German and British soldiers fraternizing
  in No Man's Land, Christmas 1914

"Just you think," wrote one soldier to his family, "that while you were eating your turkey I was out talking with the very men I had been trying to kill a few hours before!"

At Christmas 1914 and again at Christmas 1915, enemy shook hands with enemy in No Man's Land, exchanged souvenirs, even played football. The truce between the trenches extended over two-thirds of the British line. There were similar cease-fires in the French and Belgian sectors.

The outraged staffs on both sides eventually put an end to these illegal truces. Soldiers were threatened with court-martial and even execution if they dared to do such a thing ever again.