A History Teacher Reacts | "WW1 Christmas Truce (Part 2/2)" by Extra Credits

[Music] [Music] hey youtube welcome back to another history teacher reacts video with mr. Teri's I continued my search for Christmas knowledge here on the internet merry Christmas to you guys today we're gonna finish up the two parts of the World War one Christmas truce video will series done by our friends over at extra history and if you did not see part one check that out it released it yesterday but today we're gonna go ahead and finish that up so we learned that in the first at the first Christmas in 1914 were only three four months into the war there was a very temporary truce especially between the British and the Germans on Christmas that led to them doing things like yelling carols at each Christmas carols Christmas songs at each other over no-man's land between trenches some of them even played some soccer little football match and of course that ended so we'll see what they got here in part two but if you haven't seen part one make sure you check that out alright if you like this original video make sure you give them a sub and a like if you have not already there'll be a link down in the description and if you haven't sub to my channel love to have you be a part of community and be a familiar face here alright let's go ahead and get started so this is World War one Christmas truce Christmas truce letters from the trenches see what they got for us this was a letter to a German newspaper in December of 1914 yesterday there was a fierce and terrible onslaught of Christmas packages into our trenches no man was spared in the confusion one soldier suffered a salami impaled straight into his stomach another had raisins from an exploding pastry fly directly into his eyes a third had the misfortune of having a bottle of cognac fly into his mouth it's like I mean it's like heartwarming in a way to see this stuff but it's also duly so disappointing because of what's gonna happen I mean all these people that are writing about this and they're all gonna die and most of them within the next year it's just it's it's it's tragic that from what it was because again people had no idea how long this war was gonna be they thought it was just gonna be a few weeks and this would be over and it showed kind of what they thought of things at that moment and of course it's gonna be very different down the stretch and as the war continues [Music] this little holiday special is brought to you by world of tanks use the invite code armistice if you're a new player who wants to check out the game World War one was a letter-writing war one where pencil and paper were a soldier's line of communication with friends and family and reading those letters provides some insight into what life was like in those trenches so today let's read some excerpts from those soldiers holiday letters cool now of course none of us add extra credits have ever experienced being deployed over the holidays so real quick I want to hand the mic over to somebody who has here is wargaming's military specialist Richard cutland back again to give us a little insight cool in my 30 years of service I was extremely fortunate to only spend around six Christmases away from home and family the first suspense of all Rd ditch in Northern Ireland where we've been ordered to set up an observation post to watch the comings and goings of a known IRA terrorists cold wet hungry and tired watching someone else celebrate Christmas with family and friends it was certainly a low point for us all as a young soldier the easiest thing to do was not think about it it was merely another day amongst a multitude of other days the real heartbreak occurred after marriage and children it was wrenching to explain why Daddy would not be there on such a special day tells of helping Santa at the North Pole or having to feed the reindeer quickly wore thin as my children grew older and wiser a soldier's wife has much to contend with and my own wives angst and worry during any operational tool was compounded when I was away for the holidays the Army's always tried their best of circumstances allowed if you were near a headquarters the chef's would knock up a Christmas dinner with all the trimmings well perhaps not all but they did their best with what was available unfortunately sitting with a hundred men wearing paper hats was not quite the same as Christmas dinner with your family yes we're all aware it's necessary to spend such periods away and let's face it it was part of the job but it was always a killer to be told that a deployment was imminent and Christmas would be canceled so to all those servicemen and women who find themselves away for this very special time I salute you and wish you and your families peace and happiness good thing to think of as I'm filming this it is very early Christmas morning and it's on it's easy to get stuck in your bubble about the the comforts of living in a safe place and being able to you know even celebrate a holiday holiday in general and yeah we live in our bubble when so many places in the world so many parts of the world people are unable to do things like that you know and I'm sure you know it's impossible to not take it for granted but it's important to remember them thank you Richard now let's set the scene it's Boxing Day 1914 tourism and private Henry Williamson is writing home about the most extraordinary Christmas of his life I'm writing from the trenches in my mouth is a pipe presented by the Princess Mary in the pipe is tobacco well of course you say but wait in the pipe is German tobacco from a German soldier yes a live German soldier from his own trench on Christmas Eve both armies sang carols and cheered and there was very little firing the Germans called to our men to come and fetch a cigar and our men told them to come to us this went on for some time be scary you would just within a few hours of that but blasting at each other and probably saw people dying or fearful of death I know they it would be impossible just to tune out completely the war anxiety and just assume the best in your enemy right I totally understand that you come over now you come over me just shooting each other and trying to kill each other a few hours ago until a bold Tommy crept out and stood between the trenches and the Saxon came to meet him they shook