GottaLove88s wrote:Uh oh! Our two Commanders are planning a barbie!leci wrote:No worries, I'll just get the BBQ tools out......
History repeating itself?
Legend has it that on Christmas Day 1915, soldiers from both sides of the WW1 trenches met up in No Man’s Land for a game of football. No official record was posted for this brief meeting between the enemy, so evidence of what took place is sketchy. However, Bertie Felstead, the last known survivor of the match, died in July 2001 aged 106 years. Felstead, a member of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, recalled the following...
On Christmas Eve, he was stationed in northern France with his colleagues near the village of Laventie when he heard the Germans in a trench 100 metres away singing “Silent Night”. In reply, the Royal Welsh Fusiliers sang “Good King Wenceslas”.
On Christmas Day, after some shouting between both trenches, he and his colleagues got out of their icy trench and greeted the Germans. Bertie Felstead recalled that the Germans probably were already out of their trench before the British got out. He claimed that nothing was planned and that what happened was entirely spontaneous. A football was produced from somewhere – though he had no idea from where. “It was not a game as such, more of a kick-around and a free-for-all. There could have been fifty on each side for all I know. I played because I really liked football. I don’t know how long it lasted, probably half-an-hour, and no-one was keeping score.”
The truce ended when a British major ordered the British soldiers back to their trench with a reminder that “they were there to kill the Hun not to make friends with him.” The mood of Christmas friendliness was shortly broken by the firing of British artillery. Felstead described the Germans as “all right”...
Wasn't that in '14? Both sides took great measures to ensure that would not happen again
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This is the first time I have seen Bay...I'm Sure Al is very versed in the area.... 