archiwalia arch2

Pte Malcolm Howard Grigg (left) and Pte Ernest John Andrew (third right) of the London Rifle Brigade with German soldiers from the 104th and 106th Saxon Regiments on Christmas Day 1914. In a letter home, Pte Grigg refers to having his photograph taken with the enemy by a fellow soldier called Turner. INCREDIBLE unpublished photographs showing German and British troops standing together on the Western Front during the Christmas Truce of 1914 have been revealed in a new book. The black and white pictures showed British and German soldiers talking and smoking pipes in the festive peacetime, and the Northumberland Hussars and German officers meeting in No Man?s Land as they happily posed for a photo opportunity. Other images revealed how some troops took the Christmas Day Truce as an opportunity to relax as men from the Scottish regiment enjoyed a Christmas dinner at a nearby farmhouse whilst being watched by the farmer?s daughter, whilst others took the time to inspect a flooded trench and fill sandbags. The images feature in the new book, Christmas Truce by the Men Who Took Part Letters from the 1914 Ceasefire on the Western Front by Mike Hill. It is published by Fonthill Media. The book includes hundreds of first-person accounts in the form of letters sent by men of the English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh regiments who met and shared jokes, songs, dances and swapped gifts with the enemy - offering an eye-opening account of the temporary armistice. On Christmas Eve 1914, men from the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) heard German troops in the trenches singing carols. Then on Christmas Day, British and German soldiers met in No Man?s Land and took photographs, buried casualties and repaired their dugouts and trenches. Some famously played games of football against each other. Not everywhere on the Western Front acknowledged the truce and elsewhere casualties did occur, with some officers worried that the peace would undermine the fighting spirit just five months into