20 Lancashire evening Post www.lep.co.uk Wednesday, December 17, 2014 To order photos ring 0330 123 0203 christmas truce ‘Dawn broke on December 25 with a thick mist...but the sound of bombardment was notably absent...’ The day the First World War guns fell silent has fallen into folklore but heart-rending letters from Lancashire soldiers on the frontline reveal the poignant reality of the Christmas Day truce of 1914. Mike Hill reports. y December 1914 Armistice’. in front of our trenches and three battalions “There was a considera- they thanked us for allowing of Lancashire ble amount of singing in the them to bury. soldiers were de- German lines, but the battal- “All the German dead were ployed to the bat- ion was unable to join in the collected and buried and their Btlefields of France to face the concert, for no gramophone Captain read a burial service German onslaught. records of the ‘Hymn of Hate’, over them in German and in N i c k n a m e d t h e ‘ O l d with which it was intended to English as many of our men Contemptibles’,the 1st Loyals regale the Hun, were obtain- were looking on. At 2pm he and 1st and 2nd East Lanca- able.” blew a whistle and all the shires were all regular Army But for the soldiers on Germans bolted back to their battalions with their regimen- Plugstreet the day saw a re- trenches. tal headquarters at Fulwood markable display of human- “In the afternoon at 3pm Barracks in Preston. ity which has gone down in our doctor thought he would The East Lancs were based history. go and see the Germans so on the west side of the bar- Dawn broke on December boldly walked down the road racks’ square which lies be- 25 with a thick mist shrouding to their trenches and talked yond the imposing gate, with the battlefield but the sound to them; they were very full the Loyals housed on the east. of military bombardment of the football idea of mine on When December 25 ar- was notably absent from the New Year’s Day. I said if they rived, the 1st Battalion Loyal morning area. would like another armistice North Lancashire Regiment By 10am, as the view then I would turn out a team was out of the trenches and cleared, sporadic truces and play them among the shell resting in billets at Essars, in broke out along stretches of holes and they were quite northern France. the Western Front. keen. Happily there won’t be These were the soldiers One such tale was told by any obstacles like dead Ger- drawn mainly from Preston the commanding officer of the mans lying about unless they and considered the district’s 1st East Lancs, Colonel Law- try on another attack before own regiment, while the East rence, who wrote the follow- then. I wonder if the game will Lancs battalions came from ing on Christmas Day. come off. Chorley, Blackburn, Burnley “This morning I went up to “These Saxons are the and Accrington. the trenches and wished every same crowd we have always For the men of the 1st East man a Happy Christmas. As I had opposite us. Most of them Lancs there was no such res- was coming away, at noon, Pictured above are the officers of the 1st Battalion East Lancashire Regiment who embarked for France on are quite young, 18 to 25. The pite expected. there was a sudden hurrah August 21, 1914. Lieutenant C.E.M. Richards is pictured inset . Image courtesy of Lancashire Infantry Museum trenches that our men went They had left for France on and rush and our men and the into were up to the knee in August 21 soon after the decla- Germans both started run- water so they are far worse off ration of war and by December ning to one another and met than our men.” were dug in on the front line halfway and shook hands. But not all of Col at Le Gheer, near Ploegsteert “I did not like it at first and Lawrence’s men Wood, dubbed “Plugstreet” by ordered my men back but were thrilled by the the Tommies, south of Ypres. was told they wanted a truce Christmas Truce. Meanwhile, the 2nd East for the day to bury their dead. R e c o r d s Lancs were in the trench- I agreed to that and, after or- show Lieuten- es close to Neuve Chappelle dering half the men to keep a ant C.E.M. Ri- which was to be the site of the smart look out in the trenches c h a r d s , a n first great battle of the First with their rifles ready, I went officer in 1st World War three months later. forward and joined the crowd. Battalion East For them there was no frat- I met a Saxon who talked Eng- L a n c a s h i re ernising with the enemy on lish well and who interpreted R e g i m e n t , Christmas Day. for me while I held a court of welcomed the As the regiment’s official admiring men and NCOs. “return of good history records: “Christmas “I said if they would have an old sniping” late Day was spent in the trench- armistice on New Year’s Day on Christmas Day, es and was uneventful. No at- we would play them at foot- ”just to make sure tempt was made by either side ball between our lines. A lot that the war was still to inaugurate an ‘Unofficial of their dead were lying about The entrance to Fulwood Barracks pictured about the time of the First World War on.” Wednesday, December 17, 2014 www.lep.co.uk Lancashire evening Post 21 christmas truce Soldiers of the 1st Battalion East Lancashire Regiment in Armentieres pictured on their way to the trenches at Le Gheer in 1914. It is highly likely that some if not all of these men were among those who took part in the Christmas Truce. This picture was taken by Major T.S. Lambert (inset) Image courtesy of Lancashire Infantry Museum That evening, however, Lt Richards received a signal from Battalion Headquarters - quite possibly from Col Law- rence - telling him to make a football pitch in No Man’s Land by filling up shell holes companied by uncalled for etc. and to challenge the en- bursts of machine gun and emy to a football match on rifle fire. It looks bad for the January 1. morrow as we were hoping Richards recalled, “I was to have a peaceful Christmas furious and took no action at Day. all.” “Old Jim gets ‘seen off’ just But over time his views after 11pm by a stray bullet. mellowed. What a Christmas for his wife “I wish I had kept that sig- and kiddies. Has mankind for- nal,” he wrote years later. “Stu- gotten the Shepherds, the Maji pidly I destroyed it, I was so and the Child that was born in angry. It would now have been the manger because there was a good souvenir.” no room for him in the inns of Fellow officer Second Lieu- Bethlehem? tenant P. H.T. Hoare recalled a “At midnight firing ceased rather amusing moment dur- as if by mutual consent. As I ing the ceasefire in a letter to stood on the fire step, gazing his family. out into No Man’s Land with He wrote: “This has been the point of a spare bayonet the most extraordinary underneath my chin in case Christmas I’ve ever had. This I might doze, I prayed to God morning after putting wire (if there was a God) in his in- out in the night in front of the finite goodness and mercy to trenches, I slept from 4 to 6 end this slaughter and misery and from 7 to 8. I had break- and bring peace and goodwill fast. There was a thick fog this to all mankind. morning so we could walk Convent at Le Gheer, south east corner of Ploegsteert Wood. Taken by Captain E. C. Hopkinson (below), of the 1st Battalion East Lancashire Regiment, on “Someone has started play- about anywhere without be- Christmas Day, 1914, during the unofficial truce. The trench in the foreground is the British front line. Image courtesy of Imperial War Museum ing ‘Home Sweet Home’ on a ing sniped at. mouth organ, away down the “As we were fixing up our trench on my right. Another trenches and putting out more that happened was when a generally very in a trench back to the cellar for drinks fellow starts ‘Keep the Home wire and the fog was getting hare was put up and both ar- cold in spite in a little about 8 pm. No shots are be- Fires Burning’ on my left. They thinner, we saw the Germans mies chased it shouting and of all the d u g o u t ing fired at all here. I can hear join in the chorus - the mock- doing the same and we both laughing. It is odd after they clothes we about 6’ some big guns firing miles ery of it all. looked on. No shots fired. have both been here for weeks wear. We x 4’ cut away every now and then.” “At 5am word has passed Then somehow we all came fighting each other. all look in the Lt Hoare’s diary carries down the trench that the out of the trenches and walked “They looked very fit.