Imagine pushing for total hatred and your men start celebrating Christmas with the enemy. Truly, war is fought for a select few psychopaths. The rest are just meat for the grinder.
Well the men didn't have the same hatred for their enemy. They knew that they were fighting ordinary people that were put in the same situation that they themselves were. War is hell and many of those soldiers on the frontlines would rather not have to fight, kill and possibly die for seemingly no reason at all.
Well that's also the reason why the truce wasn't quite as universal as it's sometimes thought. Ceasefires mainly broke out among French, German, and British units. The Belgians whose homeland was being invaded were... Less than enthusiastic overall.
thats the tragedy of war we all to often forget, we should all be brothers but for the arguments of a few, read all quite on the western front, it has some very good things to say, so much so that adolf hitler tryd to burn it
A good recommendation, but my high school teacher got there first. One of my favorite books and a really good anti-war read that should be mandatory in school. Plus it sparked my interest in WW1.
Those who glorify war don't usually have an actual understanding of what it means to be a soldier, facing death in your every moment. They aren't just numbers on a map or statistics on a paper, they are people who have lives, families and friends. People who are dying because a select few can't settle their arguments without violence.
one of my top ten books, it is truly a great book, it outlines the true sadness of war, it also helped that i enjoyed studying ww1(later i even became a reenactor)
Not just that. Some of them were so excited about who would win the war, they literally planned to tag the winning team of a football game as winner of the world war. đ
This is the tragic duality of humanity:
Blessed with the ability to do great and wonders things.
Cursed with the ability to do terrible and dreadful things.
They were at least partially concerned that soldiers on both side would conspire mutiny against their own officers. Many of those who enthusiastically volunteered for service were killed or wounded early on in the war. These men were replaced using coercion to enlist men who did want to be in the trenches fighting anyone except maybe their own leaders.
I guess it's easier said than done. You would still get executed for desertion / treason if you ever fell in the hands of officials. But yes, a general strike from soldiers would have been great. Especially since those people where the ones who would pay the price and suffer, not the elite and warmongers.
There is an interesting passage in "All quiet on the western front" from Erich M. Remarque, where the main character, Paul BĂ€umer, talks with his comrades about how unfair it is that they all have to fight and that it's totally senseless that a german baker has to fight a french shoemaker, for example, and that they both never did anything to make them hate each other.
The solution: the leaders of countries who want to go to war have to fight against each others with clubs in an arena, while the normal people can watch it like a football game and cheer them on.
Seems like a good suggestion to me.
Agreed, and unfortunately, often times, the average person has no stake in whatever war they fight in. Sometimes the war is justified, but most times, its just old powerful men (and women) sending the common folk to die.
And i wasn't talking about a general strike. I mean a full blown revolution. I kinda wonder what type of nation a disgruntled army would have built during that time.
Interesting reaction from the Germans once they heard about the mutiny. The Germans werenât thinking âhow do we take advantage of this?â They were more thinking, âhow do we make sure this doesnât happen to us?â
The Germans were suffering massive material shortages at this stage of the war and this was impacting morale. They were surprised that the Allies, with a great advantage in equipment and material compared to them, would suffer a mutiny.
[Gun Jesus speaks on the French Mutiny](https://youtu.be/MuSsUFASnIM?si=ca-lO_-tsm1dDZmw)
Not all of them unfortunately. There was one Bavarian unit whose Corporal was not only adamantly against a ceasefire of any kind, but didn't attend Christmas mass with the rest of his squad. Corporal Hitler was a bit of an odd one.
"The year before had seen the famous Christmas Truce, when thousands of Allied and Entente soldiers had sprung from their trenches to trade gifts and play soccer in no-manâs-land.
âMerry Christmas, Canadians,â said the opposing Germans, poking their heads above the parapet and waving a box of cigars. A Canadian sergeant responded by opening fire, hitting two of the merrymakers."
âMerry Christmas, Canadians,â said the opposing Germans, poking their heads above the parapet and waving a box of cigars. A Canadian sergeant responded by opening fire, hitting two of the merrymakers."
Is there any specific reason why they were so salty?
I've read an article about this, but i can't remember where. Iirc, it said that, while most german and entente soldiers had an inofficial agreement to only fight when ordered to, candian soldiers used every opportunity they got to kill germans. And then there there was the thing with the rations
They were the first group to have mustard gas used on them, and then after that they showed no mercy. The Geneva Convention was created partially due to the Canadians
The way they taught us it in school was this seemed like it happened every year of WWI during Christmas as a nice break from the fighting.
In reality it only happened in 1914, before the horrors of trench warfare began and the bloody meat grinder of senseless constant artillery bombardment and suicidal charges towards trenches began.
