Your 100 Word Challenge this week is to write 100 words exactly (no more, no less) based on the prompt:
Christmas truce
Your 100 Word Challenge this week is to write 100 words exactly (no more, no less) based on the prompt:
Christmas truce
This Christmas, I won’t think of how many presents I get or whether it is my year to light the Christmas pudding. No, this year as I tuck into my Christmas dinner I will think of all the people in my family who have died in the war or have died at the hands of mindless killers. To name a few: John Saynor, the horse groom who went to war and never came back. Most of my granddad’s family, who died in the bombings of London. Or President Kennedy, who I was also related to. (Yes I know, cool right?) These are the people I will be thinking of and I hope you think of all the people who have died and are dying, just so you can sit at your table and eat your Christmas meal. Amen.
In the cold, muddy trenches, there lie the WW1 soldiers that fought for England and successfully won. Still there is one more story to tell, it’s called the ‘Christmas Truce’. On the 24th of December, 1914 on Christmas Eve, an English soldier stood up in glory and went out to the German soldiers. He held out his hand for someone to shake and said,
“Happy Christmas Eve.”
It wasn’t just him, nearly all of the English and German soldiers were doing the exact same thing, but about two days later they were back to war. The Christmas Truce was lovely.
The famous “Christmas Truce” happened on 25 December 1914 when both English and German soldiers got out of the trenches and had some fun with each other to celebrate Christmas. Records have shown that the soldiers played football and exchanged helmets while also singing carols and telling each other about their lives. The site where the Christmas truce took place was Saint Yves and you can find a cross there to commemorate the wonderful day of peace. Shortly after the Christmas Truce, all the troops started fighting again. The following year, more soldiers tried it but were unfortunately shot.
The English soldiers were going out into no-man’s-land to drive stakes there, any moment they expected to be shot by machine guns. Yet surprisingly none of them were. They stopped whispering and talked normally. Then they spotted a Christmas tree being put up near German trenches, so they went nearer to investigate. They heard Germans singing silent night in German. They peered over the side of one of the trenches and the Germans did not attack. The Germans came out and then English and German soldiers gave each over gifts, sang songs and played games. This is called the Christmas truce.
CHRISTMAS TRUCE
I was holding my gun up, fingers trembling. They said the war would end today. They were wrong. The misty sky cried icy snowflakes in despair of the scene. Bodies lay on the frozen ground, the lives lost in battle. That’s when the first German stood up. I didn’t know what to do. I looked at the General in question but he just stared blankly at the ground. Suddenly, my friend Conner stood up. He walked warily over to the German and tried to speak to him. Then Conner announced that the German wanted a Christmas truce where both sides will bond like friends for a precious few hours. The enemies shifted nervously from cowering in trenches. Shooting and killing men whose familes wait nervously in hope that he should come home. We shook hands with the Germans and lit a cigarette for each other. Just as it should have been before. Then the guns went off. We raced back to our trenches and un-froze the war as it had. There was something special about that moment though. Something that would remain in history.
Gabriel
A bit over 100 words. Soz
The Christmas Truce
On Christmas Day a man sat upon an old chair, day dreaming about his time in the war. The truce. That was what he was thinking about. Whirling back through his mind we see a boy. This boy is the very man we’re talking about. A general walks out of the trenches. Singing a song he wanders over to the German trenches. Some more British soldiers walk out to join him. A German shakes his hand. For that whole day of Christmas the soldiers shared with each other. The next day, fighting again.
The Christmas truce.
End
Christmas truce, it started in World War 1, 1914. This truce happened on Christmas Eve, as well as Christmas Day. Some brave soldiers climbed out of their trenches and independently walked onto no-man’s-land without any weapons. Soon others joined them and it gradually created a crowd of different soldiers from different countries. It was said that they sung songs and even played football. Sadly not all of them had a chance, as they were injured and needed to be looked after.
This is something to be appreciative of and should go down in history for as long as our armies will keep on fighting.
Jemima
The day of love
The day of peace
Soldiers fighting in the east
The readied gun
The deadly aim
The boredom driving us insane
The damp trenches
The no-man’s land
Then a soldier with no gun in hand
The sweet sound
The familiar tune
He’s now followed by his whole platoon
One by one
We all stand tall
For one day only there is no wall
We smoke, laugh
Even play a match
We share gifts
And exchange clothes
For a short time we have no woes
Then the bells
We know too well
Our Christmas truce
Is over now.
