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Advent thoughts (21)
Dec. 21st, 2011 10:12 amI want to use these last few posts to end on a positive note. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nodbear's post yesterday spoke eloquently (when isn't she eloquent) of being in the depths of darkness and finding a turning point. Leads nicely into one of the blackest places - the trenches of WWI - and the rays of hope found there.
From one of my favourite books, Forgotten Voices of the Great War, by Max Arthur (and if you read one book on WWI, make it this). Frank Sumpter talks about Christmas 1914:
The officers gave the order 'No fraternisation' and then they turned their backs on us. But they didn't try to stop it because they knew they couldn't. We never said a word about the war to the Germans. We spoke about our families, about how old we were, how long we thought it would last and things like that. I was young and I wasn't that interested, so I stood there for about half an hour and then came back. But most of the boys stayed there the whole day and only came back in the evening. There were no shots fired and some people enjoyed the curisoity of walking about in no man's land. It was good to walk around. As a sign of their friendliness the Germans put up a sign saying, 'Gott mit uns' which means 'God with us' and so we put up a sign in English saying 'We got mittens, too'. I don't know if they enjoyed that joke.
nodbear's post yesterday spoke eloquently (when isn't she eloquent) of being in the depths of darkness and finding a turning point. Leads nicely into one of the blackest places - the trenches of WWI - and the rays of hope found there. From one of my favourite books, Forgotten Voices of the Great War, by Max Arthur (and if you read one book on WWI, make it this). Frank Sumpter talks about Christmas 1914:
The officers gave the order 'No fraternisation' and then they turned their backs on us. But they didn't try to stop it because they knew they couldn't. We never said a word about the war to the Germans. We spoke about our families, about how old we were, how long we thought it would last and things like that. I was young and I wasn't that interested, so I stood there for about half an hour and then came back. But most of the boys stayed there the whole day and only came back in the evening. There were no shots fired and some people enjoyed the curisoity of walking about in no man's land. It was good to walk around. As a sign of their friendliness the Germans put up a sign saying, 'Gott mit uns' which means 'God with us' and so we put up a sign in English saying 'We got mittens, too'. I don't know if they enjoyed that joke.
