| January 13 |  |
Editor says, what if the Second Christmas Truce had swept away "man's blind indifference to his fellow man"? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1916, on this day Private Willie McBride, a nineteen year old conscript in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, was shot dead at dawn for refusing his superior's orders to fight during the Second Christmas Truce.
Watch the Green Fields of France 
The CauseDespite the issuing of strict orders forbidding friendly communication with the opposing German troops, thousands of Allied soldiers had crossed "No Man's Land", exchanging gifts, sharing food, and engaging in games of football. Commanders on both ends had reacted with disgust at the fraternization, but nevertheless the unofficial truce lasted until after New Years' Eve in many places along the lines.
And the end of the truce was marked by widespread acts of disobedience, with many Allied soldiers refusing orders from their superiors to resume the fighting. Fearing that a rebellion would spread across the lines, the High Command ordered a major crackdown during which many servicemen were executed to set an example to their fellow soldiers.
But within a week, a breakthrough would come when Kaiser Wilhelm II used the fraternization as a positive example to demand an armistice on the Western Front.
The coming of peace was the last gasp of the militaristic old order and their repressive nineteenth century class system. Governments committed to peace and brotherhood would soon take over in London, Dublin, Berlin, St Petersburg and Paris. And to ensure that the "suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame, the killing, the dying was not done in vain" they built a great cenotaph (pictured) to the cause right next to Willie McBride's grave in Flanders.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Christmas Truce, World War 1, First World War, Countdown 1981, Peace. Editor says, in this post we revisit an original ideas proposed by Robbie Taylor, Kwame Dallas and Jeff Provine.
~ No way could I have gone back to killing the "enemy" after spending Christmas with them. Speaking as an American, WWI was the most worthless, needless war America has ever been involved in. I'm not a pacifist, but I couldn't kill a man I had just met and exchanged food and gifts with, and therefore most likely would have ended up like Willie McBride.
Great song, too. :-)
~ I like this story, we are sold the illusion that war is ultimately about making peace, when it is actually about domination. My thoughts goes out the the countless innocent victims of war this week, including the soldiers who are used as pawns.
~ Watch the Saga version.
~ With the War ending when it did, we don't have the Russian Revolution, and the twentieth century is unimaginably different.
~ The loans out to the Germans was smaller then the loan totals out to the allies. We came down on the side of the allies. Follow the money.
~ For whatever reason this program/page would not take a URL - go to youitube and search for green fields of france by saga. Fixed - above, thanks for sharing
~ I have to agree with Mr. Braungart on this one.
~ Do do I.
Kaiser Wilhelm II had a withered arm, a legacy of a delivery accident at his birth, and spent a lifetime trying to prove how tough he was in spite of that handicap. I doubt he'd have wanted to appear soft by trying to end the war "prematurely"--that is, while he still had a chance of winning., as he did in 1916
~ Takes a bigger man to demand peace; he could've turned it into a media darling with some kind of shift.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
