2023-12-24 05:30:01
The story of Sunday – They remained taboo for a long time, but ceasefires during Christmas periods did exist during the First World War. Moments of fraternization, where the conflict is suspended for a few hours, took place in the Somme. In their logbooks, the soldiers tell the story.
[Première publication le 19/12/2021]
December 1914. We are at the very beginning of the conflict and already hundreds of thousands of soldiers have died. On both sides, we hid in the trenches where the cold, humidity and mud reigned, suffering each rain of shells coming from the enemy camp.
But in this escalation of horror, a burst of humanity will indeed take place on Christmas Eve. The cannons are silent in a few places, notably in Santerre in Picardy.
An episode of ceasefire is detailed in the writings of Frédéric Branche, 18 years old, soldier of the 99th infantry regiment positioned in this sector, near Fontaine-lès-Cappy in the Somme. “I wrote my New Year’s letter for mom yesterday. This gave me the blues for part of the day. For everyone, the end of year celebrations will be sad: friends and enemies, all suffer from the separation from family and it even seems that the men wanted to put a truce to their killing, as the following fact seems to prove.“
Frédéric Branche, whose war diaries were taken up and studied by high school students from Fonsorbes near Toulouse during the centenary of the Great War, recounts that during Christmas Eve a dialogue began between French and Germans. “On both sides, signs of friendship are made; here is one of our corporal machine gunners leaving our trench; an enemy officer does the same; they come together, shake hands, exchange cigarettes and both go down into the opposing trench. Soon there is a parade of enemy soldiers in our trenches: eight of them come. Bavarians who, once at home, never want to return there.“
This emerging fraternization even transformed into an alliance, when the French soldiers learned that a “very great animosity exists between Bavarians and Prussians.“In the French camp, these same Bavarians warn that the Prussians will attack during the night.”We were planning to have a peaceful Christmas Eve: oh yes! We were fooled!“, writes Frédéric Branche.
After spending part of the night on guard, the soldiers go to bed exhausted. On Christmas morning, “the skirmishes stopped abruptly among the Germans at daybreakthey report in the march and operations journal (JMO) of the 99th infantry regiment. A large number of Bavarians came out of their trenches, signaling not to shoot at them, then they advanced halfway and engaged in conversation with our men in front of the common wood area. Complete truce.“
The followingnoon, “the talks started once more from trenches to trenchescontinues Frédéric Branche. The Germans gave us a little friendly speech and one of their officers came forward to meet Adjutant Faure of the 1st company to shake his hand. So this is how Christmas 1914 passed, in the trench, in cold and sad weather. Never have I felt the horror of this war as much as today, on this holiday, so traditionally sweet and so sad this year.“
Other episodes of fraternization took place until January 1, 1915. Frédéric Branche recounts, for example, that a German soldier offered him a glass of kummel, a German alcoholic drink, and a cigar on December 26, 1914.
On December 31, soldiers of the 28th Infantry Division positioned in this same sector near Foucaucourt-en-Santerre described that “a Bavarian sent our men postcards containing New Year’s wishes and thanks for the bread and brandy they received from them. One of these cards was designed as follows: “To the French comrades: we only shoot if an officer is (near) us. Only our lieutenant is always in a rage and shoots a few times! A happy new year, thank you very much for the cognac, he tasted good.“
But this interlude of humanity lasts only a short time. The fighting resumed immediately. There was no need to risk revealing important information by making a pact with the enemy. “These relations, if they did not allow us to determine German soldiers to surrender, were nevertheless useful from several points of view, relates the soldiers in the JMO of the 28th Infantry Division. […] They allowed us to lay wire networks without being disturbed and to bury corpses of ours who had remained unburied very close to enemy lines following November 28.“
These same relationships also took place between British and German soldiers. On the Belgian front, near the town of Ypres, the soldiers come out of their trenches, find themselves in no man’s land and even play a game of football. A legendary match, replayed by history buffs 100 years later in Ploegsteert. At the time, the score would have been 3-2 for the Germans.
The British press is the only one to report on these episodes of fraternization. The Daily Mirror in fact even its one on January 5, 1915. In this sector, the Christmas truce lasted several days, it was one of the longest.
In France, the event is censored and long taboo. It will be recounted 90 years later, in 2005, in the film Merry Christmas by director Christian Carion.
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