Christmas Truce of 1914 and the French 75mm

Exactly one hundred years ago three cousins, all grandchildren of Queen Victoria, fought against each other in the "War to end all Wars," the King of Great Britain, the Czar of Russia, and the Kaiser of Germany. Their alliances with France, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire (today' Greece and Turkey,) pulled these cousins into the bloodiest conflict the world had ever seen. The armies they raised and fought against each other were so massive that the Western front in Europe had had one flank anchored on the Alps to the South and other flank anchored on the North Sea to the North.

Western Front 1914

Such long battle lines made it impossible for either side to out flank the other. Modern weapons like the machine gun, but more importantly artillery, like the breach loading French 75mm.

Breach loading of the French 75mm

The French 75mm had recoil system between the barrel and the carriage. This meant that the gun did not have to be repositioned after each shot. An American Civil War field gun would recoil the entire gun after each shot, to fire a second shot the gun crews would have roll the cannon back into position, swap the barrel down of an remaining sparks, load the powder, load the shot, ram it all in ant then aim before firing again.  A well trained gun crew could get one aimed shot per minute. In addition the French 75mm fired single piece ammunition (which included casing and shell,) Its gun crews could fire 20 rounds a minute on target.

French 75mm

 

The French 75mm was also rifled, it had groves in the inside of the barrel that caused it's projectiles to spin before leaving the barrel, much like a quarter back puts a spin on a football for distance and accuracy. While a smooth bore American Civil War cannon had a range of less than a mile, The French 75mm had a range of 5 miles.

rifling
 

Other key technologic advances of the French 75mm was the ammunition it fired. Besides it being all in one ammunition, it fired explosive shells with fuses, it's anti-personal shells could detonate above advancing forces and shower 300 lead balls down upon enemy with each shot. It's solid shot could detonate on impact on fortified positions.

Shrapnel Shell

French 75mm also used smokeless powder. Black power that was used before had two negative side effects: one was the cloud of smoke it would create after each time it fired would give away the cannon's position on the battlefield.

After several shots the black powder would actually create so much smoke it could obscure the gunners abilities to see their targets. With smokeless powder the French 75mm could fire without giving away their positions easily, and they would not blind themselