Christmas truce

This December marks the centennial of the famous ceasefire along the Western Front during World War I. On Christmas Eve, 1914, along the four-hundred-mile frontline, enemy soldiers spontaneously emerged from their trenches, arms laid aside, to celebrate Christ’s birth together. They sang carols, exchanged gifts (jams and candies, cigarettes, newspapers), kicked around a soccer ball,…

This is a statue by Andy Edwards entitled “All Together Now” which for the next few days will be on display in St Luke’s, Liverpool’s famous “bombed out church”. The figures are about to shake hands standing over a football which relates to the time that British and German soldiers paused, apparently to play football on Christmas Day 1914. The hands do not quite meet which allows one to place a hand between them, joining the act of all too brief sanity on that day. The figures will leave…

The story that English and German soldiers faced off in a game of soccer during a cease-fire in No Man's Land has become gilded over the years.

England v Germany; The Christmas Truce, 1914

The fraternising of troops in Belgium on Christmas Day 1914. Group of German soldiers with two Englishmen. 1914-12-25 Possibly Rifleman Andrew (left) and another British soldier (third from the right, background) of the London Rifle Brigade with troops of the 104th and 106th Saxon Regiments. (Source © IWM Q 11718)

Friday 1 July 2016 marked the centenary of the beginning of the Battle of the Somme, the biggest conflict seen on the Western Front during World War I. Here are some of the most arresting photos from the war. Contains graphic images.

Respected German historian Robin Schaefer has found and translated a trove of around two dozen contemporary truce accounts, giving an insight into the perspective of the 'enemy'.

It remains a part of popular culture in Britain, so why don't people in France talk about the Christmas Truce of 1914?

Was it really all peaceful on the Western Front on Christmas 1914? We examine the myths behind the Christmas Truce. Discover your history.