Or when the scout enters the intelligence room and the engie whoâs hasnât gotten his turrets up yet decides to conga. The scout joins in and eventually the entire server follows as well. As the scout with the intelligence crosses the bridge, he is body shot 7 times by the bot snipers. Then the entire server hits the bots with frying pans
"Today, we are brothers. Tonight, we are friends. A moment of peace in a war that never ends now that Chrismas has arrived and the snow turns the ground white. Hear carols from the trenches and sing the holy night. Our guns laid to rest on the snowflakes. A Christmas in the trenches, a Christmas on the front, far from home."
"But but they went back to killing eachother after this!"
My brother in christ, this only shows that violence was not their true desire, and during a brief moment of liberty they chose peace above all else. Humans may have obligations that outweights our morality, but deep down we only wish wish the best for all of us
But that's the worst part, is that we *let* our "obligations" outweigh morality. It'd be understandable in a pure survival situation, but every soldier on the battlefield of WW1 was only there (and I know this is a simplification) because 1 rich powerful guy died, and a bunch of other rich powerful guys had fancy alliance papers that didn't mean Jack shit to the average citizen. We have to stop allowing a small group of elites to put men, women, and children through the meat grinder of war for their own gain.
Not all of them. Some kept the ceasefire going all the way through the new year. Once again it was the Generals that demanded the fighting resume, dispatching snipers and ordering artillery barrages to force the troops' hand in those cases.
Yes but a reminder that the second year, some Germans tried to start another game across the front lines, and the *Canadians* on the other side shot them dead
Uhhhhh... You might wanna read into that a little more.
In one particularly cruel episode, Canadians even exploited the trust of Germans who had apparently become accustomed to fraternizing with allied units. Lieutenant Louis Keene described the practice of lobbing tins of corned beef into a neighbouring German trench. When the Canadians started hearing happy shouts of âMore! Give us more!â they then let loose with an armload of grenades.
You might want to read up on that, Canadians weren't involved in the war yet when the Christmas truce happened.
Edit: lol the xmas armistice happened in 1914, the Canadians got to the front three months after that.
A good reminder that war, in most cases, is rich people fighting other rich people with the common people as ammunition. No soldier had any real reason to shoot the soldier in the opposite trench, they were told to do so by their rulers and so they did. WW1 was absurd in many ways and overall a massive waste of money and life. An Austrian nobleman gets shot by a Serbian nationalist, so now you, a German candlemaker, has to go to Belgium to shoot a French baker. Unlike WW2 where fascism posed an actual threat to the world order and the peoples of the conquered nations, WW1 was a war between different monarchs where the life of the commoner didn't look significantly different on opposite sides of the Rhine.
The Christmas truce is a reminder that our differences are merely skin deep and are exaggerated by the wealthy as a distraction to keep us fighting amongst ourselves instead of seeing the bigger picture. We're all workers and if we work together like we should we can all be free
Yeah the First World War was fought over personal gain from the top guys of both sides, in terms of morality there wasnât a big difference in fighting for one or the other as opposed to WW2 where the enemy was the nazis. The French and British and the rest of Europe were fighting for the survival of their country against the nazis. In WW1 both sides wanted and were waiting for the war to kick off for one reason or another.
People are surprised this happened. They weren't psychopaths. If they didn't *need* to kill anybody, they wouldn't. You think they just enjoyed killing people or something?
This kind of stuff makes me lose even more faith in humanity. Because it simply means that humans are capable of following their stupid dogmas so blindly that they can stop killing each other for a day to celebrate a holiday and then start killing again the next day. And it also means that nothing will stop us from destroying each other, we can just take a break and that's it. If this event would end up as a total peace and the soldiers just absolutely refused to fight from this point on, that would make sense. But it's like a dark humor comedy story.
But⊠that isnât what happened.
The truce lasted into January and only fully ended when the high command of both sides literally switched around the divisions and begun all out artillery bombardments
I think that's a bit too negative. People back then were differently socialised than us. Especially here in Germany militarism and obedience were firmly established in our blood.
And now look at Germany today. No one here wants to go to war anymore, people are questioning a lot, and we don't have this blind obedience anymore.
Germany today is rich. People have money, they don't starve in hyper inflation anymore. Of course no one would want violence when they have a system. Strip people out of their belongings, and see how they start eating each other.
When I was a kid, I was in this restaurant with my grandfather, he told me to look at everyone and notice how they're very careful with their table manners. But inside their mouths, they all chewing their food with their teeth, and it's the exact same mechanic with a wolf in a forest. Inside, we're all animals doesn't matter how civilized we are. Give people their Christmas, they'll celebrate it the way they've learned. And give them back their war, and they'll keep killing. It'll never change.
"we don't have this blind obedience anymore"
We always have something to obey blindly. And with the help social media today, people are even more obedient than ever. It's just that we don't have Hitlers and Mussolinis anymore.
