A Happy Christmas

On December of 1912, Europe was in war. The continent was divided into two bands: The Triple Alliance (Germany, Italy and Austro-Hungarian Empire), and the Triple Entente (Russia, United Kingdom and France). In the village of Marseille, in France; German troops were fighting against French and British ones. It was winter, so the weather was very cold. The Germans had occupied the farm of the center of the town, so French and British soldiers couldn’t have food.

A Danish singular, Anna Sörensen; was singing for the German generals in the base located in Lyon (The Germans had captured the city). She wanted to go to the battlefield to sing to the soldiers, who weren’t happy in Christmas Eve. Anna went with his husband, Anthonie Edhimborg; a Dutch singer and German soldier. At Marseille, she started to sing the song “I dream with my home”. The priest who was in the British camp, started to play the bag-pipe with the same melody. Both armies started to sing the same song. Anthonie Edhimborg got out of the trench at the same time of the priest. Both people talked and the British and German armies also got out and started to talk. The French soldiers were surprised; how in middle of the war; some soldiers, enemy soldiers, could talk like this!

The French general, Louis D’ Marion, got out of his trench. He talked with his German and British counterparts and they decided not to fight in Christmas celebration, a comfortable decision for their soldiers. At 9:00 p.m., 24th of December, the priest gave a mass to all the soldiers. But 4 days passed and the 3 armies were more and more friendly. They were happy with each other. Some people say that the played a soccer game! A French soldier wrote a letter to his mom in Paris in which he told her all the story. They were at war, therefore his letter was spied by the French government in Paris. The Germans had a complice in Paris that sent all the information to Lyon. The German soldiers were sent to fight at the west of Prusia to fight against Russia. The British general was changed and French one was taken to recover Lyon. We can say that the German, British and French soldiers had, at the first time during all war, a Happy Christmas.