Truce In The Trenches

The Christmas Truce of 1914 was an official ceasefire not authorized by the superior command levels. It took place on December 24, 1914 and on subsequent days, at certain parts of the Western Front, and in particular between German and British soldiers in Flanders.

Whether or not any football games were played between the two sides is a matter of conjecture. According to Chris Baker, former chairman of the Western Front Association and author of a book on the truce, it is possible that a game of football was played between the first batallion of the Norfolk regiment and the Bavarian RIR 16, although no evidence of this exists from the German side. The RIR 16 was Felix Kiefer's regiment, but unfortunately Felix had been severely wounded in October 1914, had been sent to hospital in Hamburg and was spending December 1914 at home in Ettlingen to convalesce.


However, it seems likely that upon returning to his regiment in early 1915, Felix would have learned of a truce or a football match from his comrades, and relayed the information to his family. Unfortunately, we can find no reference to this in any of Felix's letters. Felix's brother Tor, also located at the Western Front during 1914, would have learned of it or even possibly experienced a truce at his own position. But Tor reports, in a letter dated November 17, 1916, of a special unofficial truce at the Eastern Front, where he was stationed, and writes, "As long as we have been at war, nothing like this has ever happened".

Tor's Letter

Tor's letter tells the extraordinary story of a period during November 1916 when, stationed at the Eastern Front near Najarowka, an unofficial ceasfire took place between the Germans and the Russians in order to allow each side to build their dugouts, collect wood and supplies, etc. At one point, several soldiers from each army met each other across a stream and conversed with each other. Finally, one of the Russian lieutenants sent a soldier with a handwritten note in German, asking for a ceasefire.

"A special peace is being made here", Tor writes. "That is, until the "friendly" communication with the Russians is forbidden by divisional command. But the silent treaty remains. Companies of Russians come down the mountain without any cover and can work on their positions. Vehicles that you could easily shoot down are driving by with wood supplies. As long as we have been at war, nothing like this has ever happened. To put it in a nutshell: there must be peace".


Ettlingen's newspapers of December 1914 make no mention of an actual truce, but they do report that the Front at Flanders has been relatively quiet over the Christmas period, and that the English requested a ceasefire to bury their dead, which was conceded.

The Badischer Landsmann
on December 28, 1914

Central Headquarters, December 25, morning. Peace generally prevailed yesterday in Flanders. East of Festubert, the English lost a further part of the position that had been captured on December 20.

At Chivy, our troops removed an enemy company that had settled down in front of our position. 17 French were captured. The enemy suffered further losses in an attempt to retake our position.

The situation in the East remained unchanged yesterday.

Central Headquarters, December 26, morning. At Nieuport, attacks by the English and the French during the night of 24th to 25th December were repelled.

The success of the battles at Festubert with Indians and English could be seen today. 19 officers and 819 Indians and English were taken prisoner today, 14 machine guns, 12 mortars, floodlights and other military material were captured. The enemy left over 3000 dead on the battlefield. A ceasefire requested by the English to bury their dead was conceded. Our losses were relatively low.