Spice tins honour role of Indian soldiers in Christmas truce during First World War

The spice tins were part of morale boosting Christmas gifts to soldiers in the war by Princess Mary, the daughter of Britain’s King George V

PTI London Published 25.12.24, 

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A UK historian has highlighted further evidence of the widespread contributions made by Indian soldiers to the First World War effort as part of the British empire army with the discovery of spice tins that were used during the Christmas truce in 1914.

Professor Peter Doyle, a military historian at Goldsmiths, University of London, is quoted in ‘The Times’ on Wednesday to showcase how new research has found that these spice tins ended up in the hands of German soldiers when the Western Front fell silent as soldiers walked across no man’s land to exchange handshakes, gifts and a game of football 110 years ago.

Doyle organised an exhibition about the truce, including details around these spice tins, at the Great War Huts Museum in Bury St Edmunds, eastern England.

“The truce was not just a case of ‘Anglo-Saxon’ to ‘Saxon’ fraternisation,” Doyle is quoted as saying. AND INDIANS LIKE GERMANS AND BRITS ARE ARYANS

“Up until recently, people didn’t really believe or expect Indian soldiers took part in the truce, though they may have been observers,” he said.

The spice tins were part of morale boosting Christmas gifts to soldiers in the war by Princess Mary, the daughter of Britain’s King George V. For British soldiers, her gift was made up of a smoking kit, which was deemed inappropriate as many members of the Indian army were non-smokers. Instead, their tins were filled with spice along with a picture of Princess Mary in place of a cigarette card for their UK counterparts.

Doyle, the author of ‘For Every Sailor Afloat, Every Soldier at the Front: Princess Mary’s Christmas Gift 1914’, documents how Princess Mary aged just 17 set out to send a Christmas gift to all those on active service.

His book is set against the backdrop of an unofficial “Truce in No Man’s Land” during the war and his research led him to the discovery of one of the spice tins – only the second one known to still be in existence. He knew that the 39th Garhwal Rifles were at Givenchy, France, during the Christmas of 1914, which led him to explore whether the spice tins may have become part of the Christmas truce there, along with the men who carried them.

He approached Robin Schafer, a German historian, who went into the archives and found references in German newspapers to men receiving the spice tins as gifts during the brief cessation of hostilities 110 years ago.

A soldier named Wilhelm Althoff wrote: “Some Indians gifted us figs [and] a shiny metal box with spices.” Doyle and Schafer hope that more of these tins, which Doyle describes as “unprepossessing”, may be found by people in Germany and elsewhere if they go looking. They also hold out hope that some photographs of the event may exist, as picture-taking was initially encouraged in German trenches to boost morale.

During the First World War (1914-18) India, which at that time included Pakistan and Bangladesh under British colonial rule, sent the largest share of Commonwealth soldiers to the war effort at over 1.4 million.

Shrabani Basu, historian-author of ‘For King and Another Country: Indian Soldiers on the Western Front, 1914-18’ has also documented their immense contributions to the war effort.

“Today there are descendants of the soldiers living in Britain who can be proud of what their ancestors achieved,” she notes.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for XMAS TRUCE WWI

WWI Xmas Mutiny

It was Christmas Eve 1914 and the soldiers in the trenches, Brits, Canadians, Germans and French, muddy, covered in blood and guts, coughing up bloodied mucus of poison gas, called a truce in the War. A truce that remains a mutiny on the books of the ruling clases and their military to this day.

A new film has been made of this famous mutiny for and it will be shown to British Troops in Iraq.

Now if they sneak in the Americans to watch this that just might be the inspiration for the American all volunteer working class army to down arms and end this war.

So subersive is the legend of the Christmas Truce of 1914 that the French still refuse to allow their soldiers to see this film and refused to be part of the production effort.

Brit troops to see 1914 Xmas 'anti-war' film
During the ceasefire, German, British and French troops stopped shooting, got out of their trenches and shared cocoa and cigarettes. They sang hymns together and returned to fighting a few days later.The French army refused to participate in the making of the film, saying soldiers who participated in the Christmas truce were disobeying orders. German troops have already taken in the movie, but it will not be presented to French soldiers. The ceasefire was seen as treason by superiors on both sides.

It was of course this famous truce that gave rise to the 1960's comic Christmas song Snoopy's Christmas by the Royal Guardsmen Listen to it here.

And it was the inspiration for Dalton Trumbos classic Anti-War novel, Johnny Got His Gun.

