One hundred years ago tonight there commenced the miracle of Great War's brief Christmas truce. Enemies sang and played football together. Seventy-four years ago this week (in 1940), with World War II underway, Walter Murdoch mused in the West Australian.
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"[On Christmas Eve, 1914] at points on the front line, the spirit of the ancient anniversary took possession of the men ... Spontaneously, the men of both sides climbed out of the trenches and greeted each other. The London Times described how 'Our men, as if from mere habit, began to sing, Christians, awake! and then the Christian did awake in English and in Germans, and they were no longer German or English to each other, but men. It seemed natural. What was unnatural was the former state of war in which men had been to each other not men but targets; now in a moment they were friends.' "
"Yes, in a moment – and only for a moment," Murdoch reflected.
"Will there be a Christmas truce this year, even for an hour? Highly improbable. The Germans with whom our soldiers fraternised on that memorable night were, like our soldiers, Saxons. Today we are facing a Germany soaked through with the Prussian spirit. For Germany today Christmas is a pagan anniversary. They worship Thor and Odin. Christmas stands for all they despise. It is not easy to imagine Marshal Goering directing his bombers to respect the spirit of Christmas and give London a rest for the day."
