Pioneer Arno Böhme a participant of the Christmas Truce at Ploegsteert Wood on 25 December 1914. Late on Christmas Eve 1914, men of the British Expeditionary Force heard German troops in the trenches opposite them singing carols and patriotic songs and saw lanterns and small fir trees along their trenches. Messages began to be shouted between the trenches.
The following day, British and German soldiers met in no man’s land and exchanged gifts, took photographs and some played impromptu games of football. They also buried casualties and repaired trenches and dugouts. After Boxing Day, meetings in no man’s land dwindled out.
Léon, Auguste A4762
Arno and Ida Lina Böhme
Portrait photograph of Pioneer Arno Böhme of the Royal Saxon Army and his wife, Ida Lina Bohme (nee Bonitz), in 1915.
Personal message from Arno Bohme on the reverse dated 15 December 1915.
Portrait photograph of Pioneer Arno Bohme in uniform whilst serving in a pioneer unit of the Royal Saxon Army in 1915.
Personal message from Arno Bohme on the reverse.
Christmas Truce
The truce not observed everywhere along the Western Front. Elsewhere the fighting continued and casualties did occur on Christmas Day. Some officers unhappy at the truce and worried that it would undermine fighting spirit.
British and German soldiers fraternising at Ploegsteert, Belgium, on Christmas Day 1914, front of 11th Brigade, 4th Division.
Possibly Riflemen Andrew (middle) and Grigg (second from the right, background) of the London Rifle Brigade with troops of the 104th and 106th Saxon Regiments.
Second Lieutenant Malcolm Howard Grigg
Second Lieutenant Malcolm Howard Grigg killed at Trones Wood on 9 July 1916. Son of John Selby Grigg, and Gertrude Grigg, of 10, Radley Rd., Bruce Grove, Tottenham, London.
High Command
After 1914, the High Commands on both sides tried to prevent any truces on a similar scale happening again. Despite this, some isolated incidents of soldiers holding brief truces later in the war, and not only at Christmas.
Arno Bohme took part in the Christmas Truce of 1914 and features in photograph IWM Q 11718 taken by Rifleman Selby Grigg, 1/5th (City of London) Battalion (London Rifle Brigade).
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. The German soldier second from the left is Pioneer Arno Böhme.
Live and Let Live
In what was known as the ‘Live and Let Live’ system, in quiet sectors of the front line, brief pauses in the hostilities sometimes tacitly agreed, allowing both sides to repair their trenches or gather their dead.
Christmas Truce Memorial
Many war diaries report a football match occurred during the 1914 truce. Whether or not a match played is unclear. Historians still debate if a match played or if the soldiers dramatized the truce. Contrary to 1914, certain a match between German and English soldiers occurred in 1915.
The Memorial by sculptor Andrew Edwards commemorates the 1914 Christmas Truce football event near the hamlet of St. Yvon, 3 kilometres south of Messines.
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