148: Tales of Christmas from World War I (A Truce, Plum Pudding, and Love)

History That Doesn't Suck

ProfGregJackson

Education, History, Society & Culture

4.5 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 4 December 2023

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“The circumstances under which we are spending this particular Christmas are unusual.” This is the story of the Christmases of World War I. Germans and British troops, singing carols together. French and German troops, kicking, playing sports and exchanging treats. It may not last, but for a brief moment–for Christmas of 1914–these opposing armies refuse the orders of their superiors as they temporarily “beat their swords into plowshares and spears into pruninghooks.” In the years ahead, the United States’ forces have their own Christmas celebrations “over there.” In 1917, New York’s Harlem Rattlers, or Hellfighters, sing and celebrate as they travel to France. In 1918, all ranks of the AEF–be they doughboys or Hello Girls–celebrate a post-armistice Christmas. We’ll catch a speech by the president and a Christmas Bash at Black Jack Pershing’s headquarters where George Patton eats way too much plum pudding. And then, we’ll say goodbye to Black Jack. With a loving Christmas connection years down the road, it’s time to lay him to rest with his beloved doughboys in Arlington. ____ 3 Ways to dive deeper into History That Doesn’t Suck Join our growing facebook community Get our weekly newsletter, The Revolution Become part of the HTDS Patreon family Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by Pepsi Max. Christmas is great, but there's loads of ways to make it better.
0:08.0	Like sneaking some chili into the gravy for some extra ink, or building a playlist that will even get your
0:14.8	none up on the table or just cracking open an ice cold Pepsi Max. Christmas better with Pepsi Max Christmas.
0:23.0	Better with Pepsi Max. It's a cold early morning, December 24th, 1914. We're in Belgium's Western region known as Flanders, not far from the town of Ip, in the
0:45.3	Plugstert Wood, or Plugstreet Wood, as the men of the London Rifle Brigade put it.
0:51.7	These lads are holding a deep trench that tears through these thinly forested,
0:55.6	grayish-green rolling hills, and right now, as those who slept last night start to wake up,
1:01.5	they breathe deeply. It's such a fresh air, a Christmas air.
1:07.0	Well, maybe it's just that the biting cold and recent snow have chased off the trench's
1:11.2	usual chloride and lime odor, but no matter.
1:15.0	As rifleman Bernard Brooks peers over the top at the fresh white snow, masking the
1:19.4	grotesque reality of that barren no man's land before him. He sees what he calls a Christmas card
1:26.1	Christmas Eve. His fellow rifleman, Graham Williams, agrees. It's a welcome respite from their harsh and death-filled life on the Western Front.
1:37.0	Okay, let's allow the London Rifle Brigade to take in this brief moment of mourning peace while I fill you in on their situation.
1:44.9	The great war has been raging for just a few months now, but already the death of men
1:49.5	counted by the thousands has gone from cataclysmic to normal as a series of opposing trenches. the The line now held by these Brits, these Tommy's, are the result of the first and deadly
2:05.5	Battle of Ibra.
2:07.4	Named for the Belgian city only eight miles from these woods, this two months slaughter sent
2:11.6	60,000 Brits and 130,000 Germans to the graves.
2:15.8	This specific battle is now over and the region is fairly quiet for the moment.
2:20.4	But good God, what a devastating reality check. Any hope that the Allied or Central Powers once had that this war would be over by Christmas is long gone. Yet, even as Europe's warring nations refused to beat their swords into plow shares and spears
2:35.8	into pruning hooks, the new Catholic Pope, Benedict the 15th, has not given up hope that these armies
	...

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