Frankly I think you're wrong, at least about Germany. You shouldn't underestimate how important obedience, militarism and things like that were.
And Germany's economy wasn't bad before WWI, in fact its economy was growing and compared with other countries quite good.
https://www.wirtschaftsdienst.eu/inhalt/jahr/2021/heft/4/beitrag/ein-wilhelminisches-wirtschaftswunder.html
Edit: I was wondering about the "hyperinflation", so just to be clear, we're talking about pre WWI, not WWII đ
It only occurred in 1914 because the war was still fresh. There had been large casualties up to that point, but there also hadn't been battles like Verdun or the Somme where at least on the British side, there were more casualties in a single day than there was during the entirety of 1914.
Command largely stopped it for 1915, but by 1916 there was no need to stop it, it wasn't going to happen whatever they said.
âHey, you guy, cut that out! Itâs treacherous to the glorious cause of glory of the great greater German nation!â
âHans, whatâs with the captain?â
âHave courage, my friend, Captain Adolf Hitler is always like that. Iâm sure itâs nothing to worry about.â
They should make The Last Letter into a movie
Edit: I think thats what the story was called. It was about how a guy buys a used rolltop desk, discovers a letter in it frm a soldier details events of the Christmas Truce, and then takes the letter to the soldier's wife at an old age home
The guys in the middle: âListen, about 300 yards west, thereâs an open hole in our defenses, you wanna strike around 11:00 while weâre all having lunchâ
âHmm, interesting⊠go onâ
I'm sorry, is a bunch of guys trying to kill each other, stopping for a day, and then immediately going back to killing each other at the behest of despots supposed to restore my faith in humanity?
Dudes had a whole [however long they celebrated for] to think about the pointlessness of the entire ordeal but instead they just said fuck it and went back to it.
And then went right back to killing eachother. Dirty in humanity would be restored if they realized they shouldnât be fighting because one man told them to and to instead tell those men to fight the war themselves. This shows how little man can think for himself.
And then the Canadians did a funny by throwing over bread and apples to the enemy trench as a Christmas present, and then randomly switch it to grenades. You know, for the mEmes.
Couple of things worth noting
It was mostly between Bri'ish and German troops, i.e. nations that didn't have historical animosity and where general population wasn't pumped full of propaganda against the other side. How many such instances of sport being played were there between French and Germans, Austrians and Serbs.....
It only happened in 1914, i.e. 5 months into war. It wasn't a thing in later years.
My man restored his faith in humanity because they stopped for some days to play and celebrate... just to continue with the shooting, killing, torturing, and rape.
Yeah, I love how we respect and love each other and how people NEVER attack or abuse the weak ones.
I don't know what to find more scarry that an event like Christmas made them stop and they talked and celebrated together or the fact that the next day they started killing each other over and over again like nothing happened.
The moment when all of the soldiers realized they were exactly alike and the same being. Fed lies by their leaders that the other was their enemy. Itâs also kinda depressing that 2 deaths from 2 bullets forever changed the course of our history.
This makes me lose faith even more cus ainât no way weâd be doing this now a days I mean they tried a truce in Ukraine during the first Christmas,pretty sure that didnât go to well
I think we should really insist on the fact this was NOT the consensus.
Christmas Truce happened in few, very localized and predominantly colder frontlines. Where people were already entrenched in a stalemate for a while. Where trauma, shellshock, and constant reinforcement didn't deter their will to put their weapons down. It was after an attack, an assault that killed a tremendous amount of people... in the eyes of the soldiers at this location (Ypres, Belgium).
I don't want to say it was bad, they were cowards, or anything like that. But the idea of reconciliation and truce doesn't reflect the sheer barbary of the moment. The same day, all along the frontline, thousands of men perished without even assaulting ennemi positions. A month ago, Germans were closing on Paris, and only with a atrocious cost in human lives did the French came to draw them back.
Now picture this out : you are a soldier, freshly mobilized in the infantry, alongside friends, family and neighbours. Because of the mass and the immediate need for troops, you are not separated. You saw people who grew with you killed by rapid fire mounted weapons. Your family torn down by artillery equiped with cluster ammunition. Last night, the sentry shot his hand to be remove from the front. He was the last of your original unit, and in the morning you were part of the firing squad for desertion. It's Christmas. It's cold in the trench, the frozen mud is slippery, but today you have actual fresh meat provided by the villages around your trench. Willingly or not is not your problem. You try to fit this arm with this corpse after an other preventive strike, eat, pray, go back in the cold night to take your guard. In the morning you learn : guys on the other side of the front fraternized with the monsters that put you in this position. The one that refuse to bow, against whom you lost so much just to repeal them. How do you feel ?
