The Christmas Truce at Saint-Yvon

This cross, on the left hand side of the road, was erected by a group of friends - the 'Khaki Chums' - because there is no other official memorial to commemorate the Christmas Truces, which took place on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in 1914.

During these truces British, French and Belgian troops fraternized with their German counterparts. The war was still in its infancy, and such things were still possible. With rare exceptions, truces would not be repeated in the years ahead. One of the most discussed features of the 1914 truces is the football match that is supposed to have taken place between the British and the Germans in no-man's-land here at Saint-Yvon. There are numerous sources, many of them post-war, but none of them are wholly reliable.

The first mention of the game (with a 3-2 victory for the Germans) was made in the London papers around New Year 1915, when it was seen as a symbol of temporary pacifism in keeping with the spirit of Christmas. But not everyone at the front saw it that way, as the following stories will show.

On a farmhouse wall a little further along this road there is also a memorial plaque to Bruce Bairnsfather, a famous cartoonist of his day, who also took part in the Christmas Truce here. In part, his cartoons helped to determine how the war was seen in Great Britain.

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