For many years, British and German football fans have been leaving their club scarves at the site of the Christmas Truce match of 1914 in Flanders.
Now the footballing authorities have followed suit, paying tribute to the moment when soldiers laid down their weapons, climbed from the trenches and briefly turned a killing field into a football field.
In Flanders on Thursday and at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire on Friday, dignitaries gathered to lay wreaths, unveil memorials and remember the fallen. His Royal Highness, the Duke of Cambridge, left a handwritten message on the wreath of poppies which read: “Remembering the Christmas Truce and honouring the humanity and sacrifice of all those involved. William.”
Throughout the day, teachers were rearranging schedules to show pupils a powerful film made by Uefa, scripted by Michael Morpurgo and with famous players reading from soldiers’ letters, telling the story of the Christmas Truce.
“The Germans started singing and shouting all in good English,’’ read Wayne Rooney, staring intently into the camera. “Their band played some Christmas carols and God Save the King.” When the Germans sang “Stille Nacht”, the British joined in with “Silent Night”.
One hundred years on and 250 miles to the north, the chamber choir of nearby Repton School, an academic establishment with strong connections to football via alumnus Will Hughes and dating back to the Victorians’ codification of the game, sang “Stille Nacht”, timed perfectly to avoid the goods trains clanking past a fittingly muddy field in Staffordshire.
Back in classrooms, pupils watched the Uefa film, listening to the narrative continued by Sir Bobby Charlton of soldiers with “goodwill in their eyes” stepping into no-man’s land, hands outstretched. They swapped cigarettes, looked at faded photographs of each others’ loved ones waiting anxiously back home, dreading the telegram from Whitehall or Berlin.
Somebody suggested a game of football. “Football in No-Man’s Land, for goodness sake!’’ read an emotional Paul Breitner from one of the German missives. “Can you believe it? Not the best of pitches but it’ll have to do. We’ve got goalposts and a ball and two teams. What else do we need?”
Even at war, football was never far from soldiers' thoughts
Bastian Schweinsteiger, a worthy heir to Breitner’s great tradition, took up the story. “The English brought a football from the trenches and pretty soon a lively game ensued. How marvellously wonderful yet how strange it was. This Christmas, the celebration of love managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends.” As Charlton concluded in the film, again reading from a soldier’s missive home: “We played the same game, liked the same beer, tread the same ground. Under the uniforms we are all the same.”
Historians have researched the Christmas Truce, sifting myth from fact, to confirm there was a series of small kickabouts yet also that blood continued to be shed over Christmas along other stretches of the Western Front. Yet the chronicle of football uniting, of a kinship “under the uniforms”, carries such resonance because it highlighted the utter inhumanity and futility of that conflict.
“George Orwell thought football was a substitute for war which is no bad thing,’’ said Gordon Taylor yesterday. “A handshake between adversaries is much better use of the hands than holding weapons.”
It takes a special occasion for English football’s dysfunctional family to gather in one place yet all bar Richard Scudamore, who was in Mumbai, were present in Staffordshire. They congregated under canvas looking out into a muddy field where a new memorial to the Christmas Truce was being dedicated by Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge. David Gill, Mike Foster, Shaun Harvey, Taylor and Richard Bevan sat in one row. Greg Dyke was there, so was David Sheepshanks and the managers of the respective England men’s and women’s teams, Roy Hodgson and Mark Sampson, all listening to the president of the Football Association.
Roy Hodgson, the England manager, talks to Prince William at the tribute
“We all grew up with the story of soldiers from both sides putting down their arms to meet in No-Man’s Land on Christmas Day 1914 – when gunfire remarkably gave way to gifts,’’ said Prince William. “It remains wholly relevant today, as a message of hope and humanity, even in the bleakest of times. Football, then as now, had the power to bring people together and break down barriers.
“It is vital that, 100 years on, we keep the Christmas Truce story alive when hands that had held weapons came together in peaceful greeting. This week, teams at every level of the game have been coming together before matches to unite for mixed team photos – evoking the spirit of the Christmas Truce. This weekend, young footballers from the nations who fought against each other in 1914 will come together in Ypres to compete in the Premier League Christmas Truce international tournament.’’
