christopher they they give each other impromptu gifts they start
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chatting to each other especially those germans obviously you could speak english small gifts are
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exchanged and there's some wonderful things i mean in one place is the saxons the saxons
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shout that they've got a barrel of beer and they drag a barrel of beer into no man's land and invite
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the british to join them and i'm unaware of any british soldier who'd refuse that offer and that it's the
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sort of thing that goes on of course it could have been a terrible trap but it wasn't there was it was
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good spirited and the men met in no man's land perhaps we'll talk about the motivations everyone had
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whether this was peace on earth and goodwill to all men or whether there were other motivations
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behind it but the point was that this was an opportunity for these men to well they're curious
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about the germans this is their chance to go and see them the germans are curious about the british
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they can go into no man's land they can see their enemies they can meet them and and it it's just an
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amazing thing that happens there are other motivations as i say we'll talk about that and just to be
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clear again this is not this is not official the leaders of both sides didn't know this was
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happening well they knew up to the level of say brigadier i i know i had an account of one brigadier
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who sees it happening sort of and basically their viewpoint is you can't just gun people down who are
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having a truce so what they do is uh it goes back to report when he comes back there's even more in
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no man's land and so this is one of the motivations he dresses in a in a private's uniform you know pulls
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an overcoat on and goes into no man's land because one of the reasons that officers at a sort of
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middling level majors captains even colonels is that they can go out and have a look at the german
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positions they could see what the so it's not peace on earth to all men it's going out and having a
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look at that see what they can find out about the german trenches but it's also the reason that they
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have to do it is to stop the germans getting too close to our trenches and doing the same to us
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that this isn't all peace and love definitely not the other thing is that it enables people if
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you've been crouched in a muddy hole freezing cold with snipers pinging bullets or machine gun
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bullets pinging just six inches above your head it lets you go into no man's land stretch your legs
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have a look around and what else can you do you can start to improve your own trenches no one's
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shooting at you so you can dig some drainage you can put a better parapet in for a parapet's a sort of
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low wall in the front end of the trench parados a low wall behind your trench help your protection
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for later on you can work on dugouts you can you can dig communication trenches back what else can
00:23:28.840
you do you can bury the corpses in no man's land that was a big thing they were doing why do you
00:23:33.680
want to bury corpses in no man's land why wouldn't you the smell but just it's just awful yeah some of
00:23:40.680
them are your comrades and some of them the enemy but they're that just bury the corpses and and this
00:23:46.100
was one of the joint things they did in no man's land these are far more important than some of the
00:23:50.720
things that people fixate on yeah one thing people fixate on is they played soccer some places played
00:23:56.280
soccer did that actually happen well i used to think that it was unlikely what i know there's a
00:24:01.620
chap called taff gillingham who's done much work on this and i respect his work and he has found that
00:24:07.680
there are definitely two kickabouts and when i say kickabouts i mean it's like me and you went in your
00:24:13.160
backyard and kicked the ball about with say four or five other people joining in uh it's not a game
00:24:17.980
it's not got a referee or or jumpers for goalposts or anything like that it is just a kickabout and
00:24:24.520
there does seem some evidence that there were some minor games basically around frellingham and uh well
