Christmas of 1914 by Hannah

Dear Mum, Dad and my darling sister, Jane                                                            December,26,1914
    It is the day after Christmas and I am wishing that I was home with you. I can just see you all sitting around our glowing tree.
     We soldiers celebrated Christmas in such an odd way yesterday. On Christmas Eve as we were firing upon the Germans we looked across No Man's and and saw that the Germans had lit candles on one of the trees. We could faintly hear them singing Christmas carols. The words were in German but we all knew the tune. It was Silent Night. The boys on our side began to sing it in English. Before we knew it almost all of the wesernfront had ceased fire. Peace reigned along the lines. When dawn broke on Christmas day the guns were still silent. It was the first sunrise that I had seen in a long time that was unmarred by smoke. I looked up when heard a shout from No Man's Land. Some of our boys and some of the German boys had crossed the line and were now mingling. I climbed out of the trench and hurried to join them. The sight that met my eyes took my breath away. Food, cigars and wine was all being exchanged. Some men were trading souvenirs. A few were trading the buttons on their coats. I even saw one of our boys giving a young German a much needed hair cut. I approached a German who I guessed to be about my own age. We shook hands. I gave him my New Testament and in return he gave me a photograph of a cottage on a little hill. I assumed that it was his home. Later on there was a joint burial service for the dead on both sides. At the end we all sang some more Christmas carols. I shook hands again with the young soldier before we returned to our lines. We could not speak to each other but we smiled a lot. I returned to the trench with a new friend.
     Today we  resumed fire once again. As I sit here in the mud amongst the sand bags I look around and see on the faces of my comrades the tears that i could not hold back myself. I know that we willl be the cause of the deaths of the friends we made yesterday. I closed my eyes and prayed that the yound soldeir was somehow able to read the New Testament that I had given him. I know that his soul is in God's hands.
I am called to man one of the guns.
Know that I love you all.
Peter

P.S.                                                                                                                      December,27,1914
Last night they made a charge on our lines. We fought them hand to hand. Afterwards I found my young german friend. He had been killed on our line. I found him clasping the New Testament I had given him. I knelt down beside him and lifted up his soul to God.
Peter




OK so I shared a link to a video and you really have to see the video because if you don't see the video it ruins my story because the video goes with the story Not really but you get the idea. :)

~*~Hannah II

The link is safe, it does not have any bad advertisements that I saw and it doesn't play an ad before the video. At least, it didn't for me. I am sorry I couldn't post the video on here but it wasn't on YouTube.

This letter was based on an actual historical event. Though the writer of the letter is fictional everything else really happened.