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1914 Christmas Truce
On Christmas Day, 1914, during the First World War temporary
truces occured all along the frontline. These were usually instigated
by the German troops through messages or by the singing of carols.
The truces involved the exchange of food and souvenirs, but also
allowed the grim task of the retrieval and burial dead bodies
out between the lines. The truces were seen as 'unwarlike' by
those in command and were discouraged in later years.
John Wedderburn-Maxwell, a British Officer who served
with 45th, 1st and 36th Batteries, Royal Field Artillery on the
Western Front 1914 - 1918, recalls his 'fraternisation' with German
soldiers on Boxing Day 1914. They discussed conditions in the
trenches and the futility of the war. Wedderburn-Maxwell mentions
the famous football match in No Man's Land between German and
British troops, although he recalls that the ground was far too
uneven for such a game in his part of the front. At midnight on
Boxing Day they returned to the 'job of war', signalled with a
round of artillery fire from the British.
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Lieutenant W B P Spencer
Wilbert Spencer served in the 2nd Battalion Wiltshire Regiment
(7th Division). He fought on the Western Front from December 1914
until just before his death in action, at the age of 17, in the
Battle of Neuve Chapelle in March 1915. He participated in the
Christmas Truce of 1914 and wrote an account of his experiences
in a letter to his mother.
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