Yesterday afternoon, the Hearts Under-12s were taken to the Loos Memorial to pay homage to inside left James Speedie, the first Hearts player to sign up in 1914 and the first to die. Another name etched in the wall of the cemetery is that of Capt Fergus Bowes-Lyon, the great, great uncle of Prince William.
British and German soldiers are pictured during the Truce, peacefully together
Next Wednesday, the match will be re-created by the British and German armies at Aldershot Town, “which promises to be truly poignant as serving soldiers repeat this remarkable occasion 100 years on”, added Prince William.
Many clubs have staged remembrances of the Truce. Crystal Palace held a service on Tuesday when 1,500 staff, fans and manager Neil Warnock gathered in the Holmesdale Road Stand to commemorate what the club called “The Silent Night of World War One”, a carol service remembering the Truce. “On what was a profoundly moving evening, Prince Philip Kiril of Prussia, the great-great grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II [who was a highly significant figure in taking Germany to war in 1914], asked for forgiveness for his great-great grandfather‘s actions that led to countless lives being lost,’’ said the club.
Up in Staffordshire, Prince William was joined in unveiling the statue of British and German soldiers shaking hands by the young designer Spencer Turner from Farne Primary in Newcastle. Turner’s family, friends, teachers and classmates were present, some sporting Newcastle United bobble hats.
Donald Bell played for Newcastle as well as Palace and Bradford Park Avenue. Bell perished attempting to subdue a German machine-gun post at the Somme, five days after winning a VC for silencing a similar nest. A group of football’s leaders including Dyke and Taylor visited the Somme in March with Taylor laying the VC (which the PFA had bought) on Bell’s grave. “We all shed a tear,’’ recalled Dyke. “I found the whole experience of the visit incredibly moving, partly because my own grandmother lost all three of her brothers in the First World War and this was the first time I fully understood the enormity of her loss.’’
A bugler played The Last Post and guests slowly dispersed, some lingering to admire the statue. One of Turner’s classmates approached Hodgson to make a point on who he felt should be England’s captain. “Who’s got the most good attitude, because Rooney hasn’t,’’ declared the boy. “He has,’’ countered Hodgson. “No, Baines is the captain.” “I’ll tell him you said that,’’ smiled Hodgson.
Roy Hodgson obliges a young fan with a photograph
Yet Rooney (and the likes of Baines) has long showed an interest in history, even visiting Auschwitz when England were based in Krakow during Euro 2012. “Wayne told me he wanted to go back with his wife,’’ said Hodgson. “The players are interested. The public perception that players only care about football and fast cars is very, very wrong. They have a very great interest in these things. There was no difficulty getting the players to come with me here and meet Spencer the last time we were together.’’
Hodgson also placed a wreath in front of Turner’s memorial and was clearly moved by the occasion. “The bugler was incredible, the way the sound echoed, and the singing from the Repton choir was beautiful,’’ continued the England manager. “It just goes to show the power of football to bring unity, and contrast that with the disaster of war which not only brought disunity but the loss of so many lives.
“My grandfather was a full-time soldier, who was at the Somme, and ended up in the Royal Hospital [in Chelsea] at the end of his days as a result of his army service. He died when I was six or seven, and I never got the chance to discuss the war with him. People didn’t talk about the war. It was such a traumatic time.”
The emotiveness of the dedication was enhanced by the presence of Second World War veterans, some in wheelchairs, medals pinned to their coats. “My father was in the Desert Rats, Eighth Army with Monty, El Alamein, right the way through to the end of the war,’’ continued Hodgson. “He drove a petrol lorry, quite a dangerous job. My mother was in the Land Army. The new generation do have the interest. The players are very interested. They learnt about it at school but sometimes at school you don’t pay enough attention.”
Military historians have been in to talk to the England players. They paid rapt attention, especially those like Joe Hart, whose grandfather was in the RAF in the Second World War.
As Hodgson left the Arboretum, he passed a huge memorial etched with the names of all members of the Armed Forces who lost their lives in the service of their country. One wall was blank. Tragically one day it will be filled with the names of other young heroes and heroines who made the ultimate sacrifice.
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