Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Bogle bom here with another classic episode
Speaker 1: from our archives. The Holidays are supposed to be a
Speaker 1: time of peace and togetherness, but of course wars don't
Speaker 1: stop for the holidays, whether it's within our families or
Speaker 1: among our nations. But today's episode is the story of
Speaker 1: one time that war did stop for Christmas. High brain
Speaker 1: Stuff Lauren Bogle bam here Today, I've got a Christmas
Speaker 1: story for you, and I promise it has a happy ending.
Speaker 1: The beginning is a little bit harsh though a World
Speaker 1: War One gave the world its first brush with efficient
Speaker 1: and widespread death. More than eight point five million people
Speaker 1: would lose their lives to the war. Troops used trench
Speaker 1: warfare for the first time. The hundreds of miles of
Speaker 1: trenches that marked the landscape from the English Channel to
Speaker 1: Switzerland held an astounding average of one soldier for every
Speaker 1: four inches. Both sides held tenaciously to their positions. The
Speaker 1: Battle of Verdun lasted nine months, caused three hundred thousand
Speaker 1: deaths and resulted in almost no change in the position
Speaker 1: of the lines. New technology made its way into battlefields
Speaker 1: of France, Germany and Belgium, bringing death to soldiers in
Speaker 1: new horrible ways. Machine Guns, which had made their debut
Speaker 1: in the American Civil War, became more efficient over the
Speaker 1: ensuing decades, and by the early twentieth century they could
Speaker 1: deal six hundred rounds per minute. Chemical warfare was refined
Speaker 1: in the form of mustard, chlorine and phosgene gas. Airplanes
Speaker 1: were used for the first time in major combat, including
Speaker 1: the concept of mass casualty bombings. The tank and the
Speaker 1: flamethrower both made their debuts with mixed results, and the
Speaker 1: casualties of World War One extended to civilians, making the
Speaker 1: Great War a total war. In the midst of all
Speaker 1: this madness, however, an event took place that serves to
Speaker 1: renew a little faith in humanity. The Christmas Truce was
Speaker 1: a brief moment of sanity, standing out against the chaos
Speaker 1: of war. One of the first public statements Pope Benedict
Speaker 1: the fifteenth made when he was elected to the papacy
Speaker 1: was to plea for a truce on Christmas Day. Although
Speaker 1: the Germans entertained the idea of a Christmas truce, the
Speaker 1: Allied forces rejected it. Benedict's request fell to the wayside.
Speaker 1: World War One had begun in Earnest on the Western
Speaker 1: Front in the Flanders area of Belgium. The Christmas season
Speaker 1: arrived amid heavy fighting. Both sides were dug in and miserable.
Speaker 1: Soldiers learned what it meant to live in discomfort and fear.
Speaker 1: In some cases, enemy soldiers fought from trenches just thirty
Speaker 1: yards or twenty seven ms from one another. All along
Speaker 1: the front that Christmas, British and German troops received packages.
Speaker 1: Inside they found notes of appreciation, chocolates, putting, tobacco and
Speaker 1: other tokens. In their packages, the German troops received Christmas trees.
Speaker 1: The small trees at tenen Bombs in German were sent
Speaker 1: to the front perplete with small candles to light. On
Speaker 1: Christmas Eve of nineteen fourteen, German soldiers lit the candles
Speaker 1: and set some trees up on the ledges of their trenches.
Speaker 1: When they began singing, the British troops joined in. Wary
Speaker 1: hopeful soldiers began to peer over the trenches. As Christmas
Speaker 1: broke over Flanders, a truce was carved. From the spirit
Speaker 1: of the season. Germans held up signs unifight weeno fight
Speaker 1: British troops responded with signs proclaiming Merry Christmas. This Christmas
Speaker 1: did turn out to be a very one. Today's episode
Speaker 1: was written by Josh Clark and produced by Tristan McNeil
Speaker 1: and Tyler Play. For more on this and lots of
Speaker 1: other warming topics, visit how stuff works dot com. Brain
Speaker 1: Stuff is a production of My heart Radio. Or more
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