The Christmas Truce

   And Niemanns Match   

Did it really happen?  The Christmas truce of World War One with British and German troops leaving the trenches to play football with the enemy in an event dubbed Niemanns match.   

For many years it was seen as nothing more than an enduring myth; a legend based on a kernel of truth which made a great story.   

But, recent research has shown that far from being a half-truth based on an isolated event the fabled Christmas Truce of 1914 which saw German and British soldiers leave their trenches to exchange gifts and play football not only happened but actually took place on a far wider scale than ever previously thought.   

Many veterans from the First World War passed down stories of a Christmas truce and a kick-about with German troops but for a long time the most documented written account was penned by Johannes Niemann, a German officer serving with the 33^rd Royal Saxon Regiment.   

Niemann wrote that on Christmas Day troops from his regiment met with Scottish soldiers in no mans land.  He wrote: “I...saw the incredible sight of our soldiers exchanging cigarettes, schnapps and chocolate with the enemy.    

Later a Scottish soldier appeared with a football and a few minutes later a real match got underway.  It was far from easy to play on the frozen ground but we continued, keeping rigorously to the rules, despite the fact that it lasted only an hour and we had no referee.   

A great many of the passes went wide, but all the amateur footballers, although they must have been very tired, played with huge enthusiasm.”  The match was stopped by senior officers with the Germans leading 3-2 but Niemann’s story forms only a small part of what actually happened on Christmas Day 1914. 

Far from being an isolated incident ‘Niemann’s Match’ was repeated the length of the trenches with dozens of instances of troops crossing No Mans Land to fraternise with the enemy with numerous football matches taking place.   

Thousands of troops, of all nationalities, were involved with French, Belgian and Indian soldiers also leaving their trenches to shake hands with their German counterparts. 

“It was astounding,” wrote one British Tommy in a letter to his family, “Just you think while you were eating your turkey I was out talking and shaking hands with the very men I had been trying to kill a few hours before!” 

Many such letters were printed in local newspapers both in Britain and in Germany though, as the war inevitably progressed, such heart-warming incidents were replaced with propaganda and less friendly descriptions of German soldiers. 

One of the interesting things about the Christmas Truce of 1914 was the attitude of the army officers with the feelings of the generals in the senior command mixed.   

Though many junior officers and NCOs readily joined in the fun some senior officers were bitterly opposed to letting their men meet with the enemy fearing that morale would plummet and the men would refuse to fight on.   

Certainly there was no chance of the generals allowing a similar event happening again but the fact remains that for a few hours at least in 1914 a Christmas truce endured and football was played between rival soldiers on a bomb blighted landscape.