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By Finn Martin

The Christmas Truce

What is this about?

In winter of 1914, German and British soldiers spent Christmas Eve in the trenches, wading through mud, supplies and the corpses of their fallen friends. Their main activity was dodging the bullets from the enemy bunkers that were just sometimes just 60 yards away. But this changed from the traditional Christmas spirit.

What happened next?

After about three weeks, this “Christmas spirit” suddenly changed as the British and German soldiers went back to battle fighting against each other and in the end the German’s lost like the same in WW2 (World War 2). One funny but true story was that a British soldier gave a German soldier haircut and after the war they coincidently both met up in London and then he had a haircut again.

How it happened?

The truce began after a German messenger walked across No Man's Land on Christmas Eve to broker the temporary cease-fire agreement. British soldiers went out and recovered 69 dead comrades and buried them in the ground .The football match then broke out between the two sides when a ball was kicked out from the British lines into No Man's Land. Then the British and German troops went back to their trenches to have a nice beer or lager; the German’s then song a rather soulful song of what we know as Silent Night.

Video

Paul McCartney - Pipes Of Peace - YouTube