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The Christmas Truce: Myth, Memory, and the First World War

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The Christmas Truce: Myth, Memory, and the First World War University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--History History 2016 The Christmas Truce: Myth, Memory, and the First World War Theresa B. Crocker University of Kentucky, [email protected] Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2016.495 Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Crocker, Theresa B., "The Christmas Truce: Myth, Memory, and the First World War" (2016). Theses and Dissertations--History. 42. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/history_etds/42 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the History at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--History by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. Proper attribution has been given to all outside sources. I understand that I am solely responsible for obtaining any needed copyright permissions. I have obtained needed written permission statement(s) from the owner(s) of each third-party copyrighted matter to be included in my work, allowing electronic distribution (if such use is not permitted by the fair use doctrine) which will be submitted to UKnowledge as Additional File. I hereby grant to The University of Kentucky and its agents the irrevocable, non-exclusive, and royalty-free license to archive and make accessible my work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I agree that the document mentioned above may be made available immediately for worldwide access unless an embargo applies. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of my work. I understand that I am free to register the copyright to my work. REVIEW, APPROVAL AND ACCEPTANCE The document mentioned above has been reviewed and accepted by the student’s advisor, on behalf of the advisory committee, and by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), on behalf of the program; we verify that this is the final, approved version of the student’s thesis including all changes required by the advisory committee. The undersigned agree to abide by the statements above. Theresa B. Crocker, Student Dr. Philip Harling, Major Professor Dr. Scott Taylor, Director of Graduate Studies THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE: MYTH, MEMORY, AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR DISSERTATION A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Terri Blom Crocker Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Philip Harling, Professor of History Lexington, Kentucky 2016 Copyright © Terri Blom Crocker 2016 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE: MYTH, MEMORY, AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR The 1914 Christmas truce, when enemy soldiers met, fraternized and even played football in No-Man’s-Land, is frequently used to support the popular view of the First World War as a “stupid, tragic and futile” conflict, the ultimate “bad” war. The truce, which one historian describes as “a candle lit in the darkness of Flanders,” is commonly perceived as a manifestation of the anger that soldiers felt towards the meaningless war which they had been tricked into fighting. However, contemporaneous sources show that the impromptu cease-fire was not an act of defiance, but rather arose from the professionalism of the soldiers involved, the conditions of static trench warfare, the adaptation of the soldiers to their new environment, the foul weather on the Western Front, the absence of major battles, and memories of traditional celebrations of Christmas. The truce, in short, was caused by rain, mud, curiosity, lack of personal animosity towards the enemy, and homesickness, rather than by frustration and rebellion. Although the conventional narrative of the truce maintains that soldiers defied their 0fficers to participate in it, this was rarely the case: in fact, Lieutenant- Colonel Fisher-Rowe, commander of the 1st Grenadier Guards, wrote his wife that the Germans “say they want the truce to go on till after New Year and I am sure I have no objection. A rest from bullets will be distinctly a change.” No soldiers were punished for their participation in the 1914 truce, and no troops refused to fire upon their enemies afterwards. Newspapers published accounts of the armistice openly and many regimental histories later featured the event prominently. An evaluation of sources from 1914 through 2013 that reference the truce demonstrates that the conventional narrative of the truce, like that of the war itself, took many decades to develop. This work examines the myths that have defined the truce over the past century, and contrasts them with the letters and diaries of British soldiers who participated in it, the reports of it in the official war diaries of the battalions involved, and the accounts of it published in the newspapers. By examining the support the soldiers felt for the war, as well as their willingness to return to fighting after the impromptu armistice ended, the book argues that the Christmas truce, which would seem to confirm the dominant view of the First World War, instead challenges the war’s popular narrative. A soldier involved described the temporary cease-fire as being “just like the interval between the rounds in a friendly boxing match.” The boxing match that was the First World War was in fact a deadly and tragic conflict, yet this soldier’s view of the truce broadly summed up the attitudes of participants toward the event, who remained determined to win the war, while enjoying a break from the battle. KEYWORDS: First World War, Christmas Truce, Trench Warfare, Western Front, Memory Terri Blom Crocker December 16. 2016 THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE: MYTH, MEMORY, AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR By Terri Blom Crocker Philip Harling________________ Director of Dissertation Scott Taylor___________________ Director of Graduate Studies December 16, 2016_____________ For Mark Acknowledgments It is wishful thinking to suppose that an historical memory can be transmitted without being simplified. The memory is already simplified before people decide that it needs to be transmitted. -Clive James, The Crystal Bucket Wars that shout in screams of anguish . -Yes, “The Gates of Delirium” I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my academic advisers at the University of Kentucky, Drs. Phil Harling and Karen Petrone, who contributed so much to this work. They both offered vital support and feedback on the project, from its beginnings as a master’s thesis through the final manuscript submission, and I am very grateful for the time they gave to this work. Additionally, I want to thank them both for their forbearance with the world’s most willfully stubborn graduate student, as their patience has been stretched far too often to remain unacknowledged. I would also like to thank Dr. Pearl James for her interest and encouragement, and Drs. Amy Taylor and Jonathan Allison for serving on my committee. My colleagues in the Office of Legal Counsel at UK deserve much appreciation for their understanding when class times or research trips kept me out of the office, as well as their willingness to listen to me talk about the First World War. I am particularly grateful to UK’s general counsel, Bill Thro, for his support for my academic endeavors and enthusiasm for this book. All my coworkers have been helpful, but I would especially like to thank Cliff Iler, Marcy Deaton, Shannan Carroll, and Thalethia Routt. Others at UK have been very generous in their support for my work, and Bill Swinford deserves special gratitude for encouragement as well as for practical assistance. Cathy Masoud, Eduardo Santillan-Jimenez, and Skip van Hook all took an interest in this project at times when support was sorely needed and much appreciated, and I hope they know how much that meant to me. I am most grateful to Steve Wrinn and Allison Webster at the University Press of Kentucky for their many kind comments and helpful suggestions throughout the publishing process. i Peter Grant reached out to me about my work at a very opportune time, and since then has provided much assistance in the way of suggestions, corrections, and advice, for all of which I am most grateful. Anne Samson provided me with some research help and lots of encouragement, and I am very appreciative of both. The staff at the Imperial War Museum (IWM), particularly the late Roderick Suddaby, were of great help with my research, and ditto for the indefatigable Inter-Library Loan folks at UK, who always found the books, however obscure, I needed to complete this work. Thanks also to Dick Gilbreath for the wonderful maps. I am very grateful to all the IWM collections’ copyright holders who took the time to correspond with me regarding their relations’ letters, diaries, and memoirs and to provide me with many details of interest regarding the war service and memories of their relatives. I hope they all feel that I have represented the views of those soldiers and veterans accurately. Thanks to Ruth Booher for her friendship and support and to Jamie Wilson for the same, as well as her kind comments on some of this work in earlier drafts. In spite of the fact that we have never met, Shelley Nass obligingly offered to read the entire dissertation and suggested useful corrections. Pat O’Connor and I have met, many times, but that didn’t stop him from not only reading some chapters but also providing comments on them that made me want to write a whole other work on the Christmas truce.
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