The Christmas Truce

Marry Christmas everyone!

Sorry for the mispronunciations, minor miss spelling errors, bad audio equipment, and unsatisfactory voice acting.

All the quotes used in the video are real quotes from real soldiers in The Christmas truce. However the quotes are put together and edited in such a way as to make a coherent made up story which is based on a true story of the 1914 Christmas Truce.

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December 24th, Morning, -10 Celsius, Light Snow, Woke up, again with no feeling in my feet. Yesterday “We came across some French soldiers, ... had thick felt boots and a kind of rubber outside. I thought to myself, ‘I wouldn’t mind a pair of them.’”(Charles Colthup)

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Noon, with light snow, “The trench was a horrible sight. The dead were stretched out on one side, one on top of each other six feet high.”(British Captain Leeham) Started this war with unfounded promises, being told by incompetent generals, “the war would be over by christmas”. But what now … Christmas eve and still stuck in this half frozen covered in snow trench.

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Christmas eve, Clear “beautiful moonlit night, frost on the ground, white almost everywhere.”(Albert Moren) I put my candlelit Christmas tree on the top of the trench as did many others. Then "The beautiful old songs resounded." (Karl Aldag) throughout the trenches.

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Suddenly, we hear the english “ they sang 'Silent Night' “ to our “'Stille nacht.'I shall never forget it” (Albert Moren) We sang "in voices at first wavering, then firmer, swelling to a mighty Christmas carol." (Jozef van Ryckeghem) together with the enemy.

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Overwhelmed with joy I call out to the other trench "No shoot tonight! No shoot tonight! Sing tonight! Sing tonight!" (Unknown German soldier) So we sang, "followed with ballads which both sides knew, singing everything from 'Good King Wenceslaus' to 'Auld Lang Syne' which we all knew. Everyone joined in. It was absolutely astounding." (Edward Hulse)

"We spent the remainder of Christmas Eve watching the lights flicker and fade on the Christmas trees” (The Kensingtons records).

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December 25th, Morning, -9 Celsius, Clear Ski, Woke up to the most peculiar situation, one of our soldiers displayed a board over their trench, on which was written “Happy Christmas” (Unknown soldier) in English. Then from the English trenches we hear “Good morning fritz”, we reply “Good Morning”, silence ensues but after a while I decide to yell “We will come halfway and you come the other half.”(Rifleman J. Reading) … “ok” … stunned i grab my cheese ration and get on top of the trench, an English soldier does the same. We meet halfway, i give him the cheese and he gives me some fags, suddenly I turn around and “the Germans (are) standing on top of their trenches, and the English also, with caps waving in the air, all cheering." (Private H. Scrutton) then all proceeding to meet halfway, exchanging gifts and talking “to one another in English and broken English.”(Captain R. J.).“I shall never forget it. It was one of the highlights of my life."(Albert Moren)

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"For an instant, the God of goodwill was once more master of this corner of the earth." (Unknown French officer) As the day went by I thought to myself "When the history of the war is written, one of the episodes which chroniclers will seize upon as one of its most surprising features will undoubtedly be the manner in which the foes celebrated Christmas. How they fraternized in each other's trenches, played football, rode races, held sing-songs, and scrupulously adhered to their unofficial truce. It will certainly go down as one of the greatest surprises of a surprising war." (The South Wales Echo).

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As the Christmas day was halting to an end, we all went back to our trenches, unwillingly. Wishing in our minds,“From Flanders, kneel and say: God speed the time when every day Shall be as Christmas Day.” (Frederick Niven, "A Carol from Flanders,")

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December 26th, Morning, -12 Celsius, Cloudy Sky, The fighting resumed.

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Video scripts with sources are available for free on my Patreon.

Links that where in the video-

Christmas Truce short

Learn more about the Christmas truce

Music used in The Video

I Saw Three Ships by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license ()

Deck the Halls by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license ()

Silent Night - Vocal Orchestra from Pond5

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