The Night that Hell Froze Over

The year was nineteen-fourteen
A time of hell and fear
The world was up against itself
Sprouting heartbreak; raining tears
Centered in this time of hell [5]
Were three contenders of old—
Eastward guarded the Germans
To the west, the Angles and Gauls.
Two opposing tides they were,
Fighting with push and give [10]
Their hearts were set on black destruction
Each claiming what wasn’t his.
Month by month the armies marched
Through sun and sleet and snow
Through battlefields froth’d with mustard gas [15]
A death many were to know.
By and by, Christmas came
A season of love and cheer
A time for goodwill towards all men
That comes but once a year. [20]
The western front was a darkened place
Permeated with shot and shell;
But soon a hopeful light shone through
And closed the jowls of hell.
As they did, a single man [25]
Emboldened by Yuletide cheer
Walk out into the No-Man’s Land
Trusting Jesus with his fear.
The wind was fast and bitingly cold
Cold as mortal sin [30]
But onward the young soldier press’d
Oblivious to the wind.
And as he reached the German trench,
The English soldier found,
That though the words weren’t English or French [35]
Their carols had common ground.
“We are cold,” said the soldier, “and I’m sure that you are too
The sick and hurt and dead are many
And happy moments few.
I say we cast away our fight [40]
At least till blizzard’s end
Share this Blest Night as a whole
As not enemies, but friends.”
A German soldier stood and said,
“Tis true we’re cold and ill [45]
I wish for peace on earth to-night
For tis no night to kill.
But I have not the authority
To make the firing cease
So I shall ask the General [50]
For a Christmastide of peace.”
The General, thankfully,
Was a sentimental man.
And when he heard the soldier’s thought
He thought that it was grand. [55]
“Tonight we celebrate the King of Peace
And festivals of lights
I see no point in denying the men
A rest from this hand-bloodying fight.”
Nervously, a group of men [60]
Both enemy and friend alike
Waded out to the No-Man’s Land
To meet for a Christmastide respite.
Three days and nights the Truce did last,
A time of heaven in hell [65]
But darker things were for that time
Things almost too torturous to tell.
A man and his friend were placed by luck
Into the same platoon
But what neither one would ever suspect [70]
Was they would be parted soon.
The man was walking the battlefield,
To aid with the hurt and dead
Whence upon a thing he tripped
It was his best friend’s head. [75]
Another man, German, I think
Was going along the trenches
To heed Nature’s call
And as he walked to the blessed spot
The German began to see [80]
That the muck he tread had gone too soft
And he was soon too deep to think.
The Christmastide of nineteen-fourteen
Was a time of sorrow and woe.
But it is best remembered as [85]
A time when friend met foe
And neither batted an eye.
But by the end of the three-day’s rest,
Orders had come from above.
The men were to disperse their games [90]
For they were unauthorized
To converse together without firing
No matter how holy the day was.
So on the day the Truce was to end,
The Brits raised their flag as before. [95]
But this one bore no Union Jack
Though it rang just as true.
The flag of white bore two simple words
In black, which said, “Thank You.”
The Germans, who knew the Britons better now [100]
And knew they felt the same
Sent up a similar flag that said,
“You are welcome, too.”
Four more years the Great War raged,
The push and pull remained [105]
But because of one impromptu truce
World history is eternally stained.
And though the time was dark and sad
(A war is always sober)
I believe a lesson can be learned [110]
From the night that hell froze over.