By Christopher Sears (Autumn 2020 student)
December 7th, 1914. Pope Benedict XV calls for a Christmas truce that might negotiate a peace, or if not, “that the guns may fall silent at least upon the night the angels sang.” Here, I discuss the Christmas truce, what became of it, and what it means in the broader context of war.
Listen to 1914: A Christmas Truce here.
Bibliography:
“FOES IN TRENCHES SWAP PIES FOR WINE; British and Germans Exchange Gifts During Christmas Truce on Firing Line. PASS SEASON COMPLIMENTS English and Saxon Officers Photographed Together Between the Hostile Trenches.” The New York Times, December 31, 1914.
“Don’t Like Fraternizing on Front Among Troops Normally Hostile – Pretty but Dangerous.” Vancouver Daily World, January 11, 1915. –
Lt.-Col Laurence Fisher-Rowe. December 20th-30th, 1914. “Imperial War Museum, London, Document 16978”
Chris. “Christmas Truce: Operation Plum Puddings,” February 2014. http://www.christmastruce.co.uk/
Brown, Malcom, and Shirley Seaton. CHRISTMAS TRUCE: the Western Front December 1914. Leo Cooper Ltd, 1984.
Cleaver, Alan, and Lesley Park. Not a Shot Was Fired: Letters from the Christmas Truce of 1914. Whitehaven: Chitty Mouse Press, 2008.