Christmas in the Trenches

Christmas

IN
THE

T
RENCHES

Christmas

IN
THE

T
RENCHES

A
LAN
W
AKEFIELD

Front cover
: Officers of the Royal Field Artillery with their Christmas mail bag, December 1917 (
Q 8346, Imperial War Museum
).

Back cover
: Top to bottom, Christmas card produced by the 53rd Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, 1918.
(Private Collection).
Christmas card produced for the 56th (London) Division, 1917. (
Private Collection
).

First published in 2006

This edition published in 2010

The History Press

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Stroud, Gloucestershire,
GL
5 2
QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2013

All rights reserved

©Alan Wakefield, 2006, 2010, 2013

The right of Alan Wakefield to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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EPUB ISBN
978 0 7509 5321 4

Original typesetting by The History Press

Contents

Acknowledgements

I would like to take the opportunity to thank a number of people whose assistance made the research for and writing of this book a relatively straightforward task. Firstly, Anthony Richards of the Imperial War Museum’s Department of Documents, who not only kept up with my call for collections of letters and diaries, but also took on the task of proof-reading the first draft of my manuscript. I would also like to thank Nina Burls from the RAF Museum’s Department of Research and Information Services for helping me access the Roscoe collection. Staff of the National Archives must also be thanked for facilitating access to the battalion, brigade and divisional war diaries in their charge.

Access to the written material is only half the story and I acknowledge the permission given by copyright holders to reproduce material in this book, without which the project could not have been completed. Alongside the numerous individual copyright holders are the Trustees of the Imperial War Museum and the Director and Council of the National Army Museum, who hold copyright over a number of the accounts used in the book. I was kindly assisted in accessing material held by Harrods by company archivist Sebastian Wormell.

The following individuals also deserve a mention either for loaning me original material or for their kind offers of support and encouragement; John and Tony Begg, Malcolm Brown, Anna De, Bruce Dennis, Francis Mackay and Peter Saunders. Finally, I would like to thank my wife Julie for assisting with the book and for putting up with losing me to the computer on numerous evenings and weekends.

Introduction

The outbreak of war in August 1914 was generally greeted by the peoples of the European great powers with enthusiasm and euphoria. Patriotism surged through the nations of Europe and a sense of national unity manifested itself even in countries such as Austria-Hungary and Russia, where deep-seated political and social divisions existed that had not long before looked likely to split these nations apart or lead to civil war and revolution. Instead, political ceasefires were called as everyone lined up behind the governments and ruling elites of the day. Both war planners, political leaders and the populace at large believed the war would be short and victorious for their side. In any case, many believed that it would be impossible for modern industrial nations to fight a long war because of the disruption this would bring to their economies, which were linked in a highly interdependent system of international trade. Few had the foresight to see that once the resources of modern industrial states were fully harnessed for war a very different outcome could follow.

In Britain the phrase ‘all over by Christmas’ was much uttered, and similar stock phrases could no doubt be found for the other warring nations. However, there would be almost another four wartime Christmases to follow that first one before the conflict was resolved. The war grew to encompass the Mediterranean, Middle East and Africa and became a more industrialised and intensive conflict through the ever growing use of artillery and the introduction of such weapons as gas, tanks and purpose-built bombing aircraft. Through all this the citizen soldier, who made up the bulk of most of the armies, whether he be a volunteer, conscript or reservist recalled to the colours, found solace in many of the simple things in life that could, even for a short time, take his mind off the situation in which he found himself and brought forward thoughts of home, family and life before the war. Christmas, an important annual celebration and holiday in many of the combatant nations, provided an obvious opportunity for troops to focus on something other than the war. Although birthdays and other personal celebrations provided important links with home and a chance for soldiers to celebrate, the ‘national’ and ‘international’ status of Christmas allowed for large-scale festivities involving whole battalions or regiments. Such activities, generally taking place behind the lines when units were on rest, were encouraged by the High Command as morale-boosting exercises; the troops were given time off, plentiful food and drink and organised activities such as sport and concerts.