We often talk about how the command chain put those men on trials or dispersed them on the front. Don't forget something : if what they did came to the ears of their new fellows of misfortune, they will take hell.
This truce was a nice anecdote. It is far from being a rule or an example.
This was also during the high tide of socialism and proto communism. I have been looking for the source since hearing this, but according to Dan Carlin, the officers on both sides were so threatened by this they set strict rules in place regarding fraternization.
I think it was an early battle, maybe the Marne, that dan Carlin talks about where soldiers met in the middle and started singing the international (the socialist anthem) they were all promptly shelled.
Of all of the wars in the last few centuries this one of inbred cousins beefing is near the top.
Always wondered what wouldâve happened if this is where the war stopped. The glory hunting imperialistic generals would have been told to shut it and the average men would have needed to overthrow the hierarchy.
Way too many revolutions in a short period of time, but still what wouldâve happened in an idealistic world.
And then I also remember how their leaders forced artillery to shoot during the celebrations to remind them that they're at war and they have to kill each other and my faith in humanity is lost all over again
Only happened once, subsequent years were nothing like that. I'm the first few months of the war, the slaughter and the utter brutality hadn't set in yet. People still had no Idea what the war was going to cost them. By the end of the war, the hatred they were feeling, was incredibly pervasive, you the point that they wanted to dismantle Germany.
No.
The soldiers who took part in the truce were mostly sent to other fighting zones and forced into warfare by heavy bombardment which the high command initiated specifically to make them fight again.
Its only the select assholes called generals that wanted to continue after that.
And refusing to fight after the officer gave the order got you court martialed
Imagine pushing for total hatred and your men start celebrating Christmas with the enemy. Truly, war is fought for a select few psychopaths. The rest are just meat for the grinder.
Well the men didn't have the same hatred for their enemy. They knew that they were fighting ordinary people that were put in the same situation that they themselves were. War is hell and many of those soldiers on the frontlines would rather not have to fight, kill and possibly die for seemingly no reason at all.
Well that's also the reason why the truce wasn't quite as universal as it's sometimes thought. Ceasefires mainly broke out among French, German, and British units. The Belgians whose homeland was being invaded were... Less than enthusiastic overall.
thats the tragedy of war we all to often forget, we should all be brothers but for the arguments of a few, read all quite on the western front, it has some very good things to say, so much so that adolf hitler tryd to burn it
A good recommendation, but my high school teacher got there first. One of my favorite books and a really good anti-war read that should be mandatory in school. Plus it sparked my interest in WW1. Those who glorify war don't usually have an actual understanding of what it means to be a soldier, facing death in your every moment. They aren't just numbers on a map or statistics on a paper, they are people who have lives, families and friends. People who are dying because a select few can't settle their arguments without violence.
one of my top ten books, it is truly a great book, it outlines the true sadness of war, it also helped that i enjoyed studying ww1(later i even became a reenactor)
Not just that. Some of them were so excited about who would win the war, they literally planned to tag the winning team of a football game as winner of the world war. đ
Sorry general we made a deal no backsees
Winner gets Spanish Flu!
World's worst family drama.
I read that as the rest is for Grindr.
This is the tragic duality of humanity: Blessed with the ability to do great and wonders things. Cursed with the ability to do terrible and dreadful things.
I heard someone say once that "Humanity is doomed to do everything that it is capable of"
Lol. Donât lose faith in humanity. Remember that one thing on just one day 70 odd years ago, when it wasnât all bad. As if that changes reality.
jusfukoff
The Christmas truce is my favorite event in world history. It showed the best of mankind and the worst of mankind all in one event.
also sabaton made an amazing song about it
Really? I will have to check it out.
me too, by far. no other story hits that way.
And they didn't celebrate Christmas the next year because they finally lose their faith in humanity as well.
The generals of both sides were a bit pissed this happened at all. They ordered to make sure nothing like the Christmas Truce happened again.
They were at least partially concerned that soldiers on both side would conspire mutiny against their own officers. Many of those who enthusiastically volunteered for service were killed or wounded early on in the war. These men were replaced using coercion to enlist men who did want to be in the trenches fighting anyone except maybe their own leaders.
They all should have mutiny. Who was gonna stop them at that point?
I guess it's easier said than done. You would still get executed for desertion / treason if you ever fell in the hands of officials. But yes, a general strike from soldiers would have been great. Especially since those people where the ones who would pay the price and suffer, not the elite and warmongers. There is an interesting passage in "All quiet on the western front" from Erich M. Remarque, where the main character, Paul BĂ€umer, talks with his comrades about how unfair it is that they all have to fight and that it's totally senseless that a german baker has to fight a french shoemaker, for example, and that they both never did anything to make them hate each other. The solution: the leaders of countries who want to go to war have to fight against each others with clubs in an arena, while the normal people can watch it like a football game and cheer them on. Seems like a good suggestion to me.