Woven Fingers
By Louis Toogood Sayers
My name is Nero. It is winter and glistening droplets of dew are laced into my dainty web. It is a cold winter’s day like any other, but the air has a strange jubilant sense about it. My surroundings are nothing but barbed wire and an expanse of lush plain with parallel ditches on either side. Little did I know then; I was about to experience possibly the most remarkable happening in human history… The Truce. Suddenly all noise stops. The giants shake hands and my web is ruined as they cut the wire. Then I realised…
It was Christmas.
As Christmas day approached steadily, the soldiers fighting in their trenches were falling dead, the sound of bombs echoing in the Somme battlefield. It was late but the soldiers refused to stop. The killing went on strong all through the night until dawn and, knowing it was Christmas, a single soldier stood up. He walked slowly to the opposing side with his hands in the air and said, “It’s Christmas, let’s stop fighting just for today.” And then another soldier stood up, and another, and another until all the soldiers were laughing with each other on this very happy day.
I couldn’t say what I wanted to say in 100 words so I’ve done 200.
Mud sloshes around at our ankles, the constant throbbing of hunger is strengthened by the silence that’s slowly eating away at us.The chorus of guns rest their voices. Even the normal screams of the wounded are paused; not wanting to break the suffocating silence. They told us it would be over by today. They told us we would be safe: in front of our fires with our wives and children. Now I don’t know if I will make it home again. We no longer have the upper ground, more we don’t believe in it. For them it’s winning or losing, for us it’s living or dying. A figure pulls up and out of his trench, hands raised, defeated. Instead of bullets, sadness meets him along with a desolate empty land wrecked by violence. A noise escapes him. He opens his mouth and sings.
“Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,” his voice penetrates deep into my heart.
We set aside our differences and sing. They say singing is a gift, we know now it is more.
Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,
Alles schläft; einsam wacht
Nur das traute hochheilige Paar.
Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar,
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!
Dear Family,
I have had a terrific time with the Germans on Christmas Day! We have been swapping cigarettes for cigars with them – personally i think cigars are better. On Christmas Eve, they told us they would stop fighting for two days’ rest and asked for a game of football instead. Not a gun has been shot today. For afters we had Christmas pudding given by the Territorial Association. We seem the best of friends now but I feel when Christmas is gone, we will be back at each others’ throats again, as if this had never happened.
Love Luc
In 1914 two men had just remembered it was Christmas. Then a German man looked at the British trenches and saw someone walking out of the trench from his guard position. Then one German soldier followed, then all the others followed. Suddenly another British man started walking out and singing “Merry Christmas” and another German soldier started singing “Frohe Weihnacht”. Just then a man ran out with a football from the German side. He started kicking it and everyone started joining in and it was a football match between Germany and Great Britain. Guess who won?
By Tom D. Williams
As the rain poured mercilessly on the heads of the brave soldiers, a man emerged from the dark, muddy trenches putting his battered hands by his head. Fellow soldiers tried to stop him, shouting.
“Stop, Eric!” screamed his closest companion.
He didn’t listen, it was Christmas day and he was determined to shake hands with one of the Englishmen. Then, out of the blue an Englishman stepped out of his trench and did the same, then another until the entirety of the trench were out playing football and singing. Lastly they all shook hands and returned to doing their duty.
CHRISTMAS TRUCE
Gunshots roared over our dented iron helmets, 500,000 of us, 500,000 of them. It was just men and guns, and fear. Fear was the thing that kept us going, the key to our survival, feasting on us. All the bad memories, blood everywhere, it all kept us going; a fight for survival. Suddenly everything stopped; a deafening silence. Cautiously people got out of their trenches, a truce. We played football and even smoked cigars, when the bell rang we were ordered back to our trenches, the enemy wasn’t the soldiers in front, it was the British Government behind.
hope you like it!:)
I sat there in the trench, mud covered me.
We all knew it was Christmas though it didn’t feel like it was.
I thought back to what it would be like at home, the tree would be decorated with the usual baubles and candles.
Not here. Suddenly through the wind I thought I heard singing and through the snow I saw three or even four men coming towards us. Others saw them too and raised their guns, but a few of us put down our guns and got out of our trenches knowing it was safe and peaceful. It was Christmas.