The Christmas Truce miracle 12/12/1914: "You no shoot, we no shoot!"

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Heart-warming short event …

On a frosty, starlit night, a miracle took place. In 1914, a melody drifted over the darkness of No Man’s Land. First “O, Holy Night,” then “God Save the King.”

Peeking over their trenches for what must have been the first time in weeks, British soldiers were surprised to see Christmas trees lit with candles on the parapets of the enemy’s trenches.

Then a shout: “You no shoot, we no shoot!”

The Christmas Truce was a brief, spontaneous cease-fire that spread up and down the western front of World War I. It’s also a symbol of the peace on Earth and goodwill toward humans so often lacking not just on the battlefront but in our everyday lives. Read further

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http://www.rochellepenningtonbooks.com/wwichristmasmiracle.html
 
That would be a wonderful thought, though fighting is underhand these days.
 
My late father in law was a very holy man who became one of the first permanent deacons in the US. He had previously been in the Army in the Battle of the Bulge. He told the story that he went out of camp one day to relieve himself and came face to face with a German soldier who was probably doing the same. They both had their rifles slung over their shoulders. He said they just stared at each other silently for what seemed like a long time. Then they both just backed away and went their separate directions. Neither sounded an alarm back at their camps that probably would have resulted in a skirmish.

Those kinds of stories are great. But I also believe Catholics have to face up to the reality of war, even though we should always work towards peace. Historians generally recognize “war” as being an armed conflict that claims the lives of over 1,000 people in any 12 month period. In the 3,400 or so years of recorded human history, there has been war somewhere in the world 92% of the time and some of the 8% “peace” has been enforced by brutal military dictatorships, such as the Pax Romana.

The history of the US and the history of the rest of the world over the last 200 years have been no exception to that general ratio. For whatever reason, war, more than peace, is the predominant human condition. The numbers are clear: We would save more lives by learning how to better deal with war in a more humane and efficient way than in preventing it.

I’m not saying we should not tirelessly work for peace. We definitely should. But we should also realize that those brief moments of pure peace are gifts from God that never last.
 
Exactly. Conflict here is inevitable because we have competing forces. The devil is the true father of war. Sadly, we’re constantly fending off his disturbed followers.
 
I was just thinking of this miracle this morning after Midnight Mass.

Thanks for sharing.
 
I’ve always been fascinated with the Christmas Truce. I do not believe, that human beings need war, and personally I’m sick of the reasons we use to go to it. But whatever. Before anyone accuses Me of anything, I was raised largely by my 3 War veteran grandfather.
 
That’s a good point, but I am not sure I fully agree. That would say that the devil is winning 92 - 8. And while some of the people who are involved in starting wars are disturbed and immoral, many are not. Roosevelt and the Congress at the time declaring war at the beginning of WWII is an example.

I think it’s too easy to just say, “It’s the devil” or that the people involved in war are “deranged followers.” Those statement attempt to resolve the rest of us of responsibility. It is harder to accept our own role in war, even if we don’t support it or fight it. Most wars represent some politicians’, idea of what is right for their country and their people, however misguided it may be. In many cases, we have elected those leaders, or at least failed to elect better ones.

And we fund these wars. It’s true there are consequences for not paying taxes, so I’m not suggesting not doing so. But I there are other threads on this site that condemn military people for their part in war, even though their motive is to serve the common good and their penalties for not obeying orders are higher than not paying taxes.

We will not increase our peace-to-war ratio until we all take responsibility.
 
@Tis_Bearself

The condensed Cliff Notes reason that WWI got out of hand was that many of the nations had alliances with other nations. When Gavrilo Princip shot Archduke Ferdinand he (Princip) was a member of a private group. However the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia anyway, again even though there was no evidence of a link between Princip and the Serbian government. Russia did not like that Serbia was being attacked and declared war on The Empire. Germany had an alliance with The Empire and declared war on Russia. France had an alliance with Russia and declared war on Germany. Germany invaded Belgium on their way to invade France. Great Britain had an alliance with Belgium and declared war on Germany. Hence war between two nations grew to include most of Europe.

The US got in because of Germany’s submarine warfare and the Zimmerman telegraph, in which Germany promised Mexico that Mexico could regain the US Southwest that they had lost during the Mexican War in the 1840s.

It is more complicated than that of course but that is the main outline.

Also, as an aside, Pope Benedict XV tried to broker a peace but both sides refused.

Much pride on both sides.

I apologize if you knew all this.

Blessings
 
Thank you for the “capsule summary”. I am vaguely aware of this stuff but for various reasons in USA, we learn very little about WWI through either school or through popular culture like TV/ movies. We have had many TV shows, movies etc. dealing with the American Civil War, WWII, and Vietnam, but almost nothing dealing with WWI and of course the European conflicts and alliances are pretty incomprehensible to any of us Yanks who aren’t majoring in European history.

Most of my knowledge of WWI has come from reading books like “Good-bye to All That” or “All Quiet on the Western Front”, which primarily deal with the horrors of war and not the history behind it. I understand Barbara Tuchman’s “The Proud Tower” is a good book dealing with the history, which a few people I know have read and recommended, but so far I have not had time to read it.
 
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I agree that we tend to learn less about WWI than the Civil War and WWII. Perhaps that is because we were in it for only 19 months or so, and there was not a spectacular start to our involvement in the war like there was for WWII (Pearl Harbor)?

I think that education in the US does not emphasize history as it should. I heard about one survey of high school graduates and like half of them could not say when the Civil War happened to the half century. Any people who do not know their history will lose their identity.

Blessings
 
I learnt a lot about WW1 through schooling education and my father as his father fought in both the Second Boer War and WW1. I do remember Dad talking about this Truce.
 
fredystairs said:
The US got in because of Germany’s submarine warfare and the Zimmerman telegraph, in which Germany promised Mexico that Mexico could regain the US Southwest that they had lost during the Mexican War in the 1840s.
Click to expand...
Germany also conducted acts of sabotage against US shipping and ports.

One such act resulted in the Black Tom Island Explosion (which was a munitions depot located in NY harbor).


https://www.cia.gov/library/center-...s/csi-studies/studies/vol46no1/article02.html
 
@Milt

You are absolutely right. I had completely forgotten about that. Thank you for the reminder!
 
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