The Christmas truce was a series of widespread unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front of the First World War around Christmas 1914. The following year, a few units arranged ceasefires but the truces were not nearly as widespread as in 1914; this was, in part, due to strongly worded orders from commanders, prohibiting truces. Soldiers were no longer amenable to truce by 1916. The war had become increasingly bitter after the human losses suffered during the battles of 1915. Units were encouraged to mount raids and harass the opposing line, whilst communicating with the enemy was discouraged by artillery barrages along the front line throughout the day. In December 1916 and 1917, German overtures to the British for truces were recorded without any success. - Thank you to Finn Delves (again) for the video idea and to Karl Sternau (also again!) for the kind use of his song which you can find here: If you like German
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