Ashay Shah

History 118B – Assignment 4

Grader: Xiaxiang Luo

The Christmas Truce of 1914

        The Great War of 1914 has been called as the “war to end all wars”, the “massacre of innocents”, and the birthplace of modern warfare. As the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) describes, during the Great War the world witnessed some of the most bloody and ruthless battles in history. The face of warfare was forever changed with the introduction of the machine-gun, poison gas, airplanes, and most notably trench warfare (“The War to End All Wars”).  However, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle noted in his history of 1914, there was “one human episode amid all the atrocities which have stained the memory of war” (qtd. in Simmermacher, par. 11). Doyle alludes to the December of 1914 when soldiers from both sides of the conflict gathered together between their trenches, set aside the hatred they were expected to feel for each other, and shook hands. Although mostly British and German soldiers participated in it, the truce touched men throughout the Western Front. These unofficial armistices lasted anywhere from a matter of hours to several weeks, and were completely orchestrated by the troops partaking in them, with no approval or guidance from their governments. As historian Stanley Weintraub points out, the idea of the truce came from earlier wars, simply as respite from fighting to bury fallen comrades (Lopez par. 8). What sets Christmas, 1914 apart is the potential it had for changing things because “the scale of the 1914 truce far exceeded the localized respites of previous wars” (Simmermacher, par. 17). The truce exposed the lack of hatred many soldiers felt towards their counterparts, and the impractical nature of the war that had been pressed upon them. Overall, the Christmas Truce of 1914 demonstrated how the humanity and compassion of primarily British and German soldiers could overshadow and nearly defeat the violence and animosity of the war. 

The truce at Christmas was not a sudden occurrence or completely unforeseen. There were several factors that directly contributed to the cessation of hostilities, the most important of which was trench warfare. In early October, 1914, the British and German forces had entrenched themselves along the Aisne River. Both sides were unsure of how to react to the effect technology had on warfare. The “machine-guns had proven their worth in war, bringing a new meaning to the word slaughter” (Rosenberg, par. 1). If soldiers charged towards the enemy’s trench in an attempt to overcome the enemy with numbers (as had been the case in a number of previous wars), they were mowed down by a barrage of bullets. Instead a new type of combat was introduced. Since soldiers were unable to move forward, back, or up, the only option left was down, and so they began digging. Trenches began appearing all along the Western Front, and soon trench warfare was born.

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        As a result of trench warfare, battles lasted much longer, which meant more men and more casualties. Towards December, a series of battles, notably the First Battle of Ypres, ravaged the both British and German battalions. As the BBC asserts, “Trench warfare in Ypres created an endless demand for men, munitions and supplies with no apparent gains or victories” (“The War To End All Wars”). With severe losses to both armies, there was no sense in launching any decisive strike in the near future or at least until 1915, when new plans would be in place to better react to ...

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