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	Wikipedia: Christmas truce
		The so-called "Christmas truce" began on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1914, during World War I, when German troops began decorating the area around their trenches in the region of Ypres, Belgium for Christmas.
		The truce also allowed a breathing spell where recently fallen soldiers could be brought back behind their lines by burial parties.
		The truce spread to other areas of the lines, and there is a perhaps apocryphal story of a football match between the opposing forces, which ended when the ball struck a strand of barbed wire and deflated.
	www.factbook.org /wikipedia/en/c/ch/christmas_truce.html (306 words)

	First World War.com - Feature Articles - The Christmas Truce
		The reality of the Christmas Truce, however, is a slightly less romantic and a more down to earth story.
		On the eve of the Truce, the British Army (still a relatively small presence on the Western Front) was manning a stretch of the line running south from the infamous Ypres salient for 27 miles to the La Bassee Canal.
		Incidents of temporary truces and outright fraternisation were more common at this stage in the war than many people today realise – even units that had just taken part in a series of futile and costly assaults, were still willing to talk and come to arrangements with their opponents.
	www.firstworldwar.com /features/christmastruce.htm (2388 words)

	The Christmas Truce 1914-1915
		Below is the account of the truce in the Sailly - Armentiers sector manned by George Anderson, George Gordon, William Milne, Alexander Pirie and their comrades of 6th Btn, The Gordon Highlanders.
		Christmas Eve the Germans spent singing carols, and, the night being calm, they informed our men they did not intend to shoot on Christmas Day, asking at the same time that we also should refrain from violence.
		The truce of God had been called, and the rest of Christmas Day was filled with peace and goodwill.
	www.kinnethmont.co.uk /1914-1918_files/xmas-truce.htm (1579 words)

	Christmas truce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The "Christmas truce" is a term used to describe the brief unofficial cessation of hostilities that occurred between German and British troops stationed on the Western Front of World War I during Christmas 1914.
		The truce began on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1914, when German troops began decorating the area around their trenches in the region of Ypres, Belgium, for Christmas.
		On 21 November 2005, the last remaining Allied veteran of the truce, Alfred Anderson, died in Newtyle, Scotland at the age of 109.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Christmas_truce (1756 words)

	A Carol from Flanders
		It was 1914 and the near-mythical Christmas truce had begun, when men laid down their weapons, shook hands and embraced the season's message of peace on earth.
		In the six days preceding Christmas every soldier, sailor and nurse was sent cards by the King and Queen, plus a present from a special fund associated with Princess Mary, the 17-year-old daughter of George V. This dislocated distribution systems in three countries - ammunition and food were delayed because of it.
		By 1918 the Armistice had been signed and the memory of the Christmas truce of 1914 slipped into legend, a moment from the forgotten golden age when even the participants suspected it never happened.
	www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com /Text/a_carol_from_flanders.htm (1188 words)

	washingtonpost.com: Remembering a Victory For Human Kindness
		While there had been truces for religious and secular holidays since classical times, the events that occurred 90 years ago this week were a spontaneous, unled cry for sanity before the advent of industrialized war.
		On Christmas he was "in reserve," behind the front lines, part of a complicated rotation that limited soldiers' time in the front-line trenches to three to seven days.
		The history of the Christmas Truce is essentially a compendium of anecdotes gleaned from letters, diaries, oral memories, and, to a lesser extent, official military records.
	www.washingtonpost.com /ac2/wp-dyn/A25206-2004Dec24?language=printer (2438 words)

	Urban Legends Reference Pages: Holidays (Christmas Truce)
		By Christmas morning, the "no man's land" between the trenches was filled with fraternizing soldiers, sharing rations and gifts, singing and (more solemnly) burying their dead between the lines.
		However much the momentary peace of 1914 evidenced the desire of the combatants to live in amity with one another, it was doomed from the start by the realities beyond the trenches.
		A celebration of the human spirit, the Christmas Truce remains a moving manifestation of the absurdities of war.
	www.snopes.com /holidays/christmas/truce.asp (973 words)

	BBC NEWS \| Special Report \| 1998 \| 10/98 \| World War I \| The Christmas truce
		Informal truces and small armistices have often taken place during prolonged periods of fighting and the military history of the last two centuries, in particular, abounds with incidents of friendship between enemies.
		There is also some evidence that while some generals angrily opposed the truce, others tolerated it and indeed saw some advantage in allowing events to take their own course while never for a moment doubting that eventually the war would resume in full earnest.
		The phrase sums up the attraction of the truce: it is the human dimension which means that this relatively obscure event in the fifth month of a 52-month war is still remembered and will continue to catch the imagination.
	news.bbc.co.uk /1/hi/special_report/1998/10/98/world_war_i/197627.stm (939 words)

	Demystifying the Christmas Truce 1914, by Thomas Löwer
		The Christmas Truce was a small peaceful episode in a cruel environment.
		Not all nations agreed to a truce: Russia, for example, refused, because the orthodox Christmas is almost two weeks later than the catholic and protestant Christmas, making an official truce impossible.
		The Christmas Truce becomes really more remarkable if the antebellum stereotypes and the propaganda during the war are taken into account.
	www.greatwar.nl /xmas/christmastruce.html (4613 words)

	The German Christmas Truce Of World War One
		It was the first Christmas of a war that has come to epitomize pointless sacrifice on a biblical scale.
		Though this Christmas Truce happened many years ago, and even the recounting of it is past the Christmas season, I feel that it is very relevant in the light of recent wars that many European nations are engaged in.
		The Christmas Truce of World War One reflects the common man, with common sense, realizing the senselessness of the war they were engaged in.
	www.rense.com /general47/truce.htm (1051 words)

	The Great War . Historians . Trevor Wilson \| PBS
		But on Christmas Day, they get together and talk about peace on earth and goodwill towards men – on the assumption that after Christmas, they'll go back to hating each other, warring with each other.
		"The Christmas truce doesn't mean that there was some act of rebellion against their own commanders going on.
		It just means that Christmas Day is supposed to be a day of exceptional pleasure and enjoyment.
	www.pbs.org /greatwar/historian/hist_wilson_03_christmas.html (483 words)

	ZNet Commentary: Class war / Christmas Truce
		Christmas Eve 1914 saw a strange phenomenon in many parts of the Western Front (stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss border).
		For their commanders and monarchs the Christmas Truce was a nightmare of peace (emperors always think of peace as a nightmare and that hasn’t changed).
		If the Christmas Truce of 1914 had lasted, if it had spread and ended the war it would have saved the lives of 9 Million men, women and children, dying from January 1915 till the end of war in late 1918.
	www.zmag.org /sustainers/content/2004-01/08noll.cfm (2435 words)

	History: Stanley Weintraub on the 1914 Christmas Truce on NRO Weekend
		In part the truce came about as brief truces in earlier wars occurred — as a respite to bury the dead.
		As one later songwriter put it, in "Christmas in the Trenches," via his narrator, a private from Liverpool, "On both ends of the rifle we're the same." They regretted having to fire at each other again, but they were under military discipline and returned to it.
		A Christmas truce could not happen again without a mutual respect for the values of Christmas.
	www.nationalreview.com /weekend/history/history-weintraub122201.shtml (1020 words)

	ChristmasTruce (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12)
		The Illustrated London News of January 9, 1915: a representation of the impromptu Christmas truce of 1914 between the Germans and British on the Western Front.
		The truce was initiated by the Germans, who began singing carols in their trenches, and lifted up small, candle-lit Christmas trees, and then — after some messages hollered and tossed back and forth — slowly, carefully ventured out.
		Some soldiers who experienced the truce, and then were lucky enough to survive the year, carried in their hearts the memory of the 1914 truce, and tried to reenact it at Christmas 1915.
	www.lib.byu.edu /~english/WWI/historical/ChristmasTruce.html (271 words)

	Christmas Truce, 1914
		The Christmas Truce has become an enduring image of the triumph of man's spirit over adversity.
		An attack by 11th Brigade [1st Somerset Light Infantry, 1st Hampshire and 1st Rifle Brigade] on the "German Birdcage" east of Ploegsteert Wood fails with heavy casualties, many of which are caused by British heavy artillery firing short of target.
		In the front lines, the fraternisation of Christmas Eve is continued throughout the day; not all units know about it, and it is not universal but is widespread over at least half of the British front.
	www.1914-1918.net /truce.htm (1368 words)

	The Christmas Truce of 1914
		And Christmas trees were lighting up German trenches as far as the British could see with their binoculars.
		But because it was Christmas they were not put in a prisoner-of-war camp but in a civilian camp.
		But on Boxing Day the men were back to killing each other and for the next three Christmas seasons generals on both sides made sure that an informal truce didn't happen again.
	www.expage.com /truce1 (568 words)

	Compare Prices and Read Reviews on Stanley Weintraub - Silent Night: The Remarkable 1914 Christmas Truce at Epinions.com (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12)
		That bright spot was the famous Christmas Truce of 1914, in which at great lengths of the line men simply refused to fight one another.
		The truce was initiated by the Germans who, the author claims, had a long standing love of the holiday and were responsible for many of its customs.
		Weintraub’s history of the Christmas Truce is a welcome study on a fascinating event in history.
	www.epinions.com /content_150729952900 (848 words)

	In Memory of the Christmas Truce
		Uncertain history overtook the storied Christmas truce, and later generations gave it the aura of legend.
		During a lull in the firing, Anderson and his fellows thought they heard music some described as "from the heavens." It was, some laughed, Christmas Eve, so maybe a delusion for those who hungered to be home instead of on a muddy battlefield.
		Sometimes there are no reasons, and the carols of Christmas sung during that truce in the trenches fade into an echo of legend.
	hnn.us /articles/19578.html (759 words)

	Last survivor of 'Christmas truce' tells of his sorrow \| UK News \| The Observer
		It was just after dawn on a bitingly cold Christmas Day in 1914, 90 years ago on Saturday, and one of the most extraordinary incidents of the Great War was about to unfold.
		The unauthorised Christmas truce spread across much of the 500-mile Western Front where more than a million men were encamped.
		But by the first Christmas of the war they had already experienced its horror and the death of young friends was commonplace.
	observer.guardian.co.uk /uk_news/story/0,6903,1376965,00.html (1250 words)

	The Christmas Truce, by David G. Stratman
		On Christmas Day, 1914, in the first year of World War I, German, British, and French soldiers disobeyed their superiors and fraternized with "the enemy" along two-thirds of the Western Front.
		On Christmas Day, 1988, a story in the Boston Globe mentioned that a local FM radio host played "Christmas in the Trenches," a ballad about the Christmas Truce, several times and was startled by the effect.
		The Christmas Truce story goes against most of what we have been taught about people.
	www.wagingpeace.org /articles/2003/12/16_stratman_christmas-truce.htm (352 words)

	The Legends and Traditions of the Great War: The Christmas Truce of 1914
		From its occurrence, the Christmas Truce has been looked upon as a symbol of a humanity not yet submerged by the mechanical forces of industrial-age warfare.
		With its ability to inspire and hold the imagination of later generations, the Legend of the Christmas Truce might be looked upon as a rare positive outcome of the Great War.
		Finally, if the Christmas Truce had any effect on the participants or the eventual course of the war, it was negligible.
	www.worldwar1.com /heritage/xmast.htm (804 words)

	History News Network
		And lo, a Christmas revolution was born as Santa Claus swept in from his arctic home, pulled by his reindeer to deposit presents for America’s children.
		If the British Christmas - or the idea of the traditional British Christmas - is somehow encapsulated by Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol the treacly sentiment that coats The Night Before Christmas has performed an equivalent function in the United States, albeit on a lower literary plane.
		In his account, the Christmas star appeared in the east and was spotted by the wise men, the magi, who took it as a sign that a king of the Jews had been born, fulfilling an ancient prophecy.
	hnn.us /articles/1177.html (3488 words)

	Christmas Truce 1914 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12)
		German soldiers were singing Christmas carols, some of which (such as Silent Night, or Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht) were familiar to their British counterparts.
		Bruce Bairnsfather, the war cartoonist who penned the "Old Bill" sketches and who observed the Christmas truce first hand, wrote soon after the event: "There was not an atom of hate that day, and yet, on our side, not for a moment was the will to war and the will to beat them relaxed.
		The scale of the 1914 truce, however, far exceeded the localised respites of previous wars.
	www.thesoutherncross.co.za /features/christmas_truce_1914.htm (1249 words)

	Soldiers Against War by John V. Denson
		The Christmas Truce, which occurred primarily between the British and German soldiers along the Western Front in December 1914, is an event the official histories of the "Great War" leave out, and the Orwellian historians hide from the public.
		Each side helped bury their dead and remove the wounded so that by Christmas morning there was a large open area about as wide as the size of two football fields separating the opposing trenches.
		It belied the bellicose slogans and suggested that the men fighting and often dying were, as usual, proxies for governments and issues that had little to do with their everyday lives.
	www.lewrockwell.com /orig2/denson4.html (2468 words)

	Merry Christmas (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Merry Christmas (French title: Joyeux Noël) is a 2005 film about the Christmas truce of December 1914 by French, British and German soldiers of World War I, written and directed by Christian Carion.
		Christmas arrives, along with the snow, and bundles of presents from their famillies and the army head office.
		That night their lives are changed forever, randomly drawn together by Christmas spirit, they succeed in unifying the men.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Merry_Christmas_(film) (274 words)

	HELLFIRE CORNER - The Christmas Truce - 1914
		It may well be that there were other places where truces took place, but our precise knowledge of events is limited by the amount of direct, eyewitness testimony which has so far been discovered.
		The Germans had originated the tradition of bringing Christmas trees into their houses and decorating them, a practice which was introduced into England by Queen Victoria's Consort, Prince Albert.
		But by and large, the truce was taken as an opportunity to meet, to shake hands, to show family photographs and to exchange small items of food and tobacco.
	www.fylde.demon.co.uk /xmas.htm (3438 words)

	Damn Interesting » The Christmas Truce of 1914
		On Christmas Eve the British soldiers near Ypres were sitting it their trenches, huddling for warmth as the night set in.
		The Christmas Truce of 1914 wasn't the first spontaneous truce in history, but it was undoubtedly the largest.
		Harding's statement brought to mind that these truces were very often called for when a stray (frightened) animal had wondered in or very close to the battlefield.
	www.damninteresting.com /?p=247 (1387 words)

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