Background Information

Goodbye to All That

The truce lasted from Christmas to early January 1915 in several areas, though elsewhere hostilities resumed as early as Boxing Day. When news of the Christmas Truce reached British Army Headquarters, there was a swift and angry response: 'Friendly intercourse with the enemy, unofficial

armistices (eg "we won't fire if you don't") and the exchange of tobacco and other comforts, however tempting and occasionally amusing they may be, are absolutely prohibited.'

Their own comrades, acting under strict orders, summarily executed many of those who attempted to repeat the fraternisation the following Christmas. The emergence of chemical weaponry in 1915 and the disasters of the Somme and Passchendaele effectively brought a bitter end to any thought of befriending the enemy. The age of fraternity was dead.