Dear Mom, I am writing this letter in the trenches.
It's 11 a.m. ... I had in my mouth a pipe given to me by Princess Mary (a British princess in World War I), and there was tobacco in it.
You would definitely say, it's. But wait. In the pipe is German tobacco. Haha, you would say, must have come from prisoners of war or were found in trenches breached by the enemy.
Oh dear, not really! They were given by German soldiers.
Yes, a living German soldier, coming out of their own trenches.
Yesterday, the British and Germans met between the trenches & shook hands, & exchanged souvenirs, & shook hands again. Yes, a full day at Christmas, as I wrote.
It's amazing, isn't it?
On Christmas Day 1914, Henry William Williamamson, a 19-year-old British soldier, excitedly wrote a family letter in the trenches. As he expected, the story he recorded would be one of the most romantic and poetic scenes in the history of human warfare.
In 1914, World War I entered a stalemate. On the eve of December 25 of that year, the British and German troops facing each other on the Western Front spontaneously ceased fire unofficially, gathered in the no-man's land in front of the positions of both sides, exchanged gifts such as tobacco, alcohol, and candy, and drank and sang together to celebrate Christmas.
Weariness of war and longing for relatives and friends became common topics, Christmas as a shared holiday tradition that united the enemies, and the wings of peace spread out in hesitation and temptation.
During the truce, in addition to friendly exchanges, the two sides buried the bodies of their fallen compatriots together.
In the following years, christmas eves were also sporadic truces, and even in 1915 the German and British teams played several football matches. Unlike the final battle, the winners of the game were mostly Germans.
British and German troops meet in no man's land during an informal truce, image source network
Many witnesses were infected by the miracle atmosphere of tranquility and harmony, and tipped down the relevant scenes, Henry in the above article is one of them, and his family letter was sent by his father to the newspaper for publication, which became a precious historical material.
One of the original photocopied materials of the original letter, the source network. The handwriting was scribbled and collected by his mother, and a pin in the style of the British flag symbolizing patriotism was pinned
The envelope also revealed something unusual, with a line of pencil signature inserted obliquely, which was the name of the letter inspector.
In the second half of the letter, the 19-year-old recalls the beginning of the truce night:
On Christmas Eve, both armies sang carols and cheered, barely firing. The Germans (somewhere 80 yards away) told our people to come over and get their cigars, and our people told them to come and find us.
This went on for some time, and neither side fully trusted the other until, after promising to "play the game", a bold British soldier climbed out and stood between the trenches, and immediately a Saxon came to greet him. They shook hands and laughed, and then 16 Germans came out.
That's how we broke the ice. ”
He was fortunate enough to survive the war and became a writer, and he later rewrote the story under the title "They saw the same star rising."
In the original text of the family letter, perhaps to reassure his mother, his words are full of humor and comfort, but the retelling of the past adds a lot of descriptions of the cruel war situation.
"For weeks, we have been living in flooded trenches ...
We lost a lot of people, we were shot by snipers.
Since the end of the Battle of Ypres (see Note 1), we have worked night after night on the walls of the trenches... We were volunteers, rushing out to help the françarian general's fragmented expeditionary army. A few weeks ago, we were students, bank clerks, undergraduates, medical students.
Now our lives are being destroyed. Some of us (young people who think of our mothers) are almost desperate.
We have no hope, no horizon. ”
In January 1915, the young Henry returned home from the hospital injured in a poison gas war
Note 1: The Battle of Ypres was a key battle of World War I and was divided into three campaigns. In the Second Battle of Ypres, the Germans used chlorine gas, the first gas battle in human history, which caused huge casualties. Henry was also gassed during the battle and never actually returned to the battlefield after recuperating. By point in time, this article refers to the end of the First Battle of Ypres.
This cold, obscure description doesn't get bright until Christmas Eve:
At midnight, we heard laughter at work. We heard the german song – the familiar tune of the Christmas carol.
I noticed a very bright light on a high pole rising from their camp... A Christmas tree, lit with candles, was placed on the walls of their trenches.
The moonlight poured down unrealistically, sprinkling a pleasant light.
"Come here, Englishman! We're not going to fire at you! ”
A black figure approached me hesitantly. pitfall? I walked toward him with excitement.
"Merry Christmas, British friend!" We shook hands and trembled.
Then I saw the light on the top of the high pole, the morning star, the eastern star.
It was Christmas morning.
At the same time, in his contact with the German army, he found that the German army was also an ordinary person who fought for freedom and honor, an ordinary young man like himself.
But no one will tell them the truth, and the spontaneous truce is the manifestation of the hazy freedom and anti-war consciousness of the young soldiers after the brutal killing, which quickly attracts official questioning and prohibition.
The commander of the British Second Army, Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, ordered a ban on friendly exchanges with hostile German troops; In the German camp, an infantry corporal of the 16th Bavarian Reserve also objected, his name was Adolf Hitler.
In addition to some neutral media, media coverage from both sides also conformed to official attitudes.
Some German newspapers strongly criticized the soldiers involved in the truce, while the French media were eventually forced to reprint a government notice that said friendship with the enemy constituted treason.
But as Henry writes, "Hope sank into the mud again, but did not die", a moment full of love and beauty that is eternal and becomes a source of inspiration for countless works in later generations.
A hundred years after the event, the song "All Together Now" was re-recorded and released, and the whole song was emotionally intense and rhythmic, with almost only one lyric" "All Together Now, in no man's land" (Let's come together now!). Just in the no-man's land), with the enthusiasm of today's people, responding to the call of the voices in the no-man's land a hundred years ago.
Also a centenary, on Christmas Eve 2014, the British supermarket chain Sainsbury's released the same themed TV commercial, recreating the tear-jerking classic. ↓
Christmas Truce
Whether it snows tonight in the city where you live, songs of love and beauty should be heard by all.
Resources: 1、https://www.henrywilliamson.co.uk/ 2、https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_truce 3、https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Williamson The above English content is translated by the author himself, if there is any error, please leave a message to point out.