Meeting the Enemy
I think everybody knows about the football match played between the British and Germans on Christmas Day 1914. The Newcastle Journal of 6 January 1915 reproduced a letter from an officer in the Honourable Artillery Corps to a Mr Noble of Broomhill Collieries: he mentions the improvement in weather from wet and muddy to cold and dry, a vast improvement, and expresses the wish that he was,at that time, 2ft tall instead of 6ft 2 ins. He also says; "Perhaps you may have heard how we spent our Christmas Day. It was the most extraordinary thing possible - mixing up and holding long talks with the enemy out in the open, and not a shot fired on either side. I got a jolly good German helmet, which I am going to try and send home when we get back to billets".
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