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Christmas Day at the front, Ortona, Italy |
amongst the debris of Ortona's Santa Maria di Costantinopoli church Dec. 24, 1943. |
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by Australian War Memorial collection. |
in a London tube station on Christmas eve on Dec. 26, 1940 but Santa Claus did not forget to pay them a visit. |
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at a Christmas Party, Dec. 25, 1940, in an underground shelter. |
in a camp tent in celebration of Christmas Eve in Germany on December 24, 1940. |
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A Tank Corps corporal walking off with four ducks, which were being sold at a London Market. |
in Breslau, Poland, on Dec. 23, 1940 for shipment to German soldiers at Christmas. |
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at a Christmas Party on December 16. All the youngsters bad either been bombed out or their father were prisoners of war. |
and members of their party leave the White House in Washington, Dec. 25, 1941 for Christmas Service at the Foundry Methodist Church. |
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to the bomber flight line on Dec. 24, 1942. Continuous night bombing schedule allows no time out for Christmas Eve worship |
kneel in the desert in Bardia, Libya, Jan. 26, 1941 for a Christmas sunrise mass. |
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for the Christmas Day program for servicemen Dinah Shore, Ginny Simms and Frances Langford. |
Dec. 29, 1942. The ward-room drinking the Royal Toast. |
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after breaking through the Japanese defences in New Guinea pose in jungle grass regalia they made on a South Pacific Island to celebrate their traditional Christmas dances. |
natives assist Australians with sacks of Christmas parcels which were dropped from transport planes in the Kokoda and Myola areas. |
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in New York, Dec. 15, 1944 for the Christmas Eve broadcast |
arrive at a London railway station on December 2, 1944, for twenty-eight days' leave. |
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Liner Notes Intro:
This song depicts the moods of the soldiers, on both sides of the front lines, during the first Christmas of World War I. It was hailed as the “Amazing Truce” where German and British soldiers took a respite from the War. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in his history of 1914, called the Christmas truce “An amazing spectacle, one human episode amid all the atrocities which have stained the memory of war.”Conan Doyle’s phrase, indeed, sums up the attraction of the truce. It is the human dimension which means that this relatively obscure event in the fifth month of a fifty two month war is still remembered and will continue to catch the imagination. In a century in which our conception of war has been the Exocet, the Cruise Missile, and the Neutron Bomb, the fact that in 1914 some thousands of the fighting men of the belligerent nations met and shook hands between their trenches strikes a powerful and appealing note. It is perhaps the best and most heartening Christmas story of modern times.
T’was Christmas in the trenches and the frost so bitter
hung
The frozen fields of France where still no Christmas
songs were sung
Our families back in England were toasting us that
day
There brave and glorious lads so far away.
I was lying with my mess mates on the cold and rocky
ground
When across the lines of battle came a most peculiar
sound
Says I now listen up me boys, each soldier strained
to hear
As one young German voice sang out so clear.
He's singing bloody well you know, my partner says
to me
Soon one by one each German voice joined in in harmony
The cannons rested silent and the gas cloud rolled
no more
As Christmas brought us respite from the war.
As soon as they were finished and a reverent pause
was spent
God rest ye merry gentlemen struck up some lads from
Kent
The next thing sang was Stille Nach - T’is Silent
Night says I
And in two tongues one song filled up that sky
There’s someone coming towards us now the front line
sentry said
All sights were fixed on one lone figure trudging
from their side
His truce flag like a Christmas star shone on the
plane so bright
As he bravely trudged unarmed into the night.
Then one by one on either side, walked into no mans
land
With neither gun nor bayonet, we met there hand to
hand
We shared some secret brandy and we wished each other
well
And in a flare lit football game we gave them hell.
We traded chocolates, cigarettes and photographs from
home
These sons and father far away from families of their
own
Ton Sanders played the squeeze box and they had a
violin
This curious and unlikely band of men.
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.
T’was Christmas in the trenches and the frost so bitter
hung
The frozen fields of France were warmed, the songs
of peace were sung
For the walls they’d kept between us to exact the
work of war
Had been crumbled and were gone forever more.
Oh my name is Francis Tolliver, from Liverpool I dwell
Each Christmas comes since World War I have learned
its lesson well
For the one who calls the shots won’t be among the
dead and lame
And on each end of the rifle we’re the same.
BACK TO THE HILLMAN FAMILY XMAS SITE
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Hillman
BILL
AND SUE-ON HILLMAN
Copyright 2016/2017