00:24:31.180
well you don't need to know where they were if you see what i mean but there are a couple of games
00:24:34.840
the norfolk regiment and the cheshire regiment where there's some cheshire troops attached to norfolk's
00:24:39.400
and they certainly seem to have played and there are reports published in the newspapers saying they
00:24:44.120
played a match that's at wolvergham in belgium i mean i say the name but i don't know where it is
00:24:49.060
either and that's corroborated taff gillingham has found corroboration and there's another account
00:24:54.680
as i say at frillingham that's got a couple of german accounts so i think there were a couple of
00:25:00.840
kickabouts but they are not football matches i think it's clear i think i'm what i'm saying is quite clear
00:25:08.320
there no it sounds like you know americans throwing a football around like if you're tossing
00:25:12.380
a yeah exactly like so if you had an american football and and a few of you were just tossing
00:25:17.640
it about probably not a real football probably a you know some something else a sandbag filled with
00:25:23.120
a bit of something that that that's what i think it would be okay and also they took pictures with
00:25:30.000
each other that's why we know this thing actually happened it was just like this made-up thing
00:25:33.120
although there are lots of great people there's famous ones one that one looks exactly like paul
00:25:38.240
mccartney of the beatles it's absolutely spitted image of him it's a famous one of and there's loads
00:25:43.880
of other ones of great pictures of them in no man's end and the there never was any doubt that this
00:25:49.840
happened it it it happened for sure but one thing is it didn't happen everywhere and the the units
00:25:58.740
that have been in most action which are basically the first corps which is under the commander of
00:26:03.140
general sir douglas haig and the second corps under general horace smith dorian there wasn't so much
00:26:08.840
truce making on their front and that's partly because they they'd had a lot more fighting were less
00:26:14.080
less likely they're less trusting and and also perhaps more military more likely to shoot rather
00:26:20.640
than and there are accounts of people who say the germans put up christmas lights and we shot them out
00:26:25.060
that kind of thing so this is not universal along the british lines it is in places and it probably
00:26:30.960
in less places than it's probably the the exception rather than the rule still important though and
00:26:38.380
still an amazing thing yeah and i think i think you made the point well is that okay there was some
00:26:43.320
peace on earth goodwill for men going on here with i mean how can you not have that when you hear
00:26:47.380
germans singing silent night across the trench but there was also the the truce was also served a
00:26:53.640
practical war purpose as well yeah i'd sum it up i'd say i say for the vast and this is as in
00:27:01.720
everything when you sum something up you're going to oversimplify but for the vast majority of those
00:27:06.760
who participated it was a matter of convenience it was actually convenient to them to have a truce
00:27:13.820
it made their lives easier there was a load of slightly maudlin sentiment as well that we all have
00:27:21.280
around christmas i do i'm sure you do it's not even more than it's just sentiment isn't it but i want to
00:27:27.200
make clear it doesn't mark some deep flowering of the human spirit it doesn't it isn't some it's not
00:27:35.040
people rising up against the war it's not anti-war emotions taking root amongst the ranks it enables
00:27:42.720
them to celebrate christmas which matters to everybody well everyone of the christian religion or in the
00:27:48.740
countries that celebrate christmas in a freer and sort of more jovial safer environment and that
00:27:55.280
was after the most awful hell on earth they'd been enduring so it was better it let them satisfy their
00:28:01.320
curiosity about the germans and it let them carry out the vital construction works the trenches and
00:28:06.060
everything i mentioned earlier and it was never going to last it can i can i put it can i compare it
00:28:12.620
to a break in reality not the dawn of a brave new world does that make sense yeah i mean so we're
00:28:18.360
talking about how did the truce end well it it ends gradually yeah and and it ends in some places
00:28:25.420
it's just christmas day and there's there's places where they put a flag up with merry christmas on
00:28:30.560
fired three shots in the air put a you know put a flag another banner up saying thank you the german
00:28:36.340
captain on the other side he did the same both sides saluted each other got down in their trenches
00:28:41.220
and then they start shooting at each other again and that's how it happened in in some places some
00:28:47.320
it ended on boxing day some it took it was more than three four five days there's even reports of
00:28:53.380
it going nearly up to the new year but in that there's many ways it ends in some way i mean what
00:28:59.440
could stop it well i'll tell you what could stop it if the artillery open up now the artillery are behind
00:29:04.940
the lines they're not involved in the truce are they if they open up then bursting shells will soon end
00:29:10.320
the the truce other things that could stop it as you get a changeover of battalions the british
00:29:15.060