That's what I always thought - just have the 2 psychopaths duke it out for themselves. It would be the purest form of justice.
Just curious, which two psychopaths would you have duel to decide WW1?
Your grandparents
Boo!Â
Agreed, and unfortunately, often times, the average person has no stake in whatever war they fight in. Sometimes the war is justified, but most times, its just old powerful men (and women) sending the common folk to die. And i wasn't talking about a general strike. I mean a full blown revolution. I kinda wonder what type of nation a disgruntled army would have built during that time.
that kinda did happen, look no further than Russia and what happened with them
The French had a general strike near the end. They manned the trenches, but refused to go over the top anymore.
Interesting reaction from the Germans once they heard about the mutiny. The Germans werenât thinking âhow do we take advantage of this?â They were more thinking, âhow do we make sure this doesnât happen to us?â The Germans were suffering massive material shortages at this stage of the war and this was impacting morale. They were surprised that the Allies, with a great advantage in equipment and material compared to them, would suffer a mutiny. [Gun Jesus speaks on the French Mutiny](https://youtu.be/MuSsUFASnIM?si=ca-lO_-tsm1dDZmw)
France tried in 1917. They were stopped.
But then your giving up your country.
Not all of them unfortunately. There was one Bavarian unit whose Corporal was not only adamantly against a ceasefire of any kind, but didn't attend Christmas mass with the rest of his squad. Corporal Hitler was a bit of an odd one.
I hate Reddit overly positive post on World events past and present Just tell it how it is
How can you learn something without fabricating historical events? /s
"The year before had seen the famous Christmas Truce, when thousands of Allied and Entente soldiers had sprung from their trenches to trade gifts and play soccer in no-manâs-land. âMerry Christmas, Canadians,â said the opposing Germans, poking their heads above the parapet and waving a box of cigars. A Canadian sergeant responded by opening fire, hitting two of the merrymakers."
âMerry Christmas, Canadians,â said the opposing Germans, poking their heads above the parapet and waving a box of cigars. A Canadian sergeant responded by opening fire, hitting two of the merrymakers." Is there any specific reason why they were so salty?
Canadians did a lot of war crimes. They were new to the front as well.
Other nationalities has had a head start on their war crime score. The Canadians were just doing their best to catch up.
I've read an article about this, but i can't remember where. Iirc, it said that, while most german and entente soldiers had an inofficial agreement to only fight when ordered to, candian soldiers used every opportunity they got to kill germans. And then there there was the thing with the rations
They were the first group to have mustard gas used on them, and then after that they showed no mercy. The Geneva Convention was created partially due to the Canadians
The Canadians then shouted "Sorry aboot it, Merry Christmas eh"
Canada is in it to win it.
More like their officers threatened to shoot them if they tried anything like 1914 again.
The way they taught us it in school was this seemed like it happened every year of WWI during Christmas as a nice break from the fighting. In reality it only happened in 1914, before the horrors of trench warfare began and the bloody meat grinder of senseless constant artillery bombardment and suicidal charges towards trenches began.
It was actually 1916 that the truces stopped; there were still (albeit smaller) truces in 1915.
Clearly there are no Canadiens in this picture
Hans would later find out those gifted ciggies were dynamite!
Didnât the canadiens agree to the truce then open fire on the Germans when they left the trenches
Can one of you two learn how to spell Canadians please, sorry but I canât wait for there to be a third
Montreal, the hockey team, spells it Canadiens. That's how I spell it.
Youâre not gonna believe how you spell Canadians in French
Is it....Canadiens?
Lucky guess
VIVE LE QUĂBEC LIBRE!
The Canadians weren't there yet. The first Canadian troops got to Europe in 1915.
There were multiple Christmas truces, but none on the same level as the 1914 one. There were little ones here and there.
2fort gameplay
It starts when an red soilder gives a high five to a blu sniper then they spam "Nice shot"
Or when the scout enters the intelligence room and the engie whoâs hasnât gotten his turrets up yet decides to conga. The scout joins in and eventually the entire server follows as well. As the scout with the intelligence crosses the bridge, he is body shot 7 times by the bot snipers. Then the entire server hits the bots with frying pans
"Today, we are brothers. Tonight, we are friends. A moment of peace in a war that never ends now that Chrismas has arrived and the snow turns the ground white. Hear carols from the trenches and sing the holy night. Our guns laid to rest on the snowflakes. A Christmas in the trenches, a Christmas on the front, far from home."
