{"id":4761,"date":"2013-04-05T14:38:24","date_gmt":"2013-04-05T18:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hookedonraw.com\/?page_id=4761"},"modified":"2014-06-13T00:25:18","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T04:25:18","slug":"the-christmas-truce","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/hookedonraw.com\/?page_id=4761","title":{"rendered":"The Christmas Truce"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\n\nThe two songs below are about something which actually happened during World War I. The first song is written by John McCutcheon, the second by Joe Henry and Garth Brooks.\n\nCHRISTMAS IN THE TRENCHES<\/strong>
\nWords & Music by John McCutcheon \u00a9 1984<\/p>\n

My name is Francis Tolliver, I come from Liverpool.
\nTwo years ago the war was waiting for me after school.
\nTo Belgium and to Flanders, to Germany to here
\nI fought for King and country I love dear.
\n‘Twas Christmas in the trenches, where the frost so bitter hung,
\nThe frozen fields of France were still, no Christmas song was sung
\nOur families back in England were toasting us that day
\nTheir brave and glorious lads so far away.
\nI was lying with my messmate on the cold and rocky ground
\nWhen across the lines of battle came a most peculiar sound
\nSays I, “Now listen up, me boys!” each soldier strained to hear
\nAs one young German voice sang out so clear.
\n“He’s singing bloody well, you know!” my partner says to me
\nSoon, one by one, each German voice joined in harmony
\nThe cannons rested silent, the gas clouds rolled no more
\nAs Christmas brought us respite from the war
\nAs soon as they were finished and a reverent pause was spent
\n“God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” struck up some lads from Kent
\nThe next they sang was “Stille Nacht.” “Tis ‘Silent Night’,” says I
\nAnd in two tongues one song filled up that sky
\n“There’s someone coming toward us!” the front line sentry cried
\nAll sights were fixed on one lone figure trudging from their side
\nHis truce flag, like a Christmas star, shown on that plain so bright
\nAs he, bravely, strode unarmed into the night
\nSoon one by one on either side walked into No Man’s Land
\nWith neither gun nor bayonet we met there hand to hand
\nWe shared some secret brandy and we wished each other well
\nAnd in a flare-lit soccer game we gave ’em hell
\nWe traded chocolates, cigarettes, and photographs from home
\nThese sons and fathers far away from families of their own
\nYoung Sanders played his squeezebox and they had a violin
\nThis curious and unlikely band of men
\nSoon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more
\nWith sad farewells we each prepared to settle back to war
\nBut the question haunted every heart that lived that wondrous night
\n“Whose family have I fixed within my sights?”
\n‘Twas Christmas in the trenches where the frost, so bitter hung
\nThe frozen fields of France were warmed as songs of peace were sung
\nFor the walls they’d kept between us to exact the work of war
\nHad been crumbled and were gone forevermore
\nMy name is Francis Tolliver, in Liverpool I dwell
\nEach Christmas come since World War I, I’ve learned its lessons well
\nThat the ones who call the shots won’t be among the dead and lame
\nAnd on each end of the rifle we’re the same<\/p>\n

****************************<\/p>\n

On Christmas Day, 1914, only 5 months into World War I, German, British, and French soldiers, already sick and tired of the senseless killing, disobeyed their superiors and fraternized with “the enemy” along two-thirds of the Western Front (in times of war, a crime punishable by death).<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Not many people have heard the story of the Christmas Truce. Military leaders have not gone out of their way to publicize it.<\/p>\n

On Christmas Day, 1988, a story in the Boston Globe mentioned that a local FM radiohost 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.<\/p>\n

Excerpted from David G. Stratman, We CAN Change the World:
\nThe Real Meaning of Everyday Life (New Democracy Books, 1991).
\nAvailable for $3.00 from New Democracy Books, P.O. Box 427, Boston, MA 02130.<\/p>\n

BELLEAU WOOD <\/strong>
\nWords and Music by Joe Henry
\nand Garth Brooks<\/p>\n

Oh, the snowflakes fell in silence
\nOver Belleau Wood that night
\nFor a Christmas truce had been declared
\nBy both sides of the fight
\nAs we lay there in our trenches
\nThe silence broke in two
\nBy a German soldier singing
\nA song that we all knew.
\nThough I did not know the language
\nThe song was “Silent Night”
\nThen I heard my buddy whisper,
\n“All is calm and all is bright”
\nThen the fear and doubt surrounded me
\n‘Cause I’d die if I was wrong
\nBut I stood up in my trench
\nAnd I began to sing along
\nThen across the frozen battlefield
\nAnother’s voice joined in
\nUntil one by one each man became
\nA singer of the hymn
\nThen I thought that I was dreaming
\nFor right there in my sight
\nStood the German soldier
\n‘Neath the falling flakes of white
\nAnd he raised his hand and smiled at me
\nAs if he hoped to say
\nHere’s hoping we both live
\nTo see us find a better way
\nThen the devil’s clock struck midnight
\nAnd the skies lit up again
\nAnd the battlefield where heaven stood
\nWas blown to hell again
\nBut for just one fleeting moment
\nThe answer seemed so clear
\nHeaven’s not beyond the clouds
\nIt’s just beyond the fear
\nNo, heaven’s not beyond the clouds
\nIt’s for us to find it here.<\/p>\n

FAIR USE NOTICE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

< The two songs below are about something which actually happened during World War I. The first song is written by John McCutcheon, the second by Joe Henry and Garth Brooks. CHRISTMAS IN THE TRENCHES Words & Music by John … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4761","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hookedonraw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hookedonraw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hookedonraw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hookedonraw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hookedonraw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hookedonraw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hookedonraw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}