Replay of 1914 as football match is planned for Flanders battlefields to mark centenary of famous World War One Christmas truce

Government in talks with FA about remembering the no man's land matches



Minister says match is 'no brainer' for centenary commemorations next year



Ministers are working on plans to commemorate the anniversary of the Christmas truce during the First World War with a football match on the battlefields of Flanders.

Next Christmas will mark the centenary of when the guns fell silent and British and German troops emerged from the trenches in Belgium and played football in no man's land.

The Government is talking to the Football Association and the National Children's Football Alliance about how the 1914 matches can be remembered.

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Unarmed: An artist's impression of a football match in no man's land between British and German troops

Defence Minister Andrew Murrison said a football match was 'a no-brainer in terms of an event that is going to reach part of the community that perhaps might not get terribly entrenched into this'.

HIGH HOPES FOR A QUICK END

When World War One began in July 1914, many troops were excited to be sent to the front line. People were optimistic that the war would be over promptly and they would be back by Christmas. But within a few months the death toll had reached one million before a single trench had even been dug. The fighting soon ground to a stalemate and the reality of war sunk in.

Major JV Bates from the Royal Army Medical Corps wrote: '...the real horror of it came home to us, and if everyone else was as frightened as I was, then we were all petrified.' The fighting lasted for four years, with 16 million troops and civilians losing their lives - one million of them British.



Prime Minister David Cameron raised the possibility last year of football matches forming part of an extended series of events to mark the centenaries of key moments during the First World War.



Speaking to The Guardian, Dr Murrison indicated that it was an idea was being pursued although planning was still at an early stage and 'discussions are ongoing'.



He said: 'I think football has a particular part to play because of the totemic significance of the Christmas truce in 1914 .



'We have been in touch with Football Association and the National Children's Football (Alliance) to see how this can be done.



'I know they are enthused and have already clocked the fact that other countries are thinking along similar lines.'



He added: 'It is clear the Christmas truce is going to be commemorated in a very significant way.



It had no real relevance to the outcome of the war but at that deeply, intensely, personal level, it is something that people really do latch on to.'



Remembered: Troops at Dale Barracks in Chester marked a previous anniversary of the Christmas Day truce by playing a football match against German soldiers

The Christmas truce of 1914 was a spontaneous and unofficial laying down of arms across various sectors of the entrenched Western Front.

In some areas, soldiers on both sides merely held their fire throughout the day.



But in some sectors, troops climbed out of their trenches and made contact with their enemies, some reportedly exchanging gifts and handshakes and playing football.



More practically, soldiers used the time to reclaim their dead from no man's land and bury them behind the lines.

In the evening, soldiers of both sides sang carols and hostilities were only resumed when fresh battalions were moved into the line, breaking the bonds between the enemies which formed during that day.

The Christmas Day truce of 1914 was never repeated during the rest of World War One.

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