Private M. L. Walkinton, a 17 year old Rifleman in the Queens
Westminster Rifles took part in the famous Christmas Truce in 1914. Reflecting
back years later, this is what he has to say about that famous event in his
book 'Twice in a Lifetime':-
“On a quiet night,
when the trenches were near enough, we used to sing to each other, sometimes
alternate verses of the same tune like Hail though one despised Jesus and
Deutschland, Deutschland liber alles. They often sang their own words to the
tune of God Save the King. Then an officer of one side or the other would come
and stop it by ordering a few rounds of fire. We used to be sporting and fire
high with the first round – and so did Brother Boche. We used to shout remarks
to each other, sometimes rude ones, but generally with less venom in them than
a couple of London
Well, goodwill and
good fellowship at Christmas-time were bred in the bone, so to speak and in
spite of orders and warnings one kept thinking about it. The way this Christmas
feeling persisted is interesting as one of the few victories of the teaching of
the Church over the teaching of the State during the whole war. It persisted
with us until the word ‘Truce’ crept into conversation. It grew so strong that
not a shot was fired on our bit of front after midnight of December 24th/25th until midnight of December 25th/26th.
It was weird and
unearthly for everything to be suddenly still. For some time we were suspicious
and careful. We were afraid that some low-down trick might be played upon us by
those ‘dirty swine’ (a phrase learned from newspapers printed in the far-off
security of England
Then the men of
the opposing sides began to drift towards each other, first as far as the
barbed wire and then a few of each side scrambled through. Timidly they
approached each other – unarmed, of course - until finally a German and an
Englishmen met and shook hands to the sound of a happy little burst of
cheering. Within a few seconds hundreds of people were shaking hands, laughing,
exchanging drinks of rum and cognac, cigars and cigarettes, chocolate, sausages
and so on.
I talked to a
German-American who seemed a very pleasant sort of lad. He had never been to England Plymouth England London Germany
After that I think
we talked about food and our respective family histories. He introduced me to
his battalion sniper who had just received an Iron Cross from the Kaiser. The
sniper showed it to me and seemed very proud of it. I tried to beg it, but he
gave me a button of his tunic instead! Several people exchanged addresses and
promised to write to each other after the war, but I don’t know if any of them
did.
Christmas cards
from the King and Queen were handed to every man in the battalion; a greatly
appreciated gesture.
At some time
during the day I went back to our lines and cooked myself some sausage which I
had brought back from a local butchers the night before when on fatigue duty in
Chapelle D’Armentieres. There was about eighteen inches of it – they didn't divide it into ‘links’ like they do in England
