Christmas 1914Christmas 1914The Truce

• Fred Longstaff and Douglas Clark were mighty forwards for Huddersfield.

• Both toured Australia and New Zealand with the Great Britain tourists of 1914.

• Fred and Douglas played in Huddersfield’s ‘Team of all Talents’, one of the greatest club teams of all time.

• This team won all four trophies in 1914-15.

• Here are medals awarded to Fred and Douglas for trophies that Huddersfield won in 1914-15.

• Fred Longstaff volunteered to fight with the Bradford Pals in World War I.

• In July 1916, 14 months after Huddersfield’s Team of all Talents won its fourth trophy, Fred was killed at the Battle of the Somme.

• Douglas Clark was one of the greatest rugby league players of any era.

• After leaving school he helped his father, a coal merchant. At 14 years of age he could carry a hundredweight bag of coal under each arm. His elders were in awe at his enormous strength.

• Douglas was another of thousands of young British men who fought for his country in World War One.

• In 1917 he drove supplies to the front line trenches at the Battle of Passchendaele.

• He was wounded in eighteen places by shrapnel from a bomb and badly gassed.

• He was discharged from the army in a wheelchair.

• Douglas was given a 95% Disability Certificate because of the fragments of shrapnel in his body.

• He was awarded the Military Medal for his bravery.

• Doctors advised him not to play rugby again if he wished to reach an old age.

• Within a season he had won a place in the 1920 Great Britain touring side to Australia!

• Douglas’ and Fred’s stories remind us of the dangers and hardships faced by the men who fought for our freedom, and of their courage.

• This is the story of one incredible episode when…

• …peace broke out in the trenches!

Michael Morpurgo wrote about this amazing event in ‘The Best Christmas

Present in the World’.

Christmas in 1914

• The First World War started in August 1914.

• At first it was fought in very mobile, fast-moving battles.

• But by December 1914 both sides had dug in and trench warfare began.

Christmas in 1914

• Newspapers at home told the stories of the sadness of families parted at Christmas time.

Christmas in 1914

• The war raged on with heavy casualties on both sides.

• As Christmas Eve approached the soldiers’ thoughts were about how they missed their families and home comforts.

Christmas in 1914

• Then a most amazing thing happened.

• Some German troops climbed out of their trenches and walked across No-man’s Land.

• The soldiers wanted to stop fighting.

Christmas in 1914

• The soldiers sang carols.

• They shared food and cigarettes.

• They showed each other photos of family and loved ones.

• Peace broke out!

Christmas in 1914

• Later on, newspapers at home told the amazing story of the Christmas truce.

• Alfred Anderson who died aged 109 fought in the trenches in World War One.

• He remembered the Christmas truce.

• “All I’d heard for two months in the trenches, was the hissing, cracking and whining of bullets in flight, machine gun fire and distant German voices.

• But there was a dead silence that morning, right across the land as far as you could see. We shouted ‘Merry Christmas’ even though we didn’t feel very merry.

• It was a short peace in a terrible war.”

• This song by Mike Harding tells the story of what happened in France on Christmas Day 1914.

• Christmas Eve in 1914,

• Stars were burning,

• Burning bright

• And all along the Western Front

• Guns were lying still and quiet.

• Men lay dozing in the trenches,

• In the cold and in the dark

• And far away, behind the lines,

• A village dog began to bark.

• Some lay thinking of their families,

• Some sang songs while others were quiet,

• Rolling fags and playing brag,

• To pass away that Christmas night.

• As they watched the German trenches,

• Something moved in no man’s land.

• And through the dark there came a soldier

• Carrying a white flag in his hand.

• Then from both sides

• Men came running,• Crossing into no-

man’s land• Through the

barbed wire, mud and shell holes,

• Shyly stood there shaking hands.

• Fritz brought out cigars and brandy,• Tommy brought corned beef and fags• And stood there talking, shyly laughing• As the moon shone down on no-man’s land.

• Christmas Day we all played football

• In the mud of no-man’s land.

• Tommy brought some Christmas pudding,

• Fritz brought out a German band.

• When they beat us at the football

• We shared all out all the grub and drink,

• And Fritz showed me a faded photo

• Of a brown haired girl back in Berlin.

• For four days after

• No one fired,

• Not one shell disturbed the night

• For old Fritz and Tommy Atkins,

• They’d both lost their will to fight.

• So they withdrew us from the trenches,

• Sent us far behind the lines

• Sent fresh lads to take our places

• And told the guns, “Prepare to fire!”

• And next night in 1914,

• Flares were burning, burning bright,

• The order came, “Prepare offensive!”

• Over the top you’re going tonight.

• And men stood waiting in the trenches,

• Looked out across our football park,

• And all along the Western Front,

• The Christmas guns began to bark.

• Men stood waiting in the trenches,

• Looked out across our football park

• And all along the Western Front,

• The Christmas guns began to bark.

• In the words of Alfred Anderson

• “It was a short peace in a terrible war.”