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Henry Williamson, 1915, having been commissioned.
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Remarkable account of the
1914 Christmas truce between British and German soldiers on the Western Front
emerges in interview with veteran, never before seen in full
By Jasper Copping8:00AM GMT 09 Mar 2014 / http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/10685149/Tarka-author-tells-of-1914-Christmas-truce.html
It was one of the most poignant episodes of the First World
War – as the guns fell silent and the troops emerged from opposing trenches to
come together in no-man’s land to exchange gifts and sing carols, during a
brief period of festive peace.
Now, almost a century on, perhaps the most moving account of
the Christmas truce of 1914 has emerged, in an interview with a veteran
recorded in the 1960s.
Henry Williamson was on a patrol in no-man’s land on
Christmas Eve just 50 yards
from the enemy lines when it became clear that an informal ceasefire was
emerging. His unit had feared they were going to come under attack at any
moment, but as the atmosphere became more relaxed, he and his comrades were
soon “walking about and laughing and talking”, with no interference from the
Germans.
Williamson, a private in the London Rifle Brigade, had been
sent on the operation from the British lines at Ploegsteert – part of the front
near to Ypres, in Belgium.
He recalled: “We crept out, trying to avoid our boots
ringing on the frozen ground, and expecting any moment to fall flat with the
machine guns opening up. And nothing happened. And within two hours we were
walking about and laughing and talking, and there was nothing from the German
side.
“And then about 11 o’clock I saw a Christmas tree going up
on the German trenches. And there was a light. And we stood still and we
watched this and we talked, and then a German voice began to sing a song –
Heilige Nacht. (from the German carol Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht, or, in
English, Silent Night).
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Henry Williamson's letters home
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“And after that, somebody, ‘come over, Tommy, come over’.
And we still thought it was a trap, but some of us went over at once, and they
came to this barbed wire fence between us which was five strands wire ... hung
with empty bully beef tins to make a rattle if they came. And very soon we were
exchanging gifts.”
The following day, the exercise was repeated. Williamson
recalled: “The whole of no-man’s land as far as we could see was grey and
khaki. There they were, smoking and talking, shaking hands, exchanging names
and addresses for after the war, to write to one another.”
Williamson – who would later become famous as the author of
Tarka the Otter- also describes an exchange with an opponent, as the two sides
were burying their dead and he observed the Germans marking their graves with
little wooden crosses, made from ration boxes, with writing, in indelible
pencil, ‘Für Vaterland und Freiheit’ - ‘For Fatherland and Freedom’.
“I said to a German, ‘excuse me but how can you be fighting
for freedom? You started the war and we are fighting for freedom’,” Williamson
said.
“And he said, ‘excuse me, English comrade – Kamerad – but we
are fighting for freedom. For our country.’ And I say, ‘You also put, ‘Here
rests in God, ein unbekannter Held ‘ – Here rests in God an unknown hero. In
God? ‘Oh yes, God is on our side.’ I said, ‘he’s on our side.’ And that was a
tremendous shock. One began to think that these chaps, who were like ourselves,
whom we liked and who felt about the war as we did,” he added. The two sides
began to argue over who would win the war, until the German said: “Well English
comrade, do not let us quarrel on Christmas Day.”
Williamson confirmed in the interview that football matches
were played during the truce but said that these had been behind the German
lines, rather than in no-man’s land, and does not specify whether they involved
both British and German troops.
The truce went on for four days before a British order came
round that fraternisation had to stop. The Germans also sent over a note saying
their senior officers were visiting the trenches that night, that they would
have to fire their machine guns, but would do so high, to avoid hitting anyone.
The interview was recorded in 1964 for the landmark BBC
series, The Great War, but only a segment was used. From Tuesday, an extended
version will be available on the BBC iPlayer, while on Friday, excerpts, along
with unseen testimony from other veterans, will be shown in a BBC Two
programme, “I Was There: The Great War Interviews”.
Williamson’s son, Richard, said that the interview had been
the only time his father had talked openly about his experiences. “He had never
talked about the war with us as children. He would tell us it wasn’t possible.
The show was a catalyst. It drew our father out,” said Mr Williamson, 79.
He said his father had found Christmas a difficult time of
year and usually wanted to be alone. He has seen a preview of the new show. “It
was very moving to see him talking again. It was almost difficult to watch
without tears.”
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Christmas Presents from Princess Mary
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Williamson had joined the Territorial Army before the war,
as a private in the London Rifle Brigade.
After the outbreak, he recalls their bayonets being taken
off to be sharpened. “When they came back we were a little bit nervous about
the sharpness, because we realised the other side had bayonets also,” he said.
Shortly after the truce, he was invalided home after a gas
attack. He remained in Britain for two years, recovering, and undergoing
training. He returned to the front near to where the Battle of the Somme had
recently been fought. But, in June 1917, he was once again injured, after
another gas attack. He recovered but was not considered fit for service on the
front, although he appears to have returned for three weeks in 1918, during
Germany’s Spring Offensive.
In his interview, he described the mud of the trenches,
which claimed the lives of some men. “Some of our chaps slipped in and were
drowned and weren’t seen until we trod on them perhaps later.” When heavy
frosts came, the mud ceased, but the trench was “half ice” and had to be
abandoned.
He also recalls waiting for an attack which, in the end was
called off. “I felt drained out and when I tried to get up I couldn’t. My knees
were wobbling.”
As well comrades killed in action, he remembered one who
died after swallowing what he thought was his rum ration. In fact, this had
been stolen from the bottle and replaced with a chemical fluid to avoid
detection. As befits someone who would go on to become a leading naturalist, he
also recalled the suffering of mules and horses used.
In his interview, Williamson also speaks poetically about
the onset of peace, when the guns fell silent on November 11, 1918.
“No more very lights going up with their greenish wavering
flare. No lilies of the dead, in the light. No flash of howitzers on the
horizon. No downward droning of the shells. no machine guns. No patrols going
out. Just nothing. Silence.”
After the war, deeply traumatised, he moved to Devon and
started to write about natural history – partly in response to his experiences.
Tarka was first published in 1927 and has never gone out of print.
However, his experiences had also driven him in other,
darker directions. His abhorrence of conflict led him to believe that it was
best avoided by strong, authoritarian leaders.
He attended the 1935 Nuremberg Rally, spoke warmly of Adolf
Hitler and became a follower of Oswald Mosley, the British fascist. However, he
later attacked Hitler as “wicked” and “Lucifer”.
Richard Williamson’s wife Anne, 77, who has written a book
chronicling her father-in-law’s war career, said: “The 1914 truce marked him
for life. His writing was cathartic and the 1964 interview gave him an
opportunity to express what he felt out loud – as opposed to the inner writing
– which no doubt helped him to come to terms with what had happened.
“The modern emphasis on his politics puzzling – actual
politics were minimal in his life. It was the prevention of war that occupied
him. He was not a fascist in the sense that we understand it today. He thought
Hitler – as an ex-soldier and having seen the same horror as he had – would
never consider another war.”
Williamson died in 1977, on the very day that the death of
Tarka was being filmed for a celebrated film adaptation.
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