[NukeNet] The Christmas Truce

[Bill Smirnow]

http://www.citizensedproject.org/trenches.mp3

  THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE

         On Christmas Day, 1914, in the first
     year of World War I, German,
     British, and French soldiers disobeyed
     their superiors and fraternized
     with "the enemy" along two-thirds of the
     Western Front. German troops
     held Christmas trees up out of the
     trenches with signs, "Merry Christmas."
     "You no shoot, we no shoot." Thousands of
     troops streamed across a
     no-man's land strewn with rotting corpses.
     They sang Christmas carols,
     exchanged photographs of loved ones back
     home, shared rations, played football,
     even roasted some pigs. Soldiers embraced
     men they had been trying to
     kill a few short hours before. They agreed
     to warn each other if the top brass
     forced them to fire their weapons, and to
     aim high.
         A shudder ran through the high command
     on either side. Here was
     disaster in the making: soldiers declaring
     their brotherhood with each
     other and refusing to fight. Generals on
     both sides declared this
     spontaneous peacemaking to be treasonous
     and subject to court martial. By March,
     1915 the fraternization movement had been
     eradicated and the killing
     machine put back in full operation. By the
     time of the armistice in
     1918, fifteen million would be
     slaughtered.
         Not many people have heard the story
     of the Christmas Truce.
     Military leaders have not gone out of
     their way to publicize it. On
     Christmas Day, 1988, a story in the Boston
     Globe mentioned that a local FM radio
     host played "Christmas in the Trenches," a
     ballad about the Christmas Truce,
     several times and was startled by the
     effect. The song became the most
     requested recording during the holidays in
     Boston on several FM
     stations. "Even more startling than the
     number of requests I get is the
     reaction to the ballad afterward by
     callers who hadn't heard it before,"
     said the
     radiohost. "They telephone me deeply
     moved, sometimes in tears, asking,
     `What the hell did I just hear?'"
         I think I know why the callers were in
     tears. The Christmas Truce
     story goes against most of what we have
     been taught about people. It
     gives us a glimpse of the world as we wish
     it could be and says, "This really
     happened once." It reminds us of those
     thoughts we keep hidden away, out
     of range of the TV and newspaper stories
     that tell us how trivial and
     mean human life is.
     It is like hearing that our deepest wishes
     really are true: the world
     really could be different.

     Excerpted from David G. Stratman, We CAN
     Change the World: The Real
     Meaning of Everyday Life (New Democracy
     Books, 1991). Available for
     $3.00 from
     New Democracy Books, P.O. Box 427, Boston,
     MA 02130.



Christmas in the Trenches
words & music by John McCutcheon

Inspired by a back-stage conversation with an old
woman in Birmingham, AL, this song tells a story
that is not only true, but well-known throughout
Europe.

My name is Francis Tolliver, I come from
Liverpool,
Two years ago the war was waiting for me after
school.
To Belgium and to Flanders to Germany to here
I fought for King and country I love dear.
'Twas Christmas in the trenches where the frost so
bitter hung,
The frozen fields of France were still, no
Christmas song was sung,
Our families back in England were toasting us that
day,
Their brave and glorious lads so far away.

I was lying with my messmate on the cold and rocky
ground
When across the lines of battle came a most
peculiar sound
Says I, "Now listen up, me boys!" each soldier
strained to hear
As one young German voice sang out so clear.
"He's singing bloody well, you know!" my partner
says to me
Soon one by one each German voice joined in in
harmony
The cannons rested silent, the gas clouds rolled
no more
As Christmas brought us respite from the war.

As soon as they were finished and a reverent pause
was spent
"God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" struck up some lads
from Kent
The next they sang was "Stille Nacht," "Tis
'Silent Night'," says I
And in two tongues one song filled up that sky.
"There's someone coming towards us!" the front
line sentry cried
All sights were fixed on one lone figure coming
from their side
His truce flag, like a Christmas star, shone on
that plain so bright
As he bravely strode unarmed into the night.

Soon one by one on either side walked into No
Man's land
With neither gun nor bayonet we met there hand to
hand
We shared some secret brandy and we wished each
other well
And in a flare-lit soccer game we gave 'em hell.
We traded chocolates, cigarettes, and photographs
from home
These sons and fathers far away from families of
their own
Young Sanders played his squeeze box and they had
a violin
This curious and unlikely band of men.

Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France
once more
With sad farewells we each began to settle back to
war
But the question haunted every heart that lived
that wondrous night
"Whose family have I fixed within my sights?"
'Twas Christmas in the trenches, where the frost
so bitter hung
The frozen fields of France were warmed as songs
of peace were sung
For the walls they'd kept between us to exact the
work of war
Had been crumbled and were gone for evermore.

My name is Francis Tolliver, in Liverpool I dwell
Each Christmas come since World War I I've learned
its lessons well
That the ones who call the shots won't be among
the dead and lame
And on each end of the rifle we're the same.

©1984 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP)