An odd event during the breath of war
Christmas Truce is a mythologized event of the 20th century which has been seen as a kind of miracle, a rare moment of peace just a few months into a war that would eventually claim over 15 million lives.
On December 7 1914,Pope Benedict XV, had originally called for a Christmas truce, an idea that was officially rejected by the warring countries. But on Christmas the soldiers in the trenches declared their own unofficial truce.
At the first light of dawn on Christmas Day, some German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no-man’s-land, calling out “Merry Christmas” in their enemies’ native tongues. The Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans unarmed they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers.
The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs.They also buried casualties and repaired trenches and dugouts. After Boxing Day, meetings in no man's land dwindled out.
The truce was not observed everywhere along the Western Front. Elsewhere the fighting continued and casualties did occur on Christmas Day. Some officers were unhappy at the truce and worried that it would undermine fighting spirit.
The Christmas truce was not an example of chivalry in the depths of war, but rather a tale of subversion: when the men on the ground decided they were not fighting the same war as their superiors. With no man’s land sometimes spanning just 100 feet, enemy troops were so close that they could hear each other and even smell their cooking.
After 1914, the High Commands on both sides tried to prevent any truces on a similar scale happening again.
Still, a century later, the truce has been remembered as a testament to the power of hope and humanity in a truly dark hour of history.
Collected by: Duc Thai Hoang
Source: History.com
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Vocabulary:
- Truce /truːs/: Thỏa thuận đình chiến
- An agreement between enemies or opponents to stop fighting for an agreed period of time; the period of time that this lasts.
+ To call/break a truce.
- Trench /trentʃ/: (quân sự) hào
- A long deep hole dug in the ground, for example for carrying away water.
- A long deep hole dug in the ground in which soldiers can be protected from enemy attacks (for example in northern France and Belgium in the First World War).
+ Life in the trenches.
+ Trench warfare.
- ˈno-man's-land: (quân sự) vành đai trắng
- An area of land between the borders of two countries or between two armies, that is not controlled by either.
- plum pudding ( or Chrismast pudding): Bánh pudding mận
- A hot pudding (= a sweet dish) like a dark fruit cake, traditionally eaten in Britain at Christmas.
- dugout / ˈdʌɡaʊt / : (quân sự) hầm trú ẩn
- A rough shelter made by digging a hole in the ground and covering it, used by soldiers.
- A shelter by the side of a football (soccer) or baseball field where a team's manager, etc. can sit and watch the game.
- chivalry / ˈʃɪvəlri / : tinh thần thượng võ
- Polite and kind behaviour that shows a sense of honour, especially by men towards women.
- (in the Middle Ages) the religious and moral system of behaviour which the perfect knight was expected to follow.
- subversion /sʌb'və:ʃn/ : (sự) lật đổ
- To try to destroy a person’s belief in sb or st
- testament / ˈtestəmənt / : minh chứng, di chúc, chúc thư
- ~ (to sth) a thing that shows that sth else exists or is true.
- [ countable ] = will
This is the last will and testament of…
