Wendy McElroy on the 100th Anniversary of the Christmas Truce of WWI
(The Illustrated London News)
One hundred years ago British and German soldiers used the Christmas season to force a temporary truce in the bloody trenches of France during World War I. Beginning the week before Christmas, troops from both sides ignored their officers and began to fraternize. As Wendy McElroy writes, on Christmas Eve, enemies sang hymns together, exchanged chocolate and cigars, played soccer, and arranged to collect and bury the dead.