Christmas truce
The unofficial Christmas truce of 1914 certainly did occur [Mythconceptions #263, FT426:19]. In her book 1914-1918: Voices and Images of the Great War, Lyn Macdonald, the noted historian of WW1, quotes Lieut Johannes Niemann of the 133rd Royal Saxon Regiment. Niemann describes an hour-long football match between British and German troops, initiated by a Scottish soldier, which ended in a 3:2 victory for Germany.
The same page quotes an account from Gunner Herbert Smith, 5th Battalion, Royal Field Artillery, detailing meetings between British and German soldiers to exchange cigarettes for German cigars. The practice was widespread enough that senior British officers felt compelled to issue orders prior to Christmas 1915 specifically stating that the “unauthorised truce” of Christmas 1914 was not to be repeated, (for example, see Lt. Col. B Burnett Hitchcock of the General Staff, 47th (London) Division as quoted in Macdonald’s 1915: The Death of Innocence, Chapter 38).
Scott Leckey
By email
What about the whistle?
The review of ‘Ghost Stories For Christmas, Vol 1’ [FT426:54] states that the screen adaptation ‘Whistle And I’ll Come To You’ (directed by Andy de Emmony, and starring John Hurt) dates from 1980. This is wrong. It was 2010. I remember watching it at the time. It was the first version of the story I’d come across – and while it was scary, I felt depressed by the dark ending and also let down by the lack of a proper explanation as to why John Hurt’s character was being haunted, regardless of the discovered ring (and why does his wife disappear at the end?). Also, where was the whistle, as per the title? It was too bleak, and a case of too much departure from the original story.
Carl Gudgeon
Wigston, Leicestershire
Hawks and jellyfish
Checking my FT
