Bright Young Things discussion

BYT 2014 Reading Challenge: World War 1 Centenary


2014 will mark 100 years since the start of the First World War. Here at BYT we plan to mark the war and its consequences by reading 12 books that should give anyone who reads them a better understanding of the First World War.

The First World War was a turning point in world history. It claimed the lives of over 16 million people across the globe and had a huge impact on those who experienced it. The war and its consequences shaped much of the twentieth century, and the impact of it can still be felt today.

The BYT 2014 Reading Challenge will be our way of helping to remember those who lived, fought and served during the years 1914-18.

There's a thread for each of the 12 books.

Welcome to the thread for...



Silent Night: The Remarkable Christmas Truce of 1914 by Stanley Weintraub
(Category: Christmas truce)

You can read the books in any order. Whilst you're reading them, or after you've finished, come and share your thoughts and feelings, ask questions, and generally get involved. The more we all participate, the richer and more fulfilling the discussions will be for us all. Here's to a stimulating, informative, and enjoyable BYT 2014 Reading Challenge.

I'm not planning on reading this particular book, but I did pick up and read Meetings In No Man's Land which covered the same topic. I found this one a little repetitive, but the subject was fascinating, so hopefully Silent Night will be more readable for those who decide to pick it up. I learnt a lot more about the Christmas Truce than I already knew and was surprised by how widespread events were. There were some quite touching accounts and I was left feeling the futility of the war for the men stuck in the trenches. I suppose most of the books we read for this theme will be heartbreaking in one way or another. I also can't help but think while reading these stories, that my son is almost 15 and he could have easily been one of these young men, had he been born exactly 100 years earlier. It feels like a world away.

I think I'll have to pick up a cheap second hand copy of this. Like Pink I also bought Meetings In No Man's Land so will probably read that as well - for now I'm just focussing on the challenge books (being naturally inclined to hit targets) in terms of my WW1 reading (along with the plethora of documentaries that seem to be steadily increasing in frequency).

This one is also repetitive. There are several accounts of very similar things happening in a lot of different places along the front. I suppose that if the author left out the repetition and just gave a few examples, we would get a magazine article not a book. It does show how widespread the truce initiatives were.

Val wrote: "This one is also repetitive. There are several accounts of very similar things happening in a lot of different places along the front. I suppose that if the author left out the repetition and just ..."

Agreed, I suppose that's the only way of showing how widespread accounts were.

I'm enjoying this far more than I was expecting.


I agree with Val (above) when she says it's repetitive but it also very interesting and is a great follow on from the brilliant All Quiet on the Western Front.

I'll probably finish it later tonight so will report back then.

Finished. Here's my review...


This is an enjoyable and well written account of the 1914 truce that happened during World War 1 on the Western Front in the improbable setting of the trenches. Time and again Stanley Weintraub uncovers examples of how, despite orders from senior officers, the troops in the trenches came together to sing carols, exchange gifts, eat and drink together, and even play football. In most of these examples the troops discovered how alike they were and how much they shared in common.

I am not sure this subject warrants a whole book and there is quite a bit of repetition as Stanley Weintraub gives numerous different examples of the different ways the truce occurred in different parts of the Western Front.

The book concludes with a short chapter titled "What if....?" in which Stanley Weintraub speculates what might have happened had the war ended with the 1914 Christmas truce which felt a bit pointless.

Interesting, if inessential.

3/5

Nigeyb wrote: "The book concludes with a short chapter titled "What if....?" in which Stanley Weintraub speculates what might have happened had the war ended with the 1914 Christmas truce which felt a bit pointless."

It is tempting to speculate on 'What if...?' scenarios, but I agree that it is a bit pointless.
(Both Vera Brittain and Barbara Tuchman speculate about the possibility of the war ending with the German peace initiative of December 1916, which was more likely.)
I think there is a big difference between Christmas 1914 and other Christmases during the war. The BEF, German and French armies were all trained professional soldiers, who could be trusted to resume fighting after the truce. They did not need to hate the other side to kill them, it was their job. By Christmas 1915 the British army was composed mainly of volunteers and by 1916 of conscripts, who might be more reluctant. There had been lots of propaganda showing the Germans as beastly or inhuman, so fraternisation was strictly forbidden.

I started this today with my tree up and spiced biscuits baking which felt very appropriate (although the muggy summer thunderstorm didn't quite evoke frosty trenches) and found the first fifty pages interesting but slightly aimless. One thing I have found fascinating in this and other books from this challenge were the references to the regional differences between Germans. This wasn't something I had considered previously, and I wonder if it continues as markedly, or if it was as a result of Germany having existed as a unified country for a relatively short period when the war began. I also wonder how much the East/West divide post WW2 has overlaid the older regions. i think some older German histories may be on the cards for the new year.

Having now finished, my earlier opinion stands - i feel like this would have made a fascinating couple of chapters in a wider history of the conflict, but a whole book on it felt a bit laboured and aimless, for all that it was well-researched and written.

I think a few of us felt the same way Erin.

From my review earlier in the year:
It does get a little repetitive, I'm not sure it added much apart from length to know about every exchange of tobacco and plum pudding and every football match, but it does show how the truce was both widespread and localised.

Started reading this today and so far I agree with you both, Erin and Val - it's interesting but does seem a little repetitive. I do also agree that the regional differences between the Germans are an intriguing aspect of this.

Germany is a federation and the separate 'states' do still have a sense of regional identity according to several German friends. The only people I know from the former East Germany are my daughters' age, so too young to remember much about partition, although one did complain about western reports of tearing down the wall being a citizen led initiative when it was a result of an announcement in the Volkskammer (Parliament).

I liked this little book a lot. While reading it, I kept thinking of the old sixties slogan/question: "What if they gave a war and nobody came?" Wouldn't it have been nice if the Christmas truce could have become a general armistice and the leaders could have figured out a way to end the war before the terrible slaughter of millions? Pie in the sky, I know, and pointless to speculate, but still....

While some readers have complained that there was a lot of repetition in the book (and that's certainly true), for me it served to show how widespread the truce was. There were a great many incidents of goodwill all over the Western Front. Singing, football, other sports, sharing of addresses and little gifts--so much friendliness on the part of so many. I'd heard of the Christmas truce before but thought it occurred in a few isolated areas only.

I was struck by the amount of trust it must have taken to decide to interact with someone on the other side--I would have been terrified that the overtures were insincere and that my trust would have been repaid with a bullet. That seems to have been quite rare.

I was also surprised by how many of the young Germans had spent time in England, often as waiters or schoolboys, and could communicate in English.

I was NOT surprised to read that there were far fewer truces between the French and the Germans. Because of the Franco-Prussian war and the capture of Alsace-Lorraine, there was much more animosity between those sides than between the Germans and the British.

A very sad quote from the book was: "On both sides in 1915 there would be more dead on any single day than yards gained in the entire year. And there would be nearly four more years of attrition--not to determine who was right, but who was left." Tragic.

^ Thanks all - certainly a great book to be reading at this time of year and, as Barbara states....

"What if they gave a war and nobody came?"

Although in Britain it was probably as courageous to be a conscientious objector as a combatant - which was the alternative

It was a truce, not an outbreak of peace. It gave the soldiers a rest, but they all knew the fighting would resume afterwards.

^ True Val. And yet for many it must have made them even more confused about what on earth they were doing - fighting one day and then meeting in friendship the next.

They were just a group of young people, all with much in common, and no personal quarrel, all enduring appalling conditions, death and destruction, whilst the people who had triggered the war were far away in comfort and safety.

Yes I agree to some extent, almost all the soldiers at the front in 1914 would have joined up in peacetime, so the attraction was probably the food and pay, not the desire to fight, but a war had been predicted for a few years beforehand (although not on that scale).

^ And it was the first War Britain had been involved in for some years so I wonder how many would have known what to expect.

By Winter 1914 I would guess many (most?) front line soldiers would have realised it was not going to be a glorious undertaking, or an adventure, but a grim, unpleasant, dangerous, pointless waste of life and resources.

As I say in my review above...

Time and again Stanley Weintraub uncovers examples of how, despite orders from senior officers, the troops in the trenches came together to sing carols, exchange gifts, eat and drink together, and even play football. In most of these examples the troops discovered how alike they were and how much they shared in common.

I am trying to think of other wars the various armies might have been involved in. The Russians had a war with Japan, some older British might have had experience in the Boer War and there had been trouble in the Balkans before, but most places had been at peace for some time.

Great review, Barbara. I've finished this now and found it engrossing - after a little while I saw the point of the element of repetition because, as you say, it showed how widespread the truce was and how the same types of interaction were repeated all over the Western Front.

I think Weintraub writes really well and I'd definitely like to read more of his books.

I just re-picked up his Pearl Harbor Christmas: A World at War, December 1941