Free Christmas in the Trenches by Alan Wakefield Page A

and Salonika Fronts in an attempt to greatly weaken the Central Powers by preventing Germany, and to a lesser extent Austria-Hungary, from concentrating their forces. The Somme battle, which was to have included a major contribution by French, became a primarily British operation once the scale of the German effort at Verdun was realised. The battle would witness the blooding of a large part of ‘Kitchener’s Army’ of volunteers. By the time Haig called off operations on 19 November, the Somme had claimed 419,654 British and Dominion casualties, 204,253 Frenchmen and 600,000 Germans. The first day of the battle, 1 July 1916, was the bloodiest day ever for the British Army, with some 57,470 casualties. It also witnessed the first major operation by the ANZAC s on the Western Front, namely the taking of Pozières (25 July–5 August). There were also innovations such as the first use of tanks (15 September), improvements in infantry-artillery cooperation and a growth of tactical knowledge across the vastly expanded British Army.
    When Haig closed down the offensive in November, it was primarily due to the deteriorating state of the ground over which his troops would have to advance. As Christmas approached an additional month of bad weather had taken its effect on the trenches:
    The 33rd Division had taken over the front line that had been held by the French about the beginning of December and the 16th was holding a part of the line near Maricourt and Clery. The condition of the communication trenches, support and front line trenches were terrible, very few dugouts and general conditions as bad as they could be. The dead, mainly French, were still lying about in No Man’s Land . . .
    After a few days rest we were ordered in again in the same sector. This was the period of Christmas and we were in from the 23rd until 26th December. Once again strict orders were issued to the effect that there was to be no fraternization with the enemy and indeed such was the condition of the ground between us – ‘No Man’s Land’ – that it was not possible or desirable. ( Rfm Harry Gore, 16th King’s Royal Rifle Corps )
    The 14th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders found similar problems in trenches north of Bouchavesnes on 26 December. Here, some communication trenches were filled by waist-deep mud leading to most movement being undertaken across the open:
    During the whole spell of 5 days rain fell nearly every day which made any special work on the trenches absolutely impossible. Owing to the fact that this part of the line is a salient the bringing up of rations was very hard. Even over the top the going is very slow and parties were being constantly held up by someone sticking in the mud. Dugouts were very scarce and any that there were were old and damp. There is little to report during this spell as little more than the mere occupation of the trenches was possible. ( Battalion War Diary )
    Knowing that their coming spell in the line was liable to allow little in the way of Christmas cheer, the Highlanders celebrated early:
    On the 24th we had our Christmas dinner which was held in one of the huts and it was quite a decent affair. Of course we had no tables or chairs and we had just to sit on the earth (no floors) and eat the various courses out of the top of our mess-tins, the bottom portion being used to hold a couple of pints of awful French beer, but the latter was better than nothing to drink at all. We didn’t bother to wash out our tins between the courses . . . which were soup, mince (no potatoes), figs, pineapple, plum pudding. The usual concert followed given by members of the company. Concert parties from home don’t venture this length. We enjoyed it immensely and knew it was the last time before we had gone through a bad time, so we made the most of it. 1 ( Pte Robert Lawson, 14th Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders )
    The generally poor conditions at the front not only ended active operations on any large scale but