Lettre d'un soldat lors de la trêve noël

December 27, 1914

      Hello Mom,

 I hope you are well and Lynda too, I've been gone for three months but I'm already exhausted and I miss you.

 We succeeded in pushing back the German troops on the western front. It was horrible, I was afraid to die and never see you again, I was afraid to kill but I was still shooting, I saw so many people die around me.  

I've been scared and sad without you for three months and this month of December has destroyed me even more, telling me that I won't make Christmas with you and that I would do it seeing dead people but you don't I will never believe something incredible happened, something that gave me some hope in all this horror.  

It was Christmas night, and I was tired so I was resting with other soldiers in the trenches. After a while, no one was shooting and we noticed that on the German side there were small lights with  Christmas decorations and even fir trees. At first, I didn't understand what was going on. We were ordered to be on our guard because we thought it was a trap, a ruse by the Germans and that's when we heard Christmas carols from the other side in the enemy trenches. At first, I thought I was hallucinating and my senses were playing tricks on me, but we've all heard it. The Germans sang "silent night" and "holy night”. And we started singing with them.

 The next day at dawn, the German soldiers started to come out slowly waving their hands and no one dared to shoot, waiting to see what our enemies were preparing for us.  We soon realized they didn't want to hurt us and have some sort of truce so we started going out too until we saw our enemies who were all along No Man's Land. At first, it was a little weird, we didn't know what to say in front of them and above all, we didn't speak the same language so we shook hands and after a while, the soldiers who spoke several languages ​​told us to be allowed to communicate with each other. We then exchanged beers, cigarettes, or even chocolate but also equipment. It was a bit like a Christmas present, I received chocolate and a German helmet. It was a very warm atmosphere even though it was very cold, we also took pictures, it felt like the war was over. At one point we even played football and my team won. This day really did me good. I didn't expect to experience a Christmas like that during the war, unfortunately, we had to go back to our camps but for the moment it's still calm.  

No one is shooting and I hope it stays that way because I don't know if I can shoot them, I don't really see them as enemies anymore. They are humans like me who are afraid of dying and not seeing their families.

 I hope I will celebrate Christmas with you or our birthdays and other celebrations next year.  On your side, was Christmas so merry? Were you able to celebrate even with everything going on? I can't wait to hug you both, I hope to see you soon...

                                                                                                            Your son, James.

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