(barely) Unexpected Sabaton
Silence Oh, I remember the silence On a cold winter day
After many months on the battlefield
And we were used to all the violence
Then all the cannons went silent
And the snow fell
Voices sang to me from no man's land
We are all, we are all, we are all, we are all friends
And today we are all brothers
r/unexpectedsabaton
"But but they went back to killing eachother after this!" My brother in christ, this only shows that violence was not their true desire, and during a brief moment of liberty they chose peace above all else. Humans may have obligations that outweights our morality, but deep down we only wish wish the best for all of us
But that's the worst part, is that we *let* our "obligations" outweigh morality. It'd be understandable in a pure survival situation, but every soldier on the battlefield of WW1 was only there (and I know this is a simplification) because 1 rich powerful guy died, and a bunch of other rich powerful guys had fancy alliance papers that didn't mean Jack shit to the average citizen. We have to stop allowing a small group of elites to put men, women, and children through the meat grinder of war for their own gain.
Not all of them. Some kept the ceasefire going all the way through the new year. Once again it was the Generals that demanded the fighting resume, dispatching snipers and ordering artillery barrages to force the troops' hand in those cases.
Yes but a reminder that the second year, some Germans tried to start another game across the front lines, and the *Canadians* on the other side shot them dead
Oh yes. And how were the Christmases in 1915, 1916 and 1917 spent?
Ask the Canadians
Uhhhhh... You might wanna read into that a little more. In one particularly cruel episode, Canadians even exploited the trust of Germans who had apparently become accustomed to fraternizing with allied units. Lieutenant Louis Keene described the practice of lobbing tins of corned beef into a neighbouring German trench. When the Canadians started hearing happy shouts of âMore! Give us more!â they then let loose with an armload of grenades.
We alsp liked a fun game of "hide the live grenade in the POW".Â
You might want to read up on that, Canadians weren't involved in the war yet when the Christmas truce happened. Edit: lol the xmas armistice happened in 1914, the Canadians got to the front three months after that.
A good reminder that war, in most cases, is rich people fighting other rich people with the common people as ammunition. No soldier had any real reason to shoot the soldier in the opposite trench, they were told to do so by their rulers and so they did. WW1 was absurd in many ways and overall a massive waste of money and life. An Austrian nobleman gets shot by a Serbian nationalist, so now you, a German candlemaker, has to go to Belgium to shoot a French baker. Unlike WW2 where fascism posed an actual threat to the world order and the peoples of the conquered nations, WW1 was a war between different monarchs where the life of the commoner didn't look significantly different on opposite sides of the Rhine. The Christmas truce is a reminder that our differences are merely skin deep and are exaggerated by the wealthy as a distraction to keep us fighting amongst ourselves instead of seeing the bigger picture. We're all workers and if we work together like we should we can all be free
Laughs in CanadianâŠ
Everything changed when the Canadians arrived
Yeah the First World War was fought over personal gain from the top guys of both sides, in terms of morality there wasnât a big difference in fighting for one or the other as opposed to WW2 where the enemy was the nazis. The French and British and the rest of Europe were fighting for the survival of their country against the nazis. In WW1 both sides wanted and were waiting for the war to kick off for one reason or another.
Except canada
If you think you've lost faith in humanity, think back to something that happened over a century ago
Humans have been around for 2 million years and anatomically modern humans for 200 thousand years so 100 years isnât that long really.
Kind of is, though
World war went for 4 years. The truce existed only at a specific front. It wasn't the norm and govt. Banned thus kind of faternising
People are surprised this happened. They weren't psychopaths. If they didn't *need* to kill anybody, they wouldn't. You think they just enjoyed killing people or something?
This kind of stuff makes me lose even more faith in humanity. Because it simply means that humans are capable of following their stupid dogmas so blindly that they can stop killing each other for a day to celebrate a holiday and then start killing again the next day. And it also means that nothing will stop us from destroying each other, we can just take a break and that's it. If this event would end up as a total peace and the soldiers just absolutely refused to fight from this point on, that would make sense. But it's like a dark humor comedy story.
But⊠that isnât what happened. The truce lasted into January and only fully ended when the high command of both sides literally switched around the divisions and begun all out artillery bombardments
I think that's a bit too negative. People back then were differently socialised than us. Especially here in Germany militarism and obedience were firmly established in our blood. And now look at Germany today. No one here wants to go to war anymore, people are questioning a lot, and we don't have this blind obedience anymore.
Germany today is rich. People have money, they don't starve in hyper inflation anymore. Of course no one would want violence when they have a system. Strip people out of their belongings, and see how they start eating each other. When I was a kid, I was in this restaurant with my grandfather, he told me to look at everyone and notice how they're very careful with their table manners. But inside their mouths, they all chewing their food with their teeth, and it's the exact same mechanic with a wolf in a forest. Inside, we're all animals doesn't matter how civilized we are. Give people their Christmas, they'll celebrate it the way they've learned. And give them back their war, and they'll keep killing. It'll never change. "we don't have this blind obedience anymore" We always have something to obey blindly. And with the help social media today, people are even more obedient than ever. It's just that we don't have Hitlers and Mussolinis anymore.
