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Meetings in No Man's Land: Christmas 1914 and Fraternization in the Great War First British Edition
Author(s): Marc Ferro (Author), Malcolm Brown (Author), Rémy Cazals (Author), Olaf Mueller (Author)
- Publisher: Constable
- Publication Date: 25 Oct. 2007
- Edition: First British Edition
- Language: English
- Print length: 256 pages
- ISBN-10: 1845295137
- ISBN-13: 9781845295134
Book Description
The soldiers ‘football match’ and the unofficial ceasefire of Christmas 1914 has become a legend of the Great War, but fraternization between enemy troops was actually widespread. In winter 1914, after months of marching, soldiers on both fronts began to dig trenches, and the war became a battle of attrition in which young men faced each other across what was often only a few yards of the muddy, bombed landscape called No Man’s Land. Trapped in this devastation the soldiers of both armies experienced a shared feeling of pointlessness that culminated in the unofficial armistice of Christmas 1914, when German and English soldiers laid down their weapons for a few hours of joyful peace and carol singing. Using original research from the best European historians and discovering a history forgotten or lost in censor reports, officer journals and official reports, these brief moments of humanity are explored on all fronts during the long years of conflict.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Moving and thought-provoking
— The Good Book Guide, review
— The Good Book Guide, review
About the Author
Malcolm Brown is our leading World War I historian. He is the author of Twelve Days on the Somme, Verdun 1916, and The Imperial War Museum Book of the Western Front. Marco Ferro is the most esteemed militry historian in France and director of studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes. Remy Cazals is the professor of history at the University of Toulouse. Olaf Mueller is a researcher who has worked on a number of books on the Great War.
