Image: Sean Linnane
" It was Christmas in 1914, 96 long years ago, and World War I, the “war to end war” raged through Europe. In Belgium and France, in what in later years would come to be known as “Flanders Field,” British soldiers fought against the German soldiers. The conditions couldn’t have been worse for these men, on either side of this war. The trenches were so thick with mud, so deep, so damp and cold that the soldiers could have frozen to death, let alone be killed by the constant shelling or from other weapons of war. Each soldier had but one duty: kill the other man. The very idea of peace, even a simple truce was the farthest thing from any man’s mind.
Yet that was exactly what happened at Christmas — peace broke out. With a vengeance. The Berkshire Regiment had been fighting with the XIX Corps of the German Army. Suddenly, small pine trees began appearing on top of the trenches were the German soldiers were. Odd, the Berkshire Regiment must have thought..."
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