99
Makes my heart ache reading that. It's good that soldiers still saw the humanity in others on that day in 1914.
And a lot of effort was put in to ensure it would never happen again.
"It lifted astoundingly quickly. And along that line we were suddenly able to see Germans doing exactly the same thing all out in the open. And we just looked at each other for some time and then one or two soldiers went towards them. They met, they shook hands, they swapped cigarettes. They got talking. The war, for that moment, came to a standstill." General Walter Congreve, who led the Rifles Brigade, wrote to his wife on Christmas Day, describing the ceasefire as "an extraordinary state of affairs". Because the trenches were so close, soldiers were able to shout greetings to each other, initiating conversations. "A German shouted out that they wanted a day's truce and would one come out if he did," wrote the general. "Very cautiously one of our men lifted himself above the parapet and saw a German doing the same. Both got out, then more... they have been walking about together all day giving each other cigars and singing songs."
I don't get this. This sounds like people were there for a job, but otherwise harbored no ill will towards the enemy. Or maybe they did, but it being Christmas and all, they really just wanted to carol and smoke cigars? What was the point of going back to the war with someone you just sang carols and smoked with?
It's well documented that the leadership of both sides had some difficulty getting their soldiers to go back to fighting after the truce.
The average soldier did not want to fight. Leadership had to threaten charges of desertions and treason to get them back to fighting.
modern people are able to so easily access excellent multimedia propaganda nowadays that just isnt needed anymore
Hate is so easy to propogate with film
And almost impossible without it
An interesting book somewhat related to this is Poilu, the notebooks of a French soldier who served through most of the war. He was an avowed socialist who never fired his weapon at the enemy and encouraged the soldiers under him (when he was a corporal) to do the same. One of his stories was about a period later in the war when the soldiers on both sides of the trenches in his area had reached an "accommodation" where they refused to shoot at each other. One day a high-ranking officer visited, saw the situation, picked up a soldier's rifle and shot dead an enemy soldier lounging in full view across no-man's land. This precipitated a resumption of "normal" warfare in the area but almost got the officer killed - by his own soldiers.
Mate can you show me the way?
Paul McCartney looks tired.
For the people who said "fuck this" it lasted for decades
What if they had a war and no one came?
If anyone is interested, Sabaton (a metal band) have made a song about it, "Christmas truce". It is rather touching..
Or
this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2023
99 points (99.0% liked)
Today I Learned
17944 readers
480 users here now
What did you learn today? Share it with us!
We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.
** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**
Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.
If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.
Partnered Communities
You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.
Community Moderation
For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS