Notable Christmas Season Events (Dec 22, 2024 - Part 4)

by Scott Sosebee

This continues the Christmas Season series

This week we will continue with our “snapshots” of historical events that occurred during the Christmas Holiday season.

World War I “Christmas Truce” (1914)

When Europe exploded in war in 1914, the world had to begin to contemplate the abyss of how a total modern war could be so terrifying and devastating. As 1914 began to come to a close, the armies of England, France, and the other assorted allied nations were faced off in a brutal stalemate across the entirety of the northern border region between France, Belgium, and Germany against the mostly German forces of the Central Powers. The stalemate was marked by the particularly ruthless tactic of “trench warfare.” Both combatant armies, by the end of the summer of 1914, had seen the awful destruction of frontal assaults against each other across the countryside and had responded by building a hundreds of miles-long network of deep ditches that they strongly fortified against attack. The resulting territory between the fortifications became such a scene of horror and annihilation when either of the troops mounted an attack it became known as “No Man’s Land,” which was an apt moniker since the most usual result of anyone who had the task of trying to traverse the area was death.

Such was the situation as winter began in 1914. Fighting began to subside as the temperatures grew colder, which no doubt pleased many of the soldiers on both sides as it was a break from the almost literal hell they had experienced for the six months prior. Still, life in the trenches could not have been pleasant in any circumstances, and the sheer fury of the war had shocked many of the men, even those who had experienced war in earlier campaigns.

Then came Christmas Eve. The so-called “Christmas Truce” was a spontaneous outpouring of humanity during a decidedly inhumane conflict. There have been numerous descriptions of what happened that have appeared in many diaries and accounts written by participants on both sides. One British soldier, a rifleman named J. Reading, described what happened in a letter to his wife. He wrote, “My company happened to be in the firing line on Christmas eve (sic) and it was my turn to go into a ruined house and remain there until 6:30 Christmas morning. During the early part of the morning, the Germans started singing and shouting, all in good English. They shouted out, “Are you the rifle brigade? If you have a spare bottle we will come half way and you come the other half. We went out to meet them. . .I shook hands with some of them and they gave us cigarettes and cigars. We did not fire that day, and everything was so quiet it seemed like a dream.” Reading’s account was mirrored all along the front as British, French, and German soldiers met in the middle of “No Man’s Land” all across the front and sang, drank, and made merriment. In one place on the line, they even played soccer against each other. Alas, it was only one day and the two sides went back to killing each other when it was all over. It never happened again, and the war would wear on for almost four more years.

Attack on Pearl Harbor (1941)

The carnage of World War I was evidently not enough to keep the world from once again plunging into a worldwide campaign of slaughter once again in 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland, which led to a declared war between Great Britain and France on one side and Germany and Italy on the other. Europe became the focus of the war, and after the surrender of France in the summer of 1940, the British essentially stood alone against the Nazi war machine.

The United States, much like it had done the first time around in 1914-1918, tried to remain neutral and out of the conflict. However, unlike during the First World War, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, in both words and actions, made no secret that his sympathies lay with the Allies (Great Britain and France). Germany and Italy had also been joined in their fight by another nation. In Asia, Japan had come under the influence of a militaristic government and had become aggressive in pursuing the military subjugation of its neighbors. The Japanese had come to believe that the only way to solve its economic and demographic problems was to expand its territory at the defense of its neighbors. That aggression, particularly its actions toward China—such as the Nanking Massacre—had led President Roosevelt to actively aid the Chinese and to also seize Japanese assets in the United States, as well as enact trade embargoes. Japan’s leaders came to believe that if they were to accomplish their goal of making the Pacific Ocean and all that ringed it their sphere of influence, they would eventually have to fight the U.S. Japan’s military leaders correctly surmised that they could not win a protracted war with the U.S., so they conceived a plan to make a bold strike on the U.S. Pacific Fleet and make it so devastating that the U.S. would have to seek accommodation. That plan was the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, a heinous surprise attack that in many ways had the opposite result than what the Japanese intended. Instead, it galvanized American resolve and led to the U.S.’s entry into World War II and the eventual defeat of Japan, which culminated in the vicious dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ushering in the nuclear age.

The Halifax Explosion (1947)

In 1917, the Halifax, Canada explosion marked one of the most devastating Christmas disasters in history. Triggered by the collision of two ships in Halifax Harbor, the resulting explosion ravaged the city with terrible destruction. Halifax’s people rallied to the cause and the world also responded with an outpouring of support. Donations flowed from all corners of the globe, and volunteers arrived from the United States, Europe, and Asia to help with the response and also with the rebuilding of the city. Disasters such as the Halifax Explosion are tragic, but they also can serve as an exemplar to what is the indomitable spirit of the world to respond with compassion and hope. Halifax rebuilt after the disaster and the world learned lessons that from destruction often comes hope.    

 The East Texas Historical Association provides this column as a public service. Scott Sosebee is a Professor of History at Stephen F. Austin State University and the Executive Director of the Association. He can be contacted at sosebeem@sfasu.edu or via www.easttexashistorical.org.