When the world was going through the most devastating war in the history of mankind in 1914, it was then that soldiers of the two biggest enemies of each other, Britain and Germany, thought to celebrate Christmas together.
The letters written by Sergeant Bernard Brookes reveals this historically phenomenal incident. He was the grandfather of 58-year-old Bob Brookes who was an ex-police officer. Bob said that his grandfather’s letters reveal the exuberant way the British and German soldiers celebrated Christmas together during the 1914 World War. Sergeant Bernard Brookes was 22 when he started working for the Queen’s Westminster Rifles. While he was in France, he wrote these letters and sent them to his home.
In his letters, it is found that during the Christmas of 1914, both Britain and Germany decided to go through a peace treaty. This is also known as the First World War Christmas Truce. The letters reveal not only that the German and British troops played football together, but the Germans also entertained the British by dressing up in women’s clothes that had been stolen from a French farmhouse. They also arranged Pantomime for the British military units during the Christmas truce, the Mail Online reports.
In one of his letters, Bernard writes, “Many of the germs(sic) costumes in which had been taken from houses nearby and one fellow had a blouse, skirt, top, hat, and umbrella which caused much merriment.”
During the truce, the troops came very close to each other. They exchanged addresses to send letters to one other in hopes that everyone would survive the end of the war.
Behind the discovery of this incident, Bob Brooke played a major role in finding out those letters. Without him, it would have been difficult for us to know this unknown fact of 1914 Christmas truce.