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EQUIPMENT
The assembly can be used without images, but would be enhanced by a way to show a slide show of pictures – available at the link page. Ask a teacher about the logistics of getting one particular class to stand up during assembly.
INTRODUCTION
Say: 2,000 years ago Jesus was born and the angels declared, ‘Peace on Earth!’ 100 years ago, the First World War began. It was one of the most terrible wars in history. In December 1914 an extraordinary event occurred – enemy soldiers stopped fighting and celebrated Christmas together. In this assembly, we will learn about that.
WHAT WAS THE FIRST WORLD WAR ABOUT?
Ask: Which countries were in the First World War, and what was it about? Give the group the chance to respond before saying: powerful countries including Britain, France and Germany were competing with each other to be the strongest countries in the world with the largest empires and greatest armies, and this led to the war. Thousands of young men and teenage boys (who lied about their age) joined the British army to go and fight the German army, which had invaded France and Belgium.
CONDITIONS IN THE TRENCHES
Say: The First World War was the first ‘industrial’ war; new weapons including machine guns and aircraft made the battlefields more dangerous than ever before. For example, in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, 20,000 British men were killed on the first day alone. In order to survive, both sides made ‘trenches’ – networks of ditches, holes, tunnels and rooms dug in the ground and supported by sandbags to protect themselves from enemy fire. The British and German trenches were usually between 50 and 250 metres apart, with the space between them known as ‘no man’s land’. When told to attack the enemy, hundreds of men would charge into no man’s land, running into a ‘storm of steel’ – bullets and artillery shells.
Ask one class to stand up. Tell the assembly that when war broke out so-called ‘Pals battalions’ were formed when brothers, cousins, friends, workmates and – like these young people, former school classmates joined up together. One example is the so-called ‘Accrington Pals’ battalion from Accrington, Lancashire (slide 17). On the first day of the Battle of The Somme, July 1st 1916, 586 of the 720 men who took part were killed, wounded, or missing in action (over 80 per cent). Direct four-fifths of class to sit as illustration. On that day alone 20,000 British men were killed.
Soldiers didn’t just suffer because of enemy fire. Ask the group what they think conditions in the trenches were like. With poor toilet and washing facilities, trenches became infested with lice, beetles, diseases, and hordes of rats gorging on dead bodies. Trenches often stank of excrement and rotting corpses. Many wounded men were sucked into the deep mud and drowned.
WHAT HAPPENED AT CHRISTMAS IN 1914?
When men joined the army at the outbreak of war in the summer of 1914, many believed that it would be over by Christmas. But by Christmas Eve there was no sign of an end. The British and German trenches were so close that enemy soldiers could see each other and shout messages across to each other. Therefore in some places soldiers arranged ‘truces’ – they agreed not to fight. It is described by a soldier from Gateshead, writing a letter home on Christmas Day:
‘Last night the Germans lit up their trenches and started calling across “Merry Christmas”. We responded in the same way and then we started singing songs to one another, carols etc. All shooting had stopped. We walked about the tops of the trenches and called out to one another. Then some of our chaps walked out and met some of the Germans half way, wishing each other a merry Christmas, shook hands and said they would not fight today.’
Ask: Does anybody know what else they did? We know from diaries and letters home that in different places soldiers sang carols recognisable to both sides (such as ‘Silent night’), buried their dead, put up Christmas trees, exchanged gifts, shared festive food and drink, posed for photographs together, sang and entertained each other, held joint Christian worship services and played football. Some swapped names and addresses and promised to write after the war.
THE END OF THE TRUCES
Ask: What do you think the heads of the military thought of the truces, and what action did they take? They were furious, and gave orders to the men to start shooting again. Many refused, or made agreements with German soldiers to pretend to fight. Some who refused were punished and new soldiers sent to the trenches to replace them. Sergeant George Ashurst, second Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, wrote:
‘Eventually, we got orders to come back down into the trench, “Get back in your trenches, every man!” The order came round by word of mouth down each trench. Some people took no notice. Anyway, the generals behind must have seen it and got a bit suspicious, so they gave orders for a battery of guns behind us to open fire and a machine gun to open out, and officers to fire their revolvers at the Jerries. That started the war again. We were cursing the generals.’
A DIFFERENT KIND OF NATION
The First World War was a tragedy that killed 15 million people. The Christmas truces are remembered as a glimpse of hope in it. They were made possible by shared traditions of Christian celebration. But they point to a deeper truth in the Christian faith. There’s a verse in the Bible, Galatians 3:28, that says, ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek [or, we could say today, British or German], slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.’ This means that those who follow Jesus are one big new international family, whatever their nationality. The Christmas truces were only temporary; but the Bible says that when Jesus returns to earth, he will put an end to war for ever. That is the message of peace that the angels told the shepherds that first Christmas, 2,000 years ago.