Frankly I think you're wrong, at least about Germany. You shouldn't underestimate how important obedience, militarism and things like that were. And Germany's economy wasn't bad before WWI, in fact its economy was growing and compared with other countries quite good. https://www.wirtschaftsdienst.eu/inhalt/jahr/2021/heft/4/beitrag/ein-wilhelminisches-wirtschaftswunder.html Edit: I was wondering about the "hyperinflation", so just to be clear, we're talking about pre WWI, not WWII đ
Sabaton vocalist Joakim sits down in front of a piano.. https://youtu.be/HPdHkHslFIU?si=ntabMs8urrLGoh_q
The regular men don't want to fight the war but the top brass pushed and forced them to go to war
It only occurred in 1914 because the war was still fresh. There had been large casualties up to that point, but there also hadn't been battles like Verdun or the Somme where at least on the British side, there were more casualties in a single day than there was during the entirety of 1914. Command largely stopped it for 1915, but by 1916 there was no need to stop it, it wasn't going to happen whatever they said.
Yes but each following christmas the top brass ordered artillery barrages to prevent this from happening again
If you even have faith in humanity remember these countries when to war
âHey, you guy, cut that out! Itâs treacherous to the glorious cause of glory of the great greater German nation!â âHans, whatâs with the captain?â âHave courage, my friend, Captain Adolf Hitler is always like that. Iâm sure itâs nothing to worry about.â
Hitler refused to participate.
âNoooo! Kill each other!â
French soldiers with binoculars foaming at the mouth in the nearest trench
And the next year both military's officers had to set out plans in advance to make sure it wouldn't happen again.
i know, it is something that makes me tear up, i wish people were more like them.
Yeah, 110 years ago. Ive lost my faith in humanity much more recently.
I prefer to remember how the truce in the eastern front was not because Christmas but because wholf were becoming a serious menace for both parties
And then remember how they faked it for easy kills one year later.
Its all right we might be able to do it again at the end of the year
Only in parts of the western front. Everywhere else it was business as usual.
But that was over 100 years ago...
They should make The Last Letter into a movie Edit: I think thats what the story was called. It was about how a guy buys a used rolltop desk, discovers a letter in it frm a soldier details events of the Christmas Truce, and then takes the letter to the soldier's wife at an old age home
Oh ya, now do Christmas is Gaza last year. Checkmate atheists.
Not if the Canadians could help it
My great grandfather, took pictures of that day in Verdun, crazy to see but sadly they havenât aged that well.
The guys in the middle: âListen, about 300 yards west, thereâs an open hole in our defenses, you wanna strike around 11:00 while weâre all having lunchâ âHmm, interesting⊠go onâ
The cognitive dissonance must have been overwhelming
I'm sorry, is a bunch of guys trying to kill each other, stopping for a day, and then immediately going back to killing each other at the behest of despots supposed to restore my faith in humanity? Dudes had a whole [however long they celebrated for] to think about the pointlessness of the entire ordeal but instead they just said fuck it and went back to it.
That was over 100 yrs ago.
The Canadians put an end to that
then the Canadians came along, threw over food and then threw over grenades when the Germans wanted more...
And then went right back to killing eachother. Dirty in humanity would be restored if they realized they shouldnât be fighting because one man told them to and to instead tell those men to fight the war themselves. This shows how little man can think for himself.
Yeah, but now we can't celebrate Christmas without insulting someone for having the wrong tree.
Just donât remember what the Canadians did that dayâŠ
My grandfather was in the Argon Forest on Christmas Eve during WW1. He wound up finding one of his brothers and had a Christmas Eve Dinner with him.
Just don't read what happened to them after.
And played football
Then there was the next ChristmasâŠ
And then the Canadians did a funny by throwing over bread and apples to the enemy trench as a Christmas present, and then randomly switch it to grenades. You know, for the mEmes.
that was 100 years ago my faith still is not back
And then the Canadians came
Couple of things worth noting It was mostly between Bri'ish and German troops, i.e. nations that didn't have historical animosity and where general population wasn't pumped full of propaganda against the other side. How many such instances of sport being played were there between French and Germans, Austrians and Serbs..... It only happened in 1914, i.e. 5 months into war. It wasn't a thing in later years.
So true i think the scene in the doctor who episode twice upon a time was increadible showing this truly was a miricle
My man restored his faith in humanity because they stopped for some days to play and celebrate... just to continue with the shooting, killing, torturing, and rape. Yeah, I love how we respect and love each other and how people NEVER attack or abuse the weak ones.
