Christmas Truce?
There
are several stories of truces taking place at Christmas in 1914. When
I was taught history we were told that this was a totally fictitious story.
Yes, there were accounts of this truce, we were told, but they seemed to
occur in different places. Were there several truces? Did one occur, and
the story has become elaborated in time? No - it just wasn't true. Or that
was what we were told.
Possibly some accounts may be exaggerated, but there are too many to doubt that something really took place. The museum at Ypres appears to have no doubt, and one can buy a little booklet containing reports of this truce. (See HERE for some interesting recollections).
Anyone wishing to pursue this inquiry would find http://www.fylde.demon.co.uk/xmas.htm
interesting. See HERE
for a BBC piece on this. Another site worth looking at is HERE.
Finally, here is a copy of an article
in the Daily Mail for 1st January 1915.
If you have a sound card and speakers, you might wish to try THIS
program. I believe it to be true recollections, recorded in 1976, of a
soldier called Frank Richards, who was in the trenches and claimed to
have witnessed the truce back in 1914.