During the summer of 1914 in a crucial battle in Mons Belgium British troops claimed to have seen St. George and a group of Longbowmen in the skies, which they claimed to have turned the battle in their favour.

This is known as the Legend of Mons, and occult horror author Arthur Machen claimed at the time that it was based on his short story called the Bowman which had been published in the popular press of the day. However historian A.J.P Taylor believed the story and recorded it in his history of WWI.

The fact that the tale and trench rumours of Angels of Mons appeared the summer before may have had a subconcious effect on the soldiers in the trenches facing the first industrialized war of mass murder.

Such was the horror of WWI and the introduction of mechanized death, mass slaughter by machine gun, huge mortars and giant Big Bertha guns that deafened you, poison gas, tanks, trench warfare, etc. the veritable impass of the No Mans Land lead to the need for a moment of humanity, human contact that became the Christmas Truce.

Shell shocked, cold, wet, facing certain death, suffering what was called Battle Fatigue, the first time it was ever recorded in war and we know now as Post Traumatic Syndrome, soldiers fled the field not in cowardice but in terror. And the officers on both sides of the trenches shot them mercilessly.

The Officer Corps of all the Armies of WWI were the last vestiges of the Aristocracy while the soldiers in the trenches were the original grunts, and like modern industrial capitalism which the war so effectively modeled itself after, they were expendable cogs in the machine.

Canadians know this well for even our officers like their men were expendable, as colonial troops, in both WWI and WWII. In the case of the later the battle of Dieppe saw the ruthless sacrifice of Canadians on the whim of Lord Mountbatten for his personal ego trip in securing a position of command.

23 Canadians were executed for desertion or cowardice in WWI. 2 were executed for murder (murder in war you ask well...) one after he suffered a head injury went nuts, the other was a case of shooting a superior officer, a Sgt. Major, the guys who were particularly brutal to their men. We would call it fragging today.Thousands more died in the trenches, including almost all the 1st Royal Newfoundland Regiment.

All those boys from the prairies, the cities, from the farms and the factories, from Saskatchewan, Iowa, Sheffield, Paris and Berlin died for the glory of Imperialism and Capitalism. When they came home there were no jobs, a depression, and no Veterans benefits. It was not such a Great War.

Happy Christmas (The War is Over)

There's nothing noble about dying. Not even if you die for honor. Not even if you die the greatest hero the world ever saw. Not even if you're so great your name will never be forgotten and who's that great? The most important thing is your life little guys. You're worth nothing dead except for speeches. Don't let them kid you any more. Pay no attention when they tap you on the shoulder and say come along we've got to fight for liberty or whatever their word is there's always a word.

Just say mister I'm sorry I got no time to die I'm too busy and then turn and run like hell. If they say coward why don't pay any attention because it's your job to live not to die. If they talk about dying for principles that are bigger than life you say mister you're a liar Nothing is bigger than life There's nothing noble in death. What s noble about lying in the ground and rotting. What's noble about never seeing the sunshine again? What's noble about having your legs and arms blown off? What's noble about being an idiot? What's noble about being blind and deaf and dumb? What's noble about being dead. Because when you're dead mister it's all over. It's the end. You're less than a dog less than a rat less than a bee or an ant less than a white maggot crawling around on a dungheap. You're dead mister and you died for nothing.

Imagine

Merry Christmas, Red Baron

The Christmas Truce of 1914: the day the guns fell silent


Published December 25, 2023

NPR
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

In the months after World War I erupted, young men in Europe were killing each other by the tens of thousands. Yet on a frozen Christmas Eve in 1914, the guns briefly fell silent. The Christmas truce has become the stuff of legend, and the story of that poignant day has been told again and again in film, in music, onstage. For the 100th anniversary of the truce in 2014, the British supermarket chain Sainsbury's created this Christmas ad.

(SOUNDBITE OF BOMB EXPLODING)

SHAPIRO: The ad begins on Christmas Eve on a snowy night in a dark, damp trench on the British side of the front. Mail has just arrived.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Jenkins, Oakley, Knight.

SHAPIRO: Letters from home, pictures of sweethearts, a thick chocolate bar in blue wrapping. And then from far away comes the sound of German voices singing.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing in German).

SHAPIRO: The British join in.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) All is calm. All is bright.

SHAPIRO: "All Is Calm" is an opera by Peter Rothstein based on the truce. The German and British soldiers face each other as they sing "Silent Night" before eventually turning to face the audience as one.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) Sleep in heavenly peace.

