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The Legendary
Christmas Soccer Truce
Christmas 1914 when World War 1 was put on hold for spontaneous carol singing, gift exchange and games of soccer between the Germans and Allied troops at the front.
World War I Soccer Truce: Last 'soccer truce' survivor dies
LONDON, England -- Bertie Felstead, the last known survivor of World War 1's legendary "Soccer Truce," has died in England, aged 106.
The brief truce on Christmas Day 1914, when British and German soldiers emerged from their trenches on the Western Front and played football together in no-man's land, became one of the abiding images of the "war to end all wars."
Felstead was one of the infantrymen who took part in the unofficial ceasefire, exchanging cigarettes and greetings with men who only a few hours before had been trying to kill him.
"The Germans started it," Mr. Felstead recalled. "They just came out of their trenches and walked over to us. "Nobody decided for us -- we just climbed over our parapet and went over to them. We thought nobody would shoot at us if we all mingled together."
Born in Highgate, London, on October 28, 1894, Mr. Felstead joined the Royal Welch Fusilliers at the outbreak of World War 1. He was spending his first Christmas on the Western Front, in a trench near the northern French village of Laventie, when the famous truce took place, one of several that were reported between British and German troops at that time.
Although it lasted for less than an hour, it became the defining event of his life.
In an interview two years ago he recalled how the previous night, Christmas Eve, he and his comrades had heard the German soldiers singing carols less than 100 yards away. The British soldiers had responded with carols of their own. "You couldn't hear each other sing like that without it affecting your feelings for the other side," he said.
On Christmas Day "all the soldiers were shouting to one another: 'Hello Tommy! Hello Fritz!' And we gradually got to know each other this way." After they had emerged from their trenches and greeted each other a ball was produced and they all played football in the snow.
"It wasn't a game as such," remembered Felstead. "More a kick-around and a free-for-all. "There could have been fifty on each side for all I know."
The impromptu armistice came to an abrupt end when an irate British officer ordered the soldiers back to their trenches. Within a matter of hours the two sides were firing at each other again.
Felstead was subsequently wounded at the Battle of the Somme in 1916. After recovering he was posted to Salonika in Greece before eventually being returned home with acute malaria.
After the war he worked as a civil servant with the Royal Air Force, and later with the General Electric Company. His wife of 65 years, Alice, died in 1983.
He is survived by two children, five grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren. In 1997 he was included in the book "Centurions" about the most culturally influential people of the 20th Century.
"He lived a very good, full and active life," said his daughter Barbara McIntosh, 73. "He will be sorely missed."
The Associated Press
Christmas in the Trenches
By John McCutcheon
On Christmas Day, 1988, a story in the Boston Globe mentioned that a local FM radio host played "Christmas in the Trenches," a ballad about the Christmas Truce, several times and was startled by the effect. The song became the most requested recording during the holidays in Boston on several FM stations. "Even more startling than the number of requests I get is the reaction to the ballad afterward by callers who hadn't heard it before," said the radio host. "They telephone me deeply moved, sometimes in tears, asking 'What the hell did I just hear?'"
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My name is Francis Tolliver, I come from Liverpool
Two years ago the war was waiting for me after school
From Belgium and to Flanders, Germany to here
I fought for King and country I love dear.
'Twas Christmas in the trenches and the frost so bitter hung
The frozen fields of France where still no Christmas songs were sung
Our families back in England were toasting us that day
There brave and glorious lads so far away.
I was lying with my mess mates on the cold and rocky ground
When across the lines of battle came a most peculiar sound
Says I now listen up me boys, each soldier strained to hear
As one young German voice sang out so clear.
He's singing bloody well you know, my partner says to me
Soon one by one each German voice joined in harmony
The cannons rested silent and the gas cloud rolled no more
As Christmas brought us respite from the war.
As soon as they were finished and a reverent pause was spent
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen struck up some lads from Kent
The next thing sang was Stille Nach tis Silent Night says I
And in two tongues one song filled up that sky
There's someone coming towards us now the front line sentry said
All sights were fixed on one lone figure trudging from their side
His truce flag like a Christmas Star shone on the plane so bright
As he bravely trudged unarmed into the night.
Then one by one on either side, walked in to No Mans Land
With neither gun nor bayonet, we met there hand to hand
We shared some secret brandy and we wished each other well
And in a flare lit football game we gave them hell.
We traded chocolates, cigarettes and photographs from home
These sons and father far away from families of their own
Ton Sanders played the squeeze box and they had a violin
This curious and unlikely band of men.
Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more
With sad farewells we each began to settle back to war
But the question haunted every heart that lived that wondrous night
Whose family have I fixed within my sights.
Twas Christmas in the trenches and the frost so bitter hung
The frozen fields of France were warmed, the songs of peace were sung
For the walls they'd kept between us to exact the work of war
had been crumbled and were gone forever more.
Oh my name is Francis Tolliver, from Liverpool I dwell
Each Christmas comes since World War I have learned its lesson well
For the one who calls the shots won't be among the dead and lame
And on each end of the rifle we're the same
