Christmas Truce

[Steampunk]

I wanted to do quickly inform of those who don't know. This christmas coming up, will be the one where it would be 100 years since the most spectacular cease fire in the history of wars occurred. World War One as many of you may know was a slaughter  house and unlike World War Two, there was hardly any reason to it. During and the lead up to the first christmas of World War One, December 1914, the British and German Artillery with out orders, started to fire away from the enemy and even stopped firing entirely. During this "cease fire", just before Christmas Eve/Day, one part of the german trenches they placed up small trees with candles in front of their trenches. Then finally, on Christmas Day, the germans and the british soldiers walks up from their trenches and meet up on no mans land. Legend says they played football, some say they didn't, but what is known is that they celebrated christmas together, exchanging gifts around with each other, such as alcohol beverages, cigars/cigarets, food supplies such as meat and even their own helmets they exchanged. Imagine the pain they both had when they were ordered to shoot the next day.

I want people to reflect on both the unnecessary sacrifices, and when I say unnecessary its because they died for a very stupid reason (my opinion). Unlike World War Two where the reasons were more clear, this was a general panic by other countries and chain reactions by small allies around different countries, started by an assassination. I don't think the british nor the germans had better reasons, and I think people misjudge the germans heavily due to World War Two. "So many have died for so little"

We can also learn from this, not just World War One entirety but also specifics of Christmas Truce. I won't say what they are because I want you to reflect what they might be (but do post it if you wanna)

Wanna read more about it, here is the link to wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_truce

Post what your opinions are, anything stories you know about this topic you might wanna share with us.

 

Remember this event while celebrating christmas

[LightMonk]

Wonder how ISIS would react if the other side suddenly has Christmas-trees....

[Puls0nic]

Agreed. WW1 was pointless. And such a waste.

[Rocket Man]

Agreed. WW1 was pointless. And such a waste.

I'm going to both agree and disagree. I agree that what the war was fought over and how it started was stupid and pointless. But do remember that the world was really changing balance as the industrial revolution provided rise to what is now known as the middle-class. The tensions before the war were driven by a balance of power among the wealth classes. However, from the war, we have learned a great deal. Technology that was used during the war led to some phenomenal civil uses. Even the weapons used during that war led to some serious break-throughs; most specifically the air-war. On all sides, the war taught the military leaders what it really takes, not just pushing more and more men into the front line. In the end, the first war to span the globe, really pushed the perspective the human race had about ideologies. And those soldiers holding the Christmas Truce showed the compassion the race has at uniting at least for a day.

Great post!

[Steampunk]

I'm going to both agree and disagree. I agree that what the war was fought over and how it started was stupid and pointless. But do remember that the world was really changing balance as the industrial revolution provided rise to what is now known as the middle-class. The tensions before the war were driven by a balance of power among the wealth classes. However, from the war, we have learned a great deal. Technology that was used during the war led to some phenomenal civil uses. Even the weapons used during that war led to some serious break-throughs; most specifically the air-war. On all sides, the war taught the military leaders what it really takes, not just pushing more and more men into the front line. In the end, the first war to span the globe, really pushed the perspective the human race had about ideologies. And those soldiers holding the Christmas Truce showed the compassion the race has at uniting at least for a day.

Great post!

 

What I usually say with technology gained in war (self-quoting btw): "We may gain our technological and possibly sociological expansion in times of war, how ever the road which it takes is always to be destruction, and if continued on a long span, may turn to be the end of both sides or the species fighting. The technology which is used and/or adapted in times of peace but designed during a war(s) are expansions of it, like a turn off on a motorway. But the motorway always has one path, how ever you may want to see it, and that path is the lead to some weapon which can be used to destroy the opposite side. How ever, if one side managed it, so can the other (doesn't need to be the same side that they were fighting, could be a latter war) and mutual destruction is assured. While the motorway leads to what ever weapon or technology it may hold, we can be assured that there is always a cliff right next to it"

[Genesis]

There's a very good movie about this.  They would stick people on trains and send them to other places on the line to get the war to continue.

[WarWulf]

Regardless of personal feelings, you've highlighted an iconic moment of history. Forget the religion. Forget the politics. in this moment two bitter enemies comprised of troops who had watched friends and compatriots die at the hands of the other, laid down arms and acknowledged a ceasefire that didn't come from orders on high, flew in the face of everything that they had been trained to do and even went against their own personal feelings of aggression. 

 

This was a moment when the enemy wasn't faceless, they were fellow human beings. Out in the cold, miles from home and their loved ones. Few amongst us have experienced war. None amongst us will ever experience war like they endured. All we can do is imagine what it must have been like and know that it falls far short of the suffering and indignity that they went through.

 

Out of the madness, chaos and inhumanity of all of this two enemy forces found a moment to share a little compassion and remember what it is to be human.

 

This is a shining moment in history. Whatever the details of this occasion, whether they played football or not, it was still a moment when two bitter enemies found common ground. A soldier has always had more in common with his enemy than with the leaders or politicians who send him to war. This was the moment when sanity ruled the battlefield.

 

I for one will be drinking a toast to those lads this Christmas.

[Drum]

This reminds me of a quote, (I cannot remember who said it). This was a response to the dislike for soldiers returning home during the Vietnam Era, and it gave the hate some meaning.

 

No one understands a soldier. His mentality and what he is capable of. Except his comrades and the enemy. Everyone else just has opinions.

 

Merry Christmas – I hope everyone is in a peaceful place at year's end. - DRUM out

[Schatten]

The Royal Mail has just reproduced a letter by Second Lt. Alfred Dougan Chater of the 2nd Gordon Highlanders about the truce.

 

Further reading: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/24/-sp-letter-extraordinary-sights-christmas-day-first-world-war-truce