SHAPIRO: That song, "Silent Night," has become inextricably linked with the tellings of the truce over the years, so has the striking visual of the first soldier to slowly venture out into no man's land, as John McCutcheon describes here in his 1984 song "Christmas In The Trenches."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHRISTMAS IN THE TRENCHES")

JOHN MCCUTCHEON: (Singing) There's someone coming towards us, the front line sentry cried. All sights were fixed on one lone figure trudging from their side. His truce flag, like a Christmas star, shone on that plain so bright as he bravely strode, unarmed, into the night.

SHAPIRO: In the 2005 film "Joyeux Noel," the leaders of each side meet in no man's land.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "JOYEUX NOEL")

ALEX FERNS: (As Gordon) Do you speak English?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Yes, a little.

FERNS: (As Gordon) Wonderful. We were talking about a cease-fire for Christmas Eve. What do you think? The outcome of this war won't be decided tonight.

SHAPIRO: Slowly, hesitantly, the field between the trenches fills with soldiers.

(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS RUSTLING)

SHAPIRO: And then once every soldier recognizes his own fear and relief reflected in the faces that stare back at him, the festivities begin. Soldiers shake hands, introduce themselves, offer cigarettes and bottles to each other.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "JOYEUX NOEL")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) Aye, that's good stuff, Jerry (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As Jerry) Aye, thank you very much.

SHAPIRO: Even in the 1969 musical satire of World War I, "Oh! What A Lovely War," the truce is depicted with reverence, though they do get a few jokes in.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "OH! WHAT A LOVELY WAR")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As character) Do you know when the war will end?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (As character) After our spring offensive, I should think.

SHAPIRO: In the music video for his 1983 single "Pipes Of Peace," Paul McCartney played both a German and British soldier who exchange photos of their loved ones in no man's land.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PIPES OF PEACE")

PAUL MCCARTNEY: (Singing) Let us show them how to play the pipes of peace, play the pipes of peace.

SHAPIRO: But each reimagining ends the same way, war continues.

(SOUNDBITE OF BOMBS EXPLODING)

SHAPIRO: Distant blasts or gunfire brings the inescapable reality back into the impossible moment of peace, sending the men scrambling back to their trenches.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHRISTMAS IN THE TRENCHES")

MCCUTCHEON: (Singing) Soon, daylight stole upon us and France was France once more. With sad farewells, we each began to settle back to war. But the question haunted every heart that lived that wondrous night, whose family have I fixed within my sights?

SHAPIRO: In the Sainsbury's ad, a German soldier settles back into the trenches and looks in his pocket to find a chocolate bar wrapped in blue. As wars continue today in Ukraine and Gaza, the idea of a Christmas truce feels as meaningful as ever. Nine years ago, on the 100th anniversary of the truce, I set out to reconstruct the events of that day using the accounts of the people who were there. Here's that story I reported on Christmas Day, 2014.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

SHAPIRO: Of course, there are no longer any living veterans of World War I to tell this story, but we still have their words in letters and diaries. In some cases, we even have their voices.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

WALTER STENNES: On Christmas Eve, at noon, fire ceased completely on both fronts.

SHAPIRO: These are oral histories that Britain's Imperial War Museum recorded years ago. That was German Army officer Walter Stennes. Here's British soldier Colin Wilson. We've added more recent recordings of the music.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

COLIN WILSON: We heard a German singing every night, of course, in German, naturally.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SILENT NIGHT")

CHANTICLEER: (Singing in German).

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

WILSON: There was all sorts of Christmas greetings being shouted across no man's land to us. These Germans, they shouted out, what about you singing "Holy Night"? Well, we had a go. But of course, we weren't very good at that.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SILENT NIGHT")

CHANTICLEER: (Singing in German).

SHAPIRO: There's not one single story of the Christmas truce. There are thousands of stories from all up and down the Western Front.

WILLIAM SPENCER: It was all done independently.

SHAPIRO: William Spencer is a military specialist at the British National Archives.

SPENCER: It was little bits and pieces dotted. It wasn't a blanket decision made - right? - we will all get out of our trenches and fraternize with the enemy.

SHAPIRO: In the weeks leading up to Christmas, life was miserable on the front lines. The weather was wet and frigid. The trenches were basically large ditches collapsing and filling with water. Alan Wakefield is a historian at the Imperial War Museum.

ALAN WAKEFIELD: So they do small-scale truces where they actually get out of the trenches and do repair work within sight of each other. Nobody's firing at each other because they're both just trying to make life a bit more bearable. This is the first chance, really, that you're getting to see the enemy because normally, you know, trench war, you're under the ground.

