North East soldiers and The World War I Christmas truce of 1914; 100 years since the famous Christmas truce, we recall the event though letters from North East soldiers at the front.
Byline: David Morton
Many of us will have seen the heart-warming Sainsbury's TV advert which depicts the famous World War I truce of Christmas 1914.
In the advert, we see the guns on a snowy Western Front temporarily fall silent and men slowly emerge from the British and German trenches as carols are sung, hands are shaken, gifts are exchanged, and a ball is kicked around.
It's a largely romantic view, but what really happened during the truce as soldiers walked into No Man's Land?
A brilliant project called Operation Plum Puddings, started by two journalists in Cumbria, Alan Cleaver and Lesley Park, has shed light on this unique chapter of World War I history.
Letters sent by soldiers serving on the front have been painstakingly collated and transcribed to give a first-hand account of what actually took place on the killing fields of Western Europe exactly 100 years ago.
(Troops took time to bury the dead, of course, and there appears to have been a kickaround with a ball, although there is no hard evidence the fabled full-scale football match between the two sides took place. Meanwhile, the truce did not extend to the whole line, and the fighting still raged in parts).
Some of the moving letters first appeared in our sister title The Daily Journal - as it was known then - and another long-defunct Newcastle paper, The Daily News.
Here are a small selection of the many letters collected on the Operation Plum Puddings project: www.christmastruce.co.uk
From the Evening Mail, Newcastle, December 31, 1914
"On Christmas Day one of the Germans came out of the trenches and held his hands up. Our fellows immediately got out of theirs, and we met in the middle, and for the rest of the day we fraternised, exchanging food, cigarettes and souvenirs. The Germans gave us some of their sausages, and we gave them some of our stuff. The Scotsmen started the bagpipes and we had a rare old jollification, which included football in which the Germans took part. The Germans expressed themselves as being tired of the war and wished it was over. They greatly admired our equipment and wanted to exchange jack knives and other articles. Next day we got an order that all communication and friendly intercourse with the enemy must cease but we did not fire at all that day, and the Germans did not fire at us."
Writing from the front to friends at Jarrow, dated December 26, a soldier describes Christmas Day on the battlefield.
"Things have been remarkably quiet during...
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