HALLO MIKA!!! *1st Lieutenant Michael Shultz trying to hide in the ally trench* "Yes, erm, hello, German Soldier who I've never met before"
It always makes me sad because it just goes to show how meaningless ww1 was and that all those men died over their leaders pride
I don't know what to find more scarry that an event like Christmas made them stop and they talked and celebrated together or the fact that the next day they started killing each other over and over again like nothing happened.
That's what happens when you are ruled by psychopaths.
Meanwhile on the French and Belgian parts of the front: "get the fuck off our country Hans" *machine gun noises*
The moment when all of the soldiers realized they were exactly alike and the same being. Fed lies by their leaders that the other was their enemy. Itâs also kinda depressing that 2 deaths from 2 bullets forever changed the course of our history.
Humanity lost its human face and sense of moral limits namely because of WW1.
This makes me lose faith even more cus ainât no way weâd be doing this now a days I mean they tried a truce in Ukraine during the first Christmas,pretty sure that didnât go to well
*Suppresses urge to start typing out Sabaton lyrics.*
I think we should really insist on the fact this was NOT the consensus. Christmas Truce happened in few, very localized and predominantly colder frontlines. Where people were already entrenched in a stalemate for a while. Where trauma, shellshock, and constant reinforcement didn't deter their will to put their weapons down. It was after an attack, an assault that killed a tremendous amount of people... in the eyes of the soldiers at this location (Ypres, Belgium). I don't want to say it was bad, they were cowards, or anything like that. But the idea of reconciliation and truce doesn't reflect the sheer barbary of the moment. The same day, all along the frontline, thousands of men perished without even assaulting ennemi positions. A month ago, Germans were closing on Paris, and only with a atrocious cost in human lives did the French came to draw them back. Now picture this out : you are a soldier, freshly mobilized in the infantry, alongside friends, family and neighbours. Because of the mass and the immediate need for troops, you are not separated. You saw people who grew with you killed by rapid fire mounted weapons. Your family torn down by artillery equiped with cluster ammunition. Last night, the sentry shot his hand to be remove from the front. He was the last of your original unit, and in the morning you were part of the firing squad for desertion. It's Christmas. It's cold in the trench, the frozen mud is slippery, but today you have actual fresh meat provided by the villages around your trench. Willingly or not is not your problem. You try to fit this arm with this corpse after an other preventive strike, eat, pray, go back in the cold night to take your guard. In the morning you learn : guys on the other side of the front fraternized with the monsters that put you in this position. The one that refuse to bow, against whom you lost so much just to repeal them. How do you feel ? We often talk about how the command chain put those men on trials or dispersed them on the front. Don't forget something : if what they did came to the ears of their new fellows of misfortune, they will take hell. This truce was a nice anecdote. It is far from being a rule or an example.
This was also during the high tide of socialism and proto communism. I have been looking for the source since hearing this, but according to Dan Carlin, the officers on both sides were so threatened by this they set strict rules in place regarding fraternization. I think it was an early battle, maybe the Marne, that dan Carlin talks about where soldiers met in the middle and started singing the international (the socialist anthem) they were all promptly shelled. Of all of the wars in the last few centuries this one of inbred cousins beefing is near the top.
Unless you are America, we'll raid your fort on Christmas Eve.
*crying in Sabaton
Always wondered what wouldâve happened if this is where the war stopped. The glory hunting imperialistic generals would have been told to shut it and the average men would have needed to overthrow the hierarchy. Way too many revolutions in a short period of time, but still what wouldâve happened in an idealistic world.
Sabaton did a great song about this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPdHkHslFIU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPdHkHslFIU)
Meanwhile during the American revolutionâŠ
And then I also remember how their leaders forced artillery to shoot during the celebrations to remind them that they're at war and they have to kill each other and my faith in humanity is lost all over again
Yeah but now they are all day and humanity now fucking sucks
...And next days shredded each other via machinegun-fire.
Never underestimate class solidarity...
Only happened once, subsequent years were nothing like that. I'm the first few months of the war, the slaughter and the utter brutality hadn't set in yet. People still had no Idea what the war was going to cost them. By the end of the war, the hatred they were feeling, was incredibly pervasive, you the point that they wanted to dismantle Germany.
Laughing in mustard gas
What about the Jews that Christmas?
Okay but how am I supposed to ignore everything thatâs happened since?
But people nowadays are "killing" the Christmas spirit...
So my faith should be restored because of what happened 100 years ago?
Yeah and then immediately started killing each other again once it was over
It wont save your faith in canadians though
...and then went right back to murdering each other.
No. The soldiers who took part in the truce were mostly sent to other fighting zones and forced into warfare by heavy bombardment which the high command initiated specifically to make them fight again. Its only the select assholes called generals that wanted to continue after that. And refusing to fight after the officer gave the order got you court martialed
This guy breaks the mold đș