SHAPIRO: So that was mid-December, then Christmas arrives.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHILE SHEPHERDS WATCHED")

THE KING'S SINGERS: (Singing) While shepherds watched their flocks by night, all seated on the ground.

SHAPIRO: We've asked our colleagues to read some of the letters and diary entries describing what happened next. A soldier named Ernest Morley writes home, saying his men decided to give the Germans a gift on Christmas Eve, three songs, then five rounds of rapid gunfire. They started with the carol "While Shepherds Watched."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHILE SHEPHERDS WATCHED")

THE KING'S SINGERS: (Singing) Good will henceforth from heaven to men begin and never cease.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Reading) We finished that and paused, preparing to give them the second item on the program. We heard answering strains arising from their lines, then they started shouting across to us. Therefore, we stopped any hostile operations and commenced to shout back. One of them shouted, a merry Christmas, English, we are not shooting tonight.

SHAPIRO: Germans lit lanterns and put them up above the trench. Rifleman Morley says the British tried to outdo them.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Reading) Opposite me, they had one lamp and nine candles in a row. And we had all the candles and lights we could muster stuck up on our bayonets above the parapet.

SHAPIRO: On Christmas Day, the sun rises and all is calm. Lieutenant M.S. Richardson writes a letter to his family where he describes German soldiers cautiously emerging from the trenches.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Reading) The situation was so absurd that another officer of ours and myself went out and met seven of their officers.

SHAPIRO: They exchanged gifts in the area between the trenches called no man's land.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Reading) One of them presented me with the packet of cigarettes I sent you, and we gave them a plum pudding. And then we shook hands with them and saluted each other.

SHAPIRO: Some of the soldiers used the day to bury their dead. Second Lieutenant Wilber Spencer watched many of his men fall a week earlier. On Christmas Day, he writes, it was strange to shake hands with the German soldiers who killed his friends.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Reading) They carried over our dead. I won't describe the sights I saw and which I shall never forget. We buried the dead as they were.

SHAPIRO: Wilber took a photograph that day. At the Imperial War Museum, Historian Wakefield shows me the black-and-white image.

WAKEFIELD: The photograph here shows four British soldiers in the foreground beside a grave, a recently dug grave, and a mixed group of German and British in the background actually digging fresh graves for other casualties.

SHAPIRO: The earth is flat and bare with a huge blank sky. A small white cross sticks out of the ground. Whenever the truce is portrayed in songs and plays, there is always a soccer match. So I asked historians to show me accounts of the game.

SPENCER: We don't have any documentary evidence of that.

SHAPIRO: This is Spencer from the National Archives.

SPENCER: There's nothing recorded in the unit war diaries which say a football match took place between this battalion and this particular German infantry regiment.

SHAPIRO: I thought maybe it was just a gap in his collection, so I asked Wakefield at the Imperial War Museum, who has written a book on the subject called "Christmas In The Trenches." He said it's contentious, but ultimately...

WAKEFIELD: The idea of any organized football game is not - doesn't stand up in the documentation.

SHAPIRO: About 30,000 British soldiers were involved in the truce. Wakefield says maybe a hundred played organized soccer games against the Germans. In some places, the two sides held prayer services together. They exchanged mementos, like a small brass button that Wakefield shows me at the museum.

WAKEFIELD: He obviously took that button off his tunic to give it to the British soldier. And he's - the German soldier has put his name and his hometown, which is in Saxony.

SHAPIRO: For war historians, bloodshed is a daily memory. So I asked Spencer how he relates to this one moment of peace.

SPENCER: This is the human side of people in a dehumanizing environment.

SHAPIRO: He says when commanders learned about the truce, they were furious.

SPENCER: Various orders were sent down straight after Christmas in 1914 and were heavily reinforced in December 1915 for this particular occurrence not to happen again.

SHAPIRO: Germans were warned that if they staged another truce, they would be shot. British soldiers were threatened with court martial. But many of the men who took part in the Christmas truce refused to fire on their opponents again until the day other soldiers came to take their place.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SILENT NIGHT")

CHANTICLEER: (Singing in German).

SHAPIRO: That's a story I reported as a London correspondent in 2014 on the 100th anniversary of the Christmas truce. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SEE

Tannenbaum

Keeping the 'X' in X MAS

Gallipoli And Vimy

Stanway's Sombre Reflection on Somme

WWI Xmas Mutiny

Christmas in the Trenches

Merry Christmas, Red Baron

The Vimy Myth

The Best Laid Plans