The famous Christmas Truce of World War I between the British and German troups on Christmas Day

 "'Come out, English soldier; come out here to us.’ For some little time we were cautious, and did not even answer. Officers, fearing treachery, ordered the men to be silent. But up and down our line one heard the men answering that Christmas greeting from the enemy. How could we resist wishing each other a Merry Christmas, even though we might be at each other’s throats immediately afterwards? So we kept up a running conversation with the Germans, all the while our hands ready on our rifles. Blood and peace, enmity and fraternity—war’s most amazing paradox. The night wore on to dawn—a night made easier by songs from the German trenches, the pipings of piccolos and from our broad lines laughter and Christmas carols. Not a shot was fired." -- Private Frederick Heath, a British soldier 

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(It has become a great legend of World War I. But what really happened when British and German troops emerged from their trenches that Christmas Day?) Even at the distance greater than a century, no war seems more terrible than World War I. In the years between 1914 and 1918, it killed or wounded more than 25 million people -- peculiarly horribly, and for less apparent purpose (with the exception of the current war in Ukraine) than did any other war before or since. Yet there were still rare moments of joy and hope in the trenches of Flanders and France, and one of the most remarkable came during the first Christmas of the war -- a few brief hours during which men from both sides on the Western Front laid down their arms, emerged from their trenches, and shared food, carols, games, and comradeship.

+ Their truce (the famous Christmas Truce) was both unofficial and illicit. Many officers disapproved, and headquarters on both sides took strong steps to ensure that it could never happen again. While it lasted, however, the truce was magical, leading even the sober Wall Street Journal to observe: “What appears from the winter fog and misery is a Christmas story, a fine Christmas story that is, in truth, the most faded and tattered of adjectives: inspiring.”

+ The first signs that something strange was happening occurred on Christmas Eve. At 8:30 p.m. an officer of the Royal Irish Rifles reported to headquarters: “Germans have illuminated their trenches, are singing songs and wishing us a Happy Xmas. Compliments are being exchanged but am nevertheless taking all military precautions.” Further along the line, the two sides serenaded each other with carols -- the German “Silent Night” being met with a British chorus of “The First Noel“ -- and scouts met, cautiously, in no man’s land, the shell-blasted waste between the trenches. The war diary of the Scots Guards records that a certain Private Murker “met a German Patrol and was given a glass of whisky and some cigars, and a message was sent back saying that if we didn’t fire at them, they would not fire at us.”