World War I truces – Vanessa Couchman

A Poignant Anniversary: the Armistice of World War I

Every village in France has its war memorial, the lists of names a sad litany of those “morts pour la France”. The longest rollcall by far is that of World War I. Few families were spared the tragedy of deaths, sometimes multiple, injuries and enduring mental scars. More than a century later, the memory stillContinue reading “A Poignant Anniversary: the Armistice of World War I”

True Inspiration for Fiction #1: the Christmas Truce 1914

“There, the night before we had been having a terrific battle and the morning after, there we were smoking their cigarettes and they smoking ours.” This was the slightly bemused verdict of a British Tommy on one of the most extraordinary and poignant events of World War I: the Christmas truce of 1914. Up andContinue reading “True Inspiration for Fiction #1: the Christmas Truce 1914”