hands real MVPs thus the ice was broken our men are speaking to them now German corporal Joseph Wenzel was similarly amazed at the gathering writing what I believed to be madness several hours ago I could see now with my own eyes Bavarians and English until then the greatest of enemies shook hands talked and exchanged items a single star stood still in the sky directly above them interpreted by many as a special sign from heaven more and more joined and the entire line greeted each other for the rest of my life I shall ever forget this scene which goes to show that human feelings continue to go on even if in these times men do not know anything but killing and murdering but not in no way this it's sad no way this happens if the war had gone on longer than I had and it bit was very new was 3-4 months so most people probably just showed up and don't get it what's about to happen and what war is really like I guess but everybody held fire British riflemen john erskine 'he's unit was fraternizing in no-man's land when a soldier disobeying his officers order shot one of the germans he writes the germans immediately replied and instead of firing on where the shot came from they fired at the first person they saw unfortunately this happens to be one of our corporals who was shot through the head a most regrettable fact connected with the affair was that he has three brothers in the battalion and it must have had a disheartening effect on them the Germans apologised but it left a black mark on the day still in places the peace held until the generals ended it with artillery the spirit of the Christmas truce would be rekindled the following year albeit on a small scale in December of 1915 French soldier Louis bartha's found himself in a spontaneous ceasefire when heavy rain forced both sides to abandon their trenches he wrote Frenchmen and Germans looked at each other and saw that they were all men no different from one another they smiled exchanged comments hands reached out and grasped we shared tobacco a canteen of coffee or Pinard one day a huge devil of a German stood up on a mound and gave a speech which only the Germans could understand word for word but everyone knew what it meant because he smashed his rifle on a tree stump breaking it into applause broke out on both sides meanwhile Wow I guess it shows you to the on an individual level that's what it really shows you about soldiers you know at war the individual which is never thought of in war you think of the grand thing that they're representing I the the nation and it's the German army it's the British army it's the Brits it's the Germans when you look at know this German individual this British individual there yeah they are individuals and they're there because they're supposed to be right because they're supposed to be right and but that individual they the individual thought process is not always what it is on paper that this war is that wars are supposed to be about right and I think that that that shows that our bigshot leaders were in a furor what in the Lord's name would happen if the soldiers refused to kill each other Germans also present was thinking much the same he wrote the infantry does not shoot anymore just the crazy artillery the masters make war they have a quarrel and the workers the little men have to stand because you have different jobs right the leaders are meant to lead and perform that stuff and the soldiers are bent to carry that out and they're gonna do what their their leaders say and the leaders have a different objective specifically than an individual soldier you're right because they're giving it you're supposed to be successful and to see success in the war that's your job and as a soldier your job is simply to carry out those orders so I could totally see how it might be hard to transition it's like tell these guys who had this this wonderful evening that they put aside all these differences and the horrible things they've gone through in just a short period of time and almost maybe convincing them that do we really need to fight this war right do we really need to do this because we've just proven that we don't right at least temporarily and it might be hard to switch that turn that switch off right this peaceful switch or whatever this more hopeful switch and then turn on the kill switch literally and of course that's what these leaders their job is they can't get caught up into the emotional thing they're they're the ones who have to carry out what the big picture is they're fighting against each other is that not a great stupidity once again senior officers broke the truce with artillery and court martial threats the fighting began again and bartha's would spend three more Christmases and get over that the same was true for many others in fact Christmas of 1916 brought Canadian infantryman John McLean his first taste of combat he wrote dear mother I haven't written for over a week now but I couldn't very well we went into the trenches on Christmas Eve and were in for six days it was not too bad at all far better than I expected all our fellows came out fine except Jack I've know who got a machine-gun bullet through the leg the noise was awful but the person will get used to that after a while I spent Christmas Day in a dugout if I live to be 300 years old I will never forget this Christmas week I've heard from people fought or whatever in stories both directly and direct that one of the things that the general population does not know about war is the well I guess a couple things one is the sound and how loud war is with again the the firing right if you've ever fired a gun in any situation you know how incredibly loud it is and then add tons of them very high-powered things and then artillery and then dealing with troops that are screaming in pain like this guy probably was that we got it shot through the leg right and it's so loud and the other one I've heard that people don't understand is the smell that comes from from combat the the the blood the flesh like those sort of things I have I've heard that but I especially heard that about the sound how loud war actually is it's deafening and to be hard to get used to that but I guess I guess you do one night I was going up a trench and I saw a big great cat sitting on the parapet I'd like to tell you more but I can do that when I get