Last allied witness of WWI Christmas truce dies

Last allied witness of WWI Christmas truce dies
By Peter Graff 1 hour, 14 minutes ago
LONDON (Reuters) - The last known surviving allied veteran of the Christmas Truce that saw German and British soldiers shake hands between the trenches in World War One died Monday at 109, his parish priest said.

Alfred Anderson was the oldest man in Scotland and the last known surviving Scottish veteran of the war.

"I remember the silence, the eerie sound of silence," he was quoted as saying in the Observer newspaper last year, describing the day-long Christmas Truce of 1914, which began spontaneously when German soldiers sang carols in the trenches, and British soldiers responded in English.

"All I'd heard for two months in the trenches was the hissing, cracking and whining of bullets in flight, machinegun fire and distant German voices. But there was a dead silence that morning across the land as far as you could see.

"We shouted 'Merry Christmas' even though nobody felt merry. The silence ended early in the afternoon and the killing started again."

Troops in the trenches swapped cigarettes, uniform buttons and addresses and even played football in one of the most extraordinary episodes of the war.

Parish priest Neil Gardner of Anderson's Alyth Parish Church in Scotland said he had died in his sleep and was survived by a large family, including 18 great grandchildren and two great great grandchildren.

"He was a wonderful old man: he was gracious, gentle, he had a great sense of humor and a fine sense of wisdom from his experience spanning three centuries," said Gardner, who also served as chaplain to Anderson's regiment, the Black Watch.

Anderson also served briefly as a member of the household staff of Queen Elizabeth's uncle, Fergus Bowes-Lyon.

With Anderson's death, fewer than 10 British veterans of the war remain alive, of whom only three or four were veterans of trench warfare on the Western Front.

Attention has turned to the last survivors in recent weeks, with filmmakers bringing out documentaries in time for this month's Armistice Day holiday, marking the day the guns fell silent on November 11, 1918.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051121/od_nm/britain_veteran_dc

 

Verterans of the Great War are slowly moving on. I think there are 30 or so remaining WWI veterans in the US - it's getting to the point where each one's passing makes the news.

Godspeed.

 

Going over the top. Gee, can you imagine what must been going thru their minds the second, third, etc time that they had to do that?

 

The "Christmas Truce" of WWI was an amazing series of events. Driven mostly by religious German soldiers, the truce was not an event which occurred only in one place. Disparate truces took place over a large part of the Western Front. It became such a problem for the Allies, that the military establishment was prepared to shoot a lot of their own troops. The old saw, "What if they threw a war and nobody came?", actually happened, at least for a while.

There were soccer games and entertainers performing in "no man's land" from both sides. Singers, world-class musicians, etc., even a magician. The German magician ran through his act to a delighted "mixed" crowd. He set up a card table in no man's land with a glass bowl. In the bowl was a goldfish.

A British general was due to arrive at the front, so everyone walked back to their own trench positions. The sawed-off and starched general entered the British trenches and climbed up the parapet to examine the front. To his amazement, he saw a card table with the goldfish bowl. He became agitated. Was it a plot, a trick? Just then, the German field officer climbed up the German parapet and waved at the English general. The general went crazy. "Shoot that man", he ordered. Everyone ignored him. Then he threatened to shoot some Tommies, so one of the enlisted men cranked a Enfield .30-calibre round over the German officer's head. So, he climbed down. The British general was fired up and wanted to report the goldfish "trick" to headquarters. He climbed down the ladder, took a few steps, and fell flat on his face in the deep mud. There was of course a chorus of muffled laughs. The little general ordered his field commander to retake the table and goldfish bowl. No sensible reason was given.

After the general went back to HQ, the British field officer climbed up the parapet and waved back to the Germans. He hiked out to the little table and met his counterpart German. He tehn offered to buy the goldfish! The magician complained vigorously, but the German officer sold the goldfish to the Brit. The British officer straight-away send the goldfish to headquarters and indicated to Division staff that his troops had recovered the coveted goldfish trophy. The truce at the front continued a while longer, but the generals, London, and Paris won out. A lot more people died.

 

Yet another terrible waste of life

De Orc

 

I have deep sympathy for any soldier survivor of WWI. They were rats trapped in a cage led by donkeys. May there never be such a pointless and cruel war such as that ever again.

 

How coincidental this topic is being discussed. My Grandmother recently moved from her house into a small flat. I have been slowly moving her possessions by car and truck over to her new flat.

This morning I emptied her last closet, there is a WWI trenchcoat that was my Great Uncle's during WWI when he was in France. He was seriously injured in a gas attact there, I think it was phosgene or mustard gas if the family story is correct.

The trenchcoat is heavy, it weighs almost 10 kg, I cannot imagine what that thing must have been like when it was soaking wet as I am sure it was a lot of the time.

The irony of my Great Uncle serving in that war, was he was sent to fight against the country his father had immigrated from in 1873. That war ended all of our family contacts with the German relatives until 1991 when some descendants were found living near Hamburg. Unfortunately my family was not the only one so damaged by that war, lots of others were too.

 

The same things occurred in the United States during and after WWI and WWII. The USA had something like 30,000,000 citizens claiming German descent at the time. Three of my wife's uncles, all first-generation German-Americans, fought all over Europe. One of her uncles was probably the 101st Airborne trooper that was featured in the book (and movie) Band of Brothers attempting to steal a set of Adolph's silverware at the Eagles Nest.