Tuesday, December 25 2007
Here's a true "Christmas story" which shows that during wartime, even bitter enemies can still share a little peace and joy, if only for 48 hours. I hope you find it as fascinating as I did. - G.K.
By Aislinn Simpson (
telegraph.co.uk)
Remarkable details of the Christmas truces on the battlefields of the Western Front in 1914 have emerged in a previously unseen diary of a British Army captain.
Truce in the trenches: the captain's diary
Capt Robert Hamilton's account of one of the most poignant events of the Great War describes the initial wariness of his men to trust their enemies and their subsequent delight at discovering that, at least temporarily, they could.
As one of the officers in charge in the 1st Bn the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, he left his trench and met his German equivalent half way between their positions in no-man's land near the Belgian hamlet of St Yvon.
The 48-hour local armistice they negotiated was, according to Capt Hamilton, the inspiration for truces up and down the trenches in which soldiers from both sides sang carols, played football and exchanged small presents of food, cigars and tunic buttons.
Story continues here...