home now you are doing too much worrying we're all right if a man is careful a month later he was dead meanwhile another Canadian Jack Davy was having a bittersweet Christmas he had come home after months in a POWs camp only to find himself at a military hospital in Toronto thousands of miles from his new fiancee he wrote to her on boxing darling kitty many thanks for the letter and the card with Christmas wishes we had quite a snowstorm on Christmas Eve it's quite a novelty to see a real white Christmas yesterday was a lovely day on the whole I had a good time but I hope next year won't be such a disappointment for us sweetheart surely this rotten luck of being separated at Christmas can't go on forever one week has passed since I was measured for my leg I wish that I could have it by the new year so I could start the year on both feet again it will soon be two years since I walked like a human being it seems a long time to talk about it but I can picture those fields and imagine I can see the exact spot where I fell as though it only happened yesterday I guess it'll be a long day before I forget it but I hope that all the dark days are behind us now sweetheart we just have to be happy and live long to make up for it all as the war ended and the veterans trickled home that is exactly what they tried to do yet their holidays spent in the shadow of dugouts would never fully leave them there are so many letters like these honestly deciding which ones to include was the hardest part but if this happened to capture your imagination try something later if you go home for the holidays or if you happen to already be there ask your relatives if they have any old letters lying around it's possible that the next story from the trenches might come from your own family happy holidays everybody we'll see you next year we don't live in an era where we have a lot of that I maybe would pull up your emails I guess you could do that your text messages but we don't have that that culture of drafting a message to somebody that you you proofread and you take time and to do it everything is so instant and short not well thought-out and long and preserve we don't quite have that anymore and that's I guess kind of sad you know to have that that it's like we can record history but are we actually recording history you know in this moment but anyway I'm glad we took this out I think it's it's good to understand because this this this whole scenario of this this truce is such an interesting part of history and tells you a lot about it so it honestly does tell you a lot about the era and the war because you can see how as this war is starting the ideas of it are different than what they're going to end up being right you see a lot of these letters of positivity coming out and then those people are dead within days it completely changes right but it does show you again a lot of the things that the war hadn't worn on them yet and again you would never see anything like this in the later Christmases for the war because of the devastating nature of it in that next year in 1915 of course it's going to get even more violent more dangerous and yeah I mean all those people that they were just talking about they're all they're all gonna die I mean they're all gonna die all those people that went in that early they don't they don't come out but now go to introspective to of just looking at the war and looking these these like letters for example are so important because we do have a tendency to not humanize wars when we study them in history we look at K what are the events but don't actually talk about anything about personal experiences and I try to at least in my classroom get people get get get the students to understand that that you know when you look at like a list of casualties it's easy to be like okay eight million people die or whatever in World War one and and just to think that as an ambiguous number that doesn't mean anything right but every single one of those is is a person with a story that had a life up to that point and then will die right and will not finish that out like all these people we said we just heard letters from they're not they're not going to live that's a person that's a brother that's a sister that's a parent it's a future parent it's a lot of things and I think those are those are good to be able to have yeah if you have you know people in your life that have been in these major events and you want to get their first hand perspective it's a good thing even if they don't have letters just to talk to them about that about what those things are because I think it gets you to think about what war is and why it's used and what the experiences are like because it is such a concept that's easy to be totally backed off and abstract from with again we just it's easy to make Wars very nameless and impersonal very very easy to do that so this was great I'm sorry to put if that was like a downer especially here on Christmas but I think it's important that we we understand what what Christmas can be like right can can be like for people like and one of the most tragic events that that's ever happened but regardless of that if you celebrate Christmas merry Christmas to you Happy New Year coming up - to the end of the new year here or ever time you're in yes congrats to you and whatever it is that you're doing so all right we'll go ahead and end here and again if you have not sub to them make sure you do that linked down to this video will be down below at least give them a like love it to have you as a sub here also if you'd like to join our discord server just got a lot of active history minded and social communities down there there's a link down below to the discord down there below there's at least they think about 4,300 people that are members right now at this moment and a great way to go connect with with other people that are history minded like you even if you're not a deep historian it's not a big deal it's just a community for people that have a common interest in history all right with that we'll go ahead and ends here again Merry Christmas Happy New Year and we'll see you next time bye [Music] you

Channel: Mr. Terry History

Views: 34,330

Keywords: react, history, ww1, christmas

Id: 8py-P2kZbJI

Length: 20min 16sec (1216 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 25 2019