Did the Christmas Truce of WWI really happen?
Some people think it’s a myth – but here’s the answer
The Christmas Truce has become one of the most famous and mythologized events of the First World War. But is it true?
Many people didn’t believe the reports when they first appeared in newspapers describing British and German troops in France singing Christmas carols and playing football in the killing zones between their trenches on Christmas Day, 1914.
Even after incredible photos taken on personal cameras by soldiers of the remarkable event were sent home and printed in the press, for decades after many still disbelieved the story.
The German soldiers had been demonized so viciously, such civilized behavior for a Christmas celebration – utterly unsanctioned by their military commanders – would have seemed impossible.
The UK’s Imperial War Museums (IWM) took a closer took at the story and asked, what was the real story behind the truce? Why did it happen and did British and German soldiers really play football in no-man’s land?
Indeed, as historians have found, the story is true.
The photographs, letters and interviews in IWM’s collection tell the real story of the Christmas Truce. In this video by the IWM’s Head of Documents and Sound, Anthony Richards explains how the truce came about, its impact on the course of the First World War and why it never happened again after 1914.