THE 1914 CHRISTMAS TRUCE: AN EXHIBITION AT BODELWYDDAN CASTLE Perhaps one of the most poignant episodes of the First World War was the Christmas Truce in 1914. On Christmas Day the 2nd Silesian Jaeger Battalion and A Company of the 2nd Battalion the Royal Welch Fusiliers faced each other on the front at the village of Frelinghien on the French / Belgian border. During the morning, German soldiers began to appear, unarmed, in no man’s land and soon the soldiers of both sides were exchanging rations, cigars and cap-badges. The Germans, who controlled the village’s small brewery, even sent over a cask of beer. Elsewhere there were football matches, bonfires in no man’s land and exchanges of food and other items. The truce lasted until midnight on Boxing Day. Accounts of the truce began to appear in national and international newspapers a week later, much to the fury of those in high command on both sides. The event was recorded in the personal journal of Captain Clifton Stockwell, a company commander in the Welsh battalion; other witnesses such as Frank Richards on the British side and Johannes Neumann on the German side also recorded what they saw. These letters and diaries provide a fascinating insight into this encounter and prompted the idea of a collaborative travelling exhibition to mark the 100th anniversary of this event. The result was an international Christmas Truce Exhibition. Key organisations were The Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum (RWF) in Caernarfon and the Arbeitskreis Sächsische Militärgeschichte e.V. (Saxon Military History Group) in Dresden. Development of the exhibition was supported financially by the Welsh Government and the Dulverton Trust which enabled the inclusion of historical objects from the RWF Museum collection and the Saxon Arbeitskreis together with additional material from other venues.
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| CYMRU’N COFIO WALES REMEMBERS 1914−1918
