The English officers experienced it like that too -- that thanks to soccer and Christmas, the feast of love, deadly enemies briefly came together as friends. It was one of several impromptu soccer matches played between British and German soldiers in No Man's Land that Christmas.
For one day -- and in some sectors of the line, for several days -- the enemies made a spontaneous peace. A century on, these games transfix Europeans. No wonder, because this extraordinary story suggests an alternative history of the 20th century. Many people, including some veterans of the war, have doubted that these games were ever played. The story seems too good to be true. Some historians believe the truth is somewhere in between. Others contend that the impact of the games has been overstated as we witness the Premier League and FA, among other organizations, commemorate the moment.
But based on a slew of books and other sources, I believe the Christmas matches happened. They are described in dozens of letters, regimental histories, diaries, contemporary British newspapers and postwar memoirs. According to all these sources, the following narrative emerges. The troops had gone to war in August expecting to be home by Christmas. That didn't happen. Many, in fact, would never come home. By Christmas , stunning modern killing machines had left about , people dead.
In December, the German high command, hoping to boost morale, sent thousands of little Christmas trees to the trenches. The aim was to keep the soldiers' hearts in the battle.
Instead it had the opposite effect. Christmas highlighted similarities between Christian nations in opposite trenches. Near the French village Fleurbaix, British soldiers in their trenches saw Christmas trees hung with lights advancing into No Man's Land. The Germans were making a seasonal gesture. The Brits responded. As well as sharing Christmas, the soldiers had gotten to know the enemy. In some spots the trenches were barely 50 meters apart. You could see enemy soldiers shaving in the morning.
Often there were informal truces while stretcher-bearers went around No Man's Land collecting the dead. During video footage taken outside the Nets arena, former American Idol contestant Jimmy Levy can be seen joining a wave of protesters, American flag and microphone in hand, as they push past metal barriers toward the entrance.
Irving is putting himself at risk, after all, and none of the dozen-plus sources contacted for this story indicated that Irving has any plans to get vaccinated, ever.
If anything, Covid variants could beget more local ordinances encouraging performer safety; a regulation unveiled this week in Boston, where Irving doubled down on his flat-Earth conspiracy theory while playing for the Celtics, exempts athletes from the indoor-arena vaccine mandate.
In the meantime, he thinks the league should suspend Irving, before his influence becomes any more dangerous. Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Related Stories. Newswire Powered by. Close the menu. Rolling Stone. Log In. To help keep your account secure, please log-in again. You are no longer onsite at your organization. Please log in. Enter Starbucks, which releases a series of commemorative cups every year around the holidays. In , the company designed a minimalist all-red cup actually a mix of cranberry and poppy red , which lacked the usual Christmas symbols: snowflakes, reindeer, Christmas lights, etc.
Rather, in this time of such divisiveness , we should all strive to appreciate the common threads found in all winter celebrations: family, friends, food, tradition, and yes—gifts.
Word of the Day. Meanings Meanings. But before long troops were flooding out of trenches on both sides of the line and moving through the wire into 'no man's land,' and boys being boys, pretty soon, a ball appeared. Now, on the anniversary, balls are appearing all over the place: on a monument that's just been unveiled, in school games with the kids dressed the part, in a replay between current British and German army teams, and in a feel-good Christmas ad for a supermarket chain.
At the Imperial War Museum in London, they've studied the evidence and found plenty of photos of fraternizing between enemies, but no photos or other proof of a game. Yet, the lack of proof hasn't stopped the tale from being passed on.
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