Ep 193 | A Christmas Truce

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to a very special edition, Christmas edition, of the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day, including Christmas, brings a new opportunity to get better. Let's get into it. Today I want to do things a little differently because, well, the day's a little different. Today I am going to tell a story that I recently heard, a Christmas story that I recently heard and had to read a little bit more into because it's a pretty amazing one. This story occurs on Christmas Eve, 1914, in the dank, muddy, trenches on the Western Front of the First World War, World War I, an absolutely remarkable thing happened. This thing came to be called the Christmas Truce and remains one of the strangest moments, one of the most storied moments of World War I, of, or of any war in history for that matter. The story goes, as told by a British officer, that at about 10:00 PM on Christmas Eve, the officer, he heard a noise. And he says, uh, he was listening and away, you know, away across the, uh, the field in the dark shadows beyond, he could hear the murmur of voices. And he turns to a fellow soldier in the trench and he says, do you hear that? Do you hear the Germans making all that noise over there? And the fellow soldier says, well, yeah, I hear that. I've actually been hearing it for some time now. As they listened closely, more closely, what they found was what the British soldiers were hearing were Germans singing carols. They were singing Christmas carols. It was Christmas Eve. In the darkness, some of the British soldiers began to sing back. And suddenly, according to this, this British soldier, they heard a confused shouting coming from the other side, coming from the German side. All the British stopped to listen, and the shout, the shout came again. It was the voice of an enemy soldier, and the soldier was yelling in English. It got a, you know, very strong German accent, but he's yelling in English. He was saying, come over here. One of the British sergeants answers, you come halfway and I'll come halfway. We'll meet in the middle. What happened next would stun the world. It actually would make history. These two soldiers, the German sergeants, the German one and the British one, they leave their trenches. They get up. To go meet in the middle in no man's land. Actual— actually, other soldiers, enemy soldiers, began to climb out of their respective trenches, and they all met in this barbed-wire-filled area known as no man's land that separated their, their two armies. Now, normally, these British soldiers and the German soldiers, they would communicate across no man's land, but it would be with bullets. It was never with handshakes and words of kindness, like what was occurring in that moment. The soldiers traded hugs, they traded songs, they traded wine, they traded tobacco, and they even joined in a spontaneous holiday party in the middle of the night. The British soldier said he could not— he cannot believe his eyes. He said, here they were, the actual soldiers of the German army, and there wasn't an ounce of hate on either side. What's even crazier is it wasn't confined to just that one battlefield. Apparently, starting on Christmas Eve, there were small pockets of French and German and Belgian and British troops all holding these impromptu ceasefires across the Western Front. And some of these truces actually lasted for many days. For all these soldiers that participated, I'm sure it was a welcome break from all the hell that they had been enduring. I can only imagine being in a trench, dug in, cold, you know, it's wet out, it's Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, you know, what that feeling must be like. And then to have this moment, this truce, gosh, what that must feel like. See, when, when the war began 6 months prior, most of these soldiers probably figured that it would all be over quickly and they'd all be home with their families, at least with their families for the holidays. Not only would this war drag on for another 4 years, but it actually proved to be the bloodiest conflict ever up to that point. There was just devastation on both sides. Now this truce, you know, it's been written about, it's been talked about. So many soldiers have shared their experience with it. And, and there's even a great story that on one of the, in one of the truces, like where they, where they met in no man's land, the soldiers actually played a game of soccer. You know, some ball flew, you know, ball came out of nowhere and, and they made up some goals. And all of a sudden, these guys who have been competing with bullets are now competing with a soccer ball. What do we draw from this? Why am I telling this story? I don't know. When I first heard it, I was like, wow, um, I, I know about the Christmas spirit. I know about the holiday spirit. I know how I feel and how my friends and my family feel around this time of year. It's a special time of year. And I look at moments like this and I'm like, gosh, I feel the spirit. I know it's strong, but how compelling must it be to take two opposing sides in war and bring them together, at least for a moment where they put their guns down and they have, you know, they enjoy one another's company. Pretty special. Now this, this truce kind of interesting. There's an amazing memorial that exists in England. It's two hands shaking one another. And in 2014, it was the 100th anniversary of this Christmas truce. And what's really cool, the English soccer team and the German National Soccer Team. They actually staged a friendly soccer match in England in remembrance of the soldiers' impromptu soccer game in 1914. These memories are— have been told or have been shared from all of these, from all these soldiers. And I think, I think it, it last— it left quite a lasting impression. One of the British soldiers, the one that was telling the story, he says, looking back on it all, I wouldn't have missed that unique and weird Christmas Day for anything. Pretty, pretty awesome. Pretty cool. So on that note, I'm going to let you get back to your Christmas Day or let you get started on your Christmas Day. If you're listening to this early, it's early where you're at. Thank you so much for joining me and spending a little bit of time with me. Today, make sure you enjoy your day because as you know, here at No Days Off, every single day represents an opportunity to get better. So today, let's get after it.