The many British contemporary accounts of the truces help scotch another myth: that the authorities kept all knowledge of fraternisation from the public at home lest it damage morale.

ECONOMIST: Bertie Felstead

The Christmas 1914 fraternisation, in which the Battalion was among the first to participate, had had the same professional simplicity: no emotional hiatus, this, but a commonplace of military tradition an exchange of courtesies between officers of opposing armies.

ECONOMIST: Bertie Felstead