change their battalions every well they try and do every three days but this time the war it was not
00:29:19.220
quite so much but if you change over battalions you get new people coming in they might not be quite
00:29:23.580
so keen on a truce they may have had different experiences so that could that could they hadn't
00:29:28.400
shared the moment if you like of christmas and they're coming in say on day after boxing day
00:29:34.580
well they're sort of reverted to type they're not inclined to compromise and and in some cases a
00:29:41.120
malevolent individual would just shoot someone on the other side and that would lead to very bad
00:29:46.760
feelings and a very swift end to the the truce and there were a couple of reported occasions of that
00:29:52.900
that's people who've had their brother killed perhaps and they're just they're just not willing
00:29:57.480
to take part in the truce and so the truce ends i think and this is the key part i want to make this
00:30:03.480
is why i'm saying this isn't a sea-changing attitude most of them went back to war very willingly they
00:30:10.120
would have rejoiced if the war was over but only if they'd won it they stood fast they were alongside
00:30:17.380
their friends their comrades they were willing to accept their orders from their their uh their
00:30:22.460
sergeants their uh their officers they were still willing to kill germans it was never going to lead
00:30:28.940
to peace on earth right because you had three more years of war well you have and the average british
00:30:35.060
soldiers more than willing to shoot down the the germans uh the moment the truce was over there are no
00:30:41.260
particular accounts of people having difficulty with that because they were soldiers of course that
00:30:46.840
that was what they were trained to do that none of if you think about it and i don't want to be
00:30:51.760
none of the reasons for the british i'm we'll focus on the british here belgian and a good part of
00:30:58.220
northern france was still occupied the germans were just being as aggressive as before as far as they
00:31:03.120
were concerned the german and french were in a war of national survival and we were allied to the
00:31:08.540
french the truce really had changed nothing and in the end it means nothing in a permanent thing it has a
00:31:15.440
it's it's a transitory thing and it's an emotional thing and and and it doesn't last long
00:31:21.800
and i think a point you make and other historians have made about this is that you know you think
00:31:26.160
like how can these guys go from killing each other to giving each other gifts and playing soccer with
00:31:30.280
you know kicking the ball and going back to killing each other and i think one point that's made is
00:31:34.000
that you know you got these soldiers on the british side especially they were these are these hard
00:31:38.520
bitten cynical guys for them war was almost kind of a business like it wasn't personal just like that's
00:31:44.480
what i do so i'm supposed to do so i'm gonna do it that they were perfectly willing to shoot down
00:31:49.360
pretty well anyone they were ordered to shoot this is just what soldiers are professional soldiers are
00:31:54.320
i mean two year a year before they'd stood ready to to intervene in northern ireland in ireland
00:31:59.500
professional soldiers are professional soldiers but the professional soldiers are also the sort who if
00:32:05.400
they get the chance to take it easy for a couple of days at christmas they will it's not these two
00:32:10.500
emotions aren't uh aren't they're not contradictory it's very much part of the same character set
00:32:16.140
professional soldier can i take it easy for a bit yep i will can i go and satisfy my curiosity about
00:32:22.480
what the germans are up to i will can i improve my own personal comfort can can i celebrate christmas
00:32:28.420
you know so i get the tin from princess mary princess mary sent a gift tin out uh that's great but
00:32:33.980
even better is to go out to the germans and exchange bits of it for uh for what they've got
00:32:37.920
it's just it suits and then of course when it's over they just revert to time they go back to
00:32:44.140
shooting go back to killing it it's sad it's not some sort of moral epiphany it's uh it's just war
00:32:50.580
still what did the generals think when they caught word of that this was happening well i didn't like it
00:32:56.120
but uh i mean they took it quite well there was no particular punishments um as i said a brigadier
00:33:01.360
general was caught up in it they knew what was going on you can't open fire on the germans without
00:33:06.480
opening fire on yourself and i'm sure the german leaders also thought that vice versa it was just
00:33:12.340
something that happened they made damn sure it never happened again though they they issued warnings
00:33:17.120
in the print in the next few years and generally they'd open fire with the artillery because that's
00:33:21.660
a point i made earlier if the artillery is firing there's going to be no truce and the artillery are
00:33:26.300
a mile and a half behind the lines most of them and is that why the truce never happened again
00:33:30.400
during the war it's my belief there's reports of very small things but i've never gone into that
00:33:36.220
it never really recurred because and and and the war went on sadly went on for another
00:33:42.420
four dreadful years and and they were dreadful years if it had all ended in christmas 1914 i can
