A RARE recording made by one of the few witnesses to the famous Christmas Truce in the trenches has been released to mark the 100th anniversary of the historic moment.
Audio courtesy of National Army Museum
Newcastle-born George Jameson was a corporal stationed at Ypres on Christmas Day 1914 when, to his disbelief, word spread that German soldiers were clambering out of his trenches to mix with Allied soldiers in No Man’s Land.
The unofficial ceasefire, agreed by ordinary soldiers to the horror of High Command, has become an enduring symbol of humanity on the battlefield.
Soldiers, who had spent months firing at each other, spontaneously emerged from their trenches to swap gifts, share rations, sing carols and even played football, immortalized on screen, most recently Sainsbury’s controversial Christmas advert.
Few first-hand accounts of the truce survive, but the National Army Museum has now released a remarkable recording made in 1991 with Corporal Jameson, who remembers the moment the guns fell silent and a temporary peace broke out on the Western Front.
Then aged 22, the former Durham University student recalls the moment that a pal burst in and told him; “There’s nobody fighting anybody – they’re going talking to each other”.
He said: “One of my pals in my section, he said the ration parties going back and forward to the front are saying the Jerries are walking around on the top.
“Well, I thought, he’s stringing me along! No, no, he was absolutely positive that the Germans are walking about on the top.”
Soon, soldiers were arriving back wearing German military caps and carrying fistfuls of cigars.
Cpl Jameson, who was serving with the Northumberland Hussars, remembered hearing the Bavarian regiment opposite singing as he crept out into No Man’s Land..
“They were singing all sorts of carols and things at that time. They weren’t wanting to fight or anything, none of them – they went through the motions, so to speak, but there was no real war going on.”
The informal truce took place only once, in the early months of the war, with military leaders ensuring there was no repeat the following year.
Cpl Jameson added: “The general impression was the war was going to be over by Christmas, or very nearly that, well this is part of the way towards it.
“But the top brass soon put paid to all that, you see, and the Germans did the same thing”.
George Jameson survived the war, rising to Captain and winning the Military Cross for heroism on the battlefield, before returning home to work for Consett Iron Company and eventually moving to London.
He died in 1999, aged 106, but not before his extraordinary eyewitness account was recorded by staff from the National Army Museum.
To mark the centenary of the truce, George Jameson’s interview has now been published as an audio file on the Soldier’s Stories section on the museum’s website www.nam.ac.uk/first-world-war
Personal accounts of the war are being added to the site month-by-month and piece together the development of the war through the voices of those directly involved.
Read more about the North-East's role in the First World War on The Northern Echo's centenary website, thenortheastatwar.co.uk and search over 1,800 records of soldiers from the region
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here