If sharing Christmas cheer with your comrades and allies was actively supported by the military authorities, then attempts to share the compliments of the season with the enemy was viewed with great alarm by senior officers and war leaders as they feared their troops’ fighting spirit would be undermined by fraternising and temporary truces with the enemy. Following the events of the now famous Christmas Truce of 1914, extensively covered in the excellent book by Malcolm Brown and Shirley Seaton,
¹
much effort was expended to prevent such contacts being established again. Although these worked to a large extent, limited open contacts with the enemy and a whole system of more covert trucing, which became known as the ‘live and let live’ system, developed between soldiers sharing the same conditions and hardships in the front line.
²

Through the use of photographs, illustrations and the words of soldiers themselves this book will attempt to give a flavour of how Christmas was celebrated by British forces during the First World War. The objective is to look beyond the 1914 Christmas Truce, by covering the following four years and the experiences of those serving in theatres of war beyond France and Flanders, such as Gallipoli, Italy, Mesopotamia, Palestine and Salonika. In this way the book provides a glimpse of the different Christmas experiences a soldier could have during the four years of war. There are accounts by those serving behind the lines, the wounded in hospital, prisoners of war, men training in Great Britain and those on garrison duty in that jewel in the crown of the British Empire, India. Christmas 1918 is also included as many troops were still overseas awaiting demobilisation, on duty with forces of occupation in Germany, Turkey, Bulgaria and parts of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire or fighting against the Bolsheviks in various parts of Russia. This qualifies it very much as a ‘wartime’ Christmas and thus worthy of inclusion here. Each year of the war is given a chapter in which an overview of the progress of the conflict provides the background against which the words of the soldiers and illustrative material tell the story of Christmas in the trenches from 1914 to 1918.

Each first-hand account used in this book is referenced by the individual’s name and unit and the repository in which the material is held. Footnotes cover only published works or where a specific letter or other document from a larger collection has been cited. In the text, each account is accompanied by the name of the individual or unit to which it relates. All ranks and unit designations used relate to the time of the events described. Unless stated otherwise, illustrative material comes from the Photographs Archive and Department of Documents at the Imperial War Museum.

The First Christmas: 1914

In offering to the Army in France my earnest and most heartfelt good wishes for Xmas and the New Year, I am anxious once more to express the admiration I feel for the valour and endurance they have displayed throughout the campaign and to assure them that to have commanded such magnificent troops in the field will be the proudest remembrance of my life.

Sir John French’s Special Order of the Day, issued to the BEF, 25 December 1914

In December 1914, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was holding a line some 30 miles in length from St Eloi, just south of Ypres, down to Givenchy on the La Bassée Canal. Crossing much of the area was a system of drainage ditches and watercourses that prevented this low-lying land from flooding. Unfortunately, artillery fire and the construction of trenches had damaged much of this network with the result that, once the winter weather arrived, the area began to be transformed into a morass. The hastily dug trenches offered little in the way of comfort:

I have just come out of 2 days and 2 nights in the trenches. I wonder how many people realize what the trenches are like. In some newspapers one sees accounts of hot soup and wonderful fires etc. In some places the mud came over my knees. This is not exaggerated. In most places over ones ankles. The first night it was horrid, raining all night. No room to move. It is really wonderful what the Tommy stands . . . You should have seen us coming out – all mud from head to foot, sore feet and heavy equipment. But are we downhearted? Not one!
¹
(
2/Lt Wilbert Spencer, 2nd Wiltshires
)

As both sides struggled to keep their trenches dry the intensity of trench fighting died down and small-scale ad hoc truces began to occur in some sectors of the line with both sides refraining from firing during mealtimes and at ration-carrying parties. Following spells of the worst weather, small working parties on each side could be observed working in the open repairing trenches and breastworks with little interference from those on the ‘other side of the wire’. The closeness and constant presence of the enemy in trench warfare bred a curiousness and realisation that the enemy was suffering exactly the same conditions. Through this the ‘live and let live system’ started to develop, whereby many opposing units made daily life more bearable by reducing the general level of violence:

Things up here are very quiet – in my part of the line the trenches are only 50 or 60 yards apart in places, and we can hear the Germans talking. They often shout to us in English and we respond with cries of ‘waiter’. There was one fellow who had a fire with a tin chimney sticking up over the parapet and our men were having shots at it with their rifles. After each shot the German waved a stick or rang a bell according to whether we hit the chimney or not! There are lots of amusing incidents up there and altogether we have quite a cheery time our worst trouble is the wet and mud which is knee-deep in some places.
²
(
2/Lt Dougan Chater, 2nd Gordon Highlanders
)