00:33:49.000
assure you i'd have been delighted but it didn't and it the reason it didn't was because their nation
00:33:55.480
states were still at war and uh the regular soldiers were still the servants of the nation
00:34:01.700
state well so the christmas truce it remains very alive in popular culture every christmas you hear
00:34:07.820
about it like why why do you think it resonates so much still well it resonates so much partly because
00:34:14.480
people don't know the real story which we've just been talking about it isn't quite as sentimental
00:34:19.880
and lovely as people think is it but it still is a wonderful story it is still to me it shows
00:34:28.260
that even though they reverted to killing each other it just shows that the germans weren't any
00:34:33.560
different from the british the british weren't any different from the germans when it comes down to
00:34:37.380
individuals when it comes down to people these people didn't have a grudge it was their nation
00:34:41.600
states that had a grudge and they were the servants of the nation state story to repeat that but
00:34:46.420
that's what it is and and but but the actual finding almost friendship about finding a mutual mutual
00:34:55.340
suffering with the other side and and just for a day or two stopping fighting i think it's a wonderful
00:35:02.000
story and although with my severe historian hat on i will pour cold water on some of the more fanciful
00:35:09.340
things so they didn't play football a proper game of football they they it wasn't peace and love the
00:35:14.840
war couldn't have ended then because they they were damn well all in intent on carrying it on so that
00:35:20.080
wasn't going to happen but it is still a sign that there is a basic humanity a shared humanity and an
00:35:27.020
event like christmas did provide a sort of release for human emotions and that's what i would celebrate
00:35:33.320
just like everybody else does so even the cruel hard historian has a soft center when it comes to that
00:35:38.500
kind of thing so i i i too i do podcasts about it i did a tv show about it i've got a chapter in my
00:35:44.620
book about it it's it it is to me it's an important thing yeah it's a very human story it's like that
00:35:50.340
shows how contradictory humans can be it does it does well peter this has been a great conversation
00:35:56.420
where can people go to learn more about your work well i've got a regular podcast it's slightly
00:36:02.020
irreverent but it's called pete and gary it's with a friend of mine called gary bain it's sort of two
00:36:07.320
people as if down the pub talking about military history it's called pete and gary's military history
00:36:12.280
podcast it's available on livinghistorytv.com it's available on all podcast providers we don't have
00:36:18.360
the listenership you do but we're still we're still pleased with what we do and that's out on a
00:36:23.260
on a weekly basis and i wrote a book called fire and movement that's available on oxford
00:36:28.360
university press and fire and movement is the story of the whole 1914 campaign something that i i i found
00:36:35.340
when i was writing it it was just so interesting and so many of the things i thought happened didn't
00:36:40.880
really happen as i'd thought and it was for me it was a learning experience and that's what's best
00:36:45.360
for a historian any historian is when you set about doing something you're paid for it because we're all
00:36:50.860
paid for things but the other thing is that you learn and and it's exciting to write it and that
00:36:56.780
in the way and it overwhelms commercial intent or it certainly does with me well peter hart thanks for
00:37:02.360
time it's been a pleasure cheers my guest today was peter hart he's the author of several books
00:37:07.580
on world war one including the great war a combat history of the first world war it's available on
00:37:12.080
amazon.com and bookstores everywhere make sure to check out our show notes at aom.is slash christmas
00:37:16.440
truce we can find links to resources we delve deeper into this topic
00:37:19.380
well that wraps up another year of the aom podcast we'll be taking next week off from posting new
00:37:31.380
shows to celebrate the holidays as well as catching up on all the back end to do's that go into running
00:37:35.320
the website and business we will be rebroadcasting some classic episodes from the aom archives so make
00:37:40.340
sure to check those out big thanks to my wife kate for editing the podcast she does so much to make
00:37:44.500
sure that each episode is as concise and as sharp as possible besides editing the podcast she writes
00:37:49.600
articles edits articles and does a lot of the back end day-to-day stuff to make sure the business
00:37:53.720
just keeps running also big thanks to creative audio lab in broken air oklahoma they're the sound
00:37:58.540
engineer team that we use to make sure that each episode sounds as good as possible so big thanks
00:38:03.140
to them thanks so much and if you're in need of editing services or sound engineers check them
00:38:06.980
out creative audio lab kate and i wish you a very merry christmas and a happy new year we really
00:38:10.980
appreciate your support thank you for the letters emails sharing the show with friends and family
00:38:15.000
members thank you so much it means a lot i'm looking forward to sharing more great insights with you
00:38:19.040
from some of the world's most interesting people next year in 2022