The Commons · Book by Phil Porter
The Christmas Truce
- Publication date
- 2015-09-08
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Academic
- Pages
- 108
- Format
- Paperback
- ISBN
- 9781783192144
- Language
- en
About the book
December 1914. As families across Europe gather to celebrate Christmas, a generation of young men find themselves far away from their loved ones in the trenches of the Western Front. There they face a world seemingly devoid of any peace or goodwill. But on Christmas Eve 1914, as the men of the Warwickshire Regiment shelter in their trenches, something astonishing happens. Across no-man's land they hear music. The German soldiers are singing Christmas carols; the same carols their families are listening to, hundreds of miles away in Birmingham, Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon. Leaving their trenches, carrying only their courage and their humanity, they go to meet their enemies; not to fight, but talk, to exchange gifts, to celebrate Christmas. And the next day, together, they play an unforgettable game of football.