Eugenie Brooks, SGWT Battlefield Guide shares the following about her paternal grandfather Sgt John William Brooks DCM MM 1st Bn Rifle Brigade, Machine Gun Section. He took part in the 1914 Christmas Day Truce when in trenches at Ploegsteert Wood, south of the town of Ypres. In 1965 he wrote out his memoirs of the Great War and she uses his piece about the Christmas truce when she takes clients to the football memorial near Ploegsteert when on a battlefield tour.
Next day was Christmas Day 1914. There was a lot of shouting across the lines between the Germans and our boys; also some music from the German trenches. One tune put me in mind of our own national anthem; the music was so much like it.
The Germans I think were the first to show their heads above the parapet without being fired on. Then our own boys began to show themselves above the trench, then it was all clear to come out and fraternise.
They had the whole day at this get together; each side took full advantage to the chance to pick up their dead who had laid out in front in some cases for a month or more. It was a pathetic sight to see our own dead being brought in, one to each man. They were able to do this owing to the bodies being frozen stiff; they were carried in some cases just like dead mutton. They were brought back and laid out in a row till they were taken away to be identified and buried. It seems pathetic that two days after giving them a bashing and driving them out of the wood that the Germans and British soldiers were able to shake hands, exchange presents, tins of jam etc. also to show one another photos of their respective families at home.
In the afternoon a Brigadier of ours showed up. He had come to have a look round while there was no fighting going on. Anyhow it was the first time I had seen an officer above the rank of Colonel in the front line. His name I believe was Haldane.
The truce ended in our part of the line next morning at daybreak. It seems that the East Lancs on our left had a rough time from the jerries shortly before Christmas and had some losses. Anyhow they fixed on the enemy when they showed up early Boxing Day. In any case there came an official instruction to the troops to cease fraternising so everybody kept under cover.
