The Christmas Truce: Only after four months of World War I it was named the bloodiest war in history. December 25 1914, after sitting through harsh winter weather, the British and the Germans came together to celebrate Christmas without any fighting whatsoever. They each hated each other for killing each others friends of course, but when they got together they then realized that they were in the same situation as each other. They then started joking around about it. They would put boards up to indicate when they were going to get along and what not, but when the board went down after breakfast they would kill the first person they saw. Sometimes they would yell rude things to each other just to keep one another entertained. Sometimes they would meet in the middle of their harsh conditioned trenches and sing songs. The commander of the British Corps II, General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, found out about all this going on and put an end to it immediately.One reason the Christmas Truce took place was to bury the dead. They held joint services for both of the country's dead. The would also talk, share pictures, and even trade foods or buttons. They play as soccer game until the ball hit a barbed wire fence and was deflated. This went on for several days.
The Battle of Verdun, 1916: This battle is known as the longest battles in world history. The battle was fought between the french and the German. This battle went on from February 21, 1916 all the way to December 19, 1916. It caused at least 700,000 dead, wounded, or either missing people. The field where this all took place was only about ten square kilometers. It was fought in France. The French ended up winning the battle. There were 40 million shots were fired in this battle.I think that the Christmas Truce was a pretty important battle and it showed how people could really come together instead of just non stop fighting. Also, I think that the Battle of Verdun was very important because it was the longest and there were so many lifes lost and people wounded or missing.http://home.versatel.nl/rene.brouwer/majorbattles.htmhttp://history1900s.about.com/od/1910s/a/christmastruce_2.htmhttp://militaryhistory.about.com/od/worldwari/p/xmastruce.htm
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