Peace
In this mad world it's stories like this that warm my heart.
"Christmas day, 1914, near Ypres, Belgium: Brutal trench warfare during the first year of WWI briefly came to a stop. German troops started singing carols at midnight; shortly afterwards British troops across no-man's land did the same. They called out for a cease fire, and slowly they emerged from their wet, cold, miserable trenches to meet in the middle and share brandy, smokes and family photographs. The dead were safely retrieved, buried, and grieved over. Some say there was even a football match until the ball deflated on some barbed wire."
And then of course the ugliness creeps back in...
"The Christmas Trust was not officially sanctioned, and military brass were frustrated by the show of civility. In subsequent years of the war, they made sure that troops were rotated to avoid friendliness, and bombings were thereafter especially harsh on the Holiday of Peace."
"Another Year" by Sven Davis from the Santa Cruz "Good Times" - a great weekly publication on happenings around town and other
But still... it is great how people are just people. And in the middle of the war they were able to sit down with each other and take a break.
"Christmas day, 1914, near Ypres, Belgium: Brutal trench warfare during the first year of WWI briefly came to a stop. German troops started singing carols at midnight; shortly afterwards British troops across no-man's land did the same. They called out for a cease fire, and slowly they emerged from their wet, cold, miserable trenches to meet in the middle and share brandy, smokes and family photographs. The dead were safely retrieved, buried, and grieved over. Some say there was even a football match until the ball deflated on some barbed wire."
And then of course the ugliness creeps back in...
"The Christmas Trust was not officially sanctioned, and military brass were frustrated by the show of civility. In subsequent years of the war, they made sure that troops were rotated to avoid friendliness, and bombings were thereafter especially harsh on the Holiday of Peace."
"Another Year" by Sven Davis from the Santa Cruz "Good Times" - a great weekly publication on happenings around town and other
But still... it is great how people are just people. And in the middle of the war they were able to sit down with each other and take a break.
posted by z @ 4:33 AM
4 Comments:
At 8:04 AM,
Rama said…
I don't know... I doubt I'd be able to be friendly with someone that was trying to blow me up the day before...
At 3:28 PM,
z said…
yeah, but look at it this way - you are both just regular people who were drafted by the state, given a gun and told to shoot the other one. it's nothing personal.
i really liked how this was recognized on christmas! i am not a religious person by any stretch of imagination, but i like the idea of a day for peace, love and community.
At 5:43 PM,
Bistro said…
I've heard this story before, complete with football match.
Sam, the state-drafted non-caring point that Z makes is quite valid. For a very in-depth, personal, and somewhat depressing account, read "All Quiet on the Western Front." Fantastic account of 17 and 18-year old German boys forced to fight in a war they didn't really understand or care about.
At 8:06 AM,
Rama said…
I understand that. However, I would have enlisted. I know me well enough to know that. And therefore, I would not want to sit down with the enemy for songs and chocolate...
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