Clement Barker of Ipswich, Suffolk, wrote to his brother Montague on December 29th, 1914. Barker staff sergeant with the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, writes:
A messenger come over from the German lines and said that if we did not fire Xmas day, they (the Germans) wouldn’t so in the morning (Xmas day). A German looked over the trench – no shots – our men did the same, and then a few of our men went out and brought the dead in (69) and buried them and the next thing happened a football kicked out of our Trenches and Germans and English played football.
Night came and still no shots. Boxing day the same, and has remained so up to now.
This is an important contemporary eye-witness account of an event that even today is still questioned.
The History Blog » Blog Archive » WWI Christmas Truce letter on Antiques Roadshow
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