CHRISTMAS TRUCE

Christmas Truce

Introduction

History is full of pages regarding deadly events that changed the scenarios that prevailed in the world. For instance, some wars caused a demise or fall of a nation and the other brought victory helping a nation to occupy another land. Among these events, the relatively recent one was that of the First World War that started in July 1914 and ended in November 1918. It mainly involved two power units of the world that included, allied against the Central Powers. The Allied Forces comprised of UK, France and Russia whereas the Central Power comprised of Germany, Austria, and Hungry. However, with these main forces there various other nations that were under the colonial rule of these countries also were engaged in the war (Murphy, 2009).

World War I lasted only for four years and the extent of casualties is unprecedented in history. Just on, the Western Front, the French, the Belgians and the British lost more than one million men, a large majority of French. The Germans have about 675,000 soldiers killed, wounded or missing in action. It is considered as one of the most violent events that occurred in the recent history. In this event or War, various nations from various regions from all across the world were engaged and a historic battle on different war fronts started. This was in fact the beginning of a new era of the world when politics and power started to shift from an end to another. It later proved to be the initiating step towards the Second World War, which by far can be considered as the deadliest event in the world history. Even the First World War involved various activities that included deadliest massacres. It was a time when everyone thought that the allied and forces in opposition thought that each nation will settle the score finally. On almost every part of the world, a war front was open and soldiers from various countries were engaged in a deadly fight. The political and dictatorial leadership of different countries wanted a victory for themselves but from the soldiers point of view some efforts were being made to restore peace on individual basis. One of the most notable events that took place in World War I was perhaps the initiating of Christmas Truce between British, and German Troops and at a point between German, French and British troops (Weintraub, 2001).

Discussion

The Christmas Truce is a term that is used to explain numerous brief ceasefires that were held unofficially during the time of Christmas and Christmas Eve. It was a pact that was observed between German, British and French troops in the trenches during the First World War world, especially those between British and German troops situated along the Western Front in the year 1914, and to a slighter degree in 1915. In 1915, there was a parallel Christmas ceasefire among German and French forces. In 1915 and 1916, a truce was also held at Easter on the Eastern Front (Duffy, ...