Trench Warfare
Talking Points About Trench Life
Trench warfare was absolutely no joke. Throughout the war, both sides created a combined 35 THOUSAND miles worth of trenches. Know what the circumference of Earth is? Just under 25 thousand miles.
Life In The Trench
Trenches—long, deep ditches dug as protective defenses—are most often associated with World War I, and the results of trench warfare in that conflict were truly terrible.
Trench warfare caused an incredible amount of deaths. Often times, people thought it would be an act of courage to take a group and quickly rush out of the trench into "No Man's Land" (see diagram). This almost always led to most (if not all) of the soldiers getting shot to death very quickly after they left.
Things got a bit better later on, as both sides realized that fighting at night was going to be more effective.
It was harder to hit each other from the trenches with such little daylight, and (as you see in the video) they used heavy artillery as a way to protect people from running from one side to another.
(2 videos below)
Descriptions of the Christmas Truce appear in numerous diaries and letters of the time. One British soldier, a rifleman named J. Reading, wrote a letter home to his wife describing his holiday experience in 1914:
“My company happened to be in the firing line on Christmas eve, and it was my turn…to go into a ruined house and remain there until 6:30 on Christmas morning. During the early part of the morning the Germans started singing and shouting, all in good English. They shouted out: ‘Are you the Rifle Brigade; have you a spare bottle; if so we will come halfway and you come the other half.’”
“Later on in the day they came towards us,” Reading described. “And our soldiers went out to meet them…I shook hands with some of them, and they gave us cigarettes and cigars. We did not fire that day, and everything was so quiet it seemed like a dream.” (Source)
Silent Night: A Night of Peace (1914)
Stories Explained
* Hover over the images to read both stories *
Story 1
Here I was, in this horrible trench…miles and miles from home. Cold, wet through and covered with mud.” I didn’t believe there was the slightest chance of leaving—except in an ambulance. Most likely dead or horribly injured. But then at about 10 p.m., I noticed a noise. I listened, and I could hear the murmur of voices. So I turned to someone next to me sitting against a pile of sandbags and asked, “Do you hear the Germans kicking up that racket over there?”
“Yes,” came the reply. “They’ve been at it some time!”
After a while, I came to the realization that the Germans were singing carols! Makes sense, because it was Christmas Eve. In the darkness, some of the British soldiers began to sing back. Suddenly, we heard confused shouting from the other side. We all stopped to listen. The shout came again. The voice was from an enemy soldier, speaking in English with a strong German accent. He was saying, “Come over here.”
One of the British sergeants answered: “You come half-way. I come half-way.”
I could not believe what my eyes were showing me. Here they were—the actual, practical soldiers of the German army. There was not an ounce of hate on either side.
Story 2
The truce began late that same night (Christmas Eve) when all down our line of trenches, there came to our ears a greeting unique in war: "English soldier, English soldier, a Merry Christmas, a Merry Christmas!’" Then the voices added, "Come out, English soldier; come out here to us."
For some little time, we were cautious and did not even answer. Officers, fearing treachery, ordered the men to be silent. But up and down our line one heard the men answering that Christmas greeting from the enemy. How could we resist wishing each other a Merry Christmas, even though we might be at each other’s throats immediately afterward?
So we kept up a running conversation with the Germans, all the while our hands ready on our rifles. The night wore on to dawn—a night made easier by songs from the German trenches, the pipings of piccolos, and from our broad lines laughter and Christmas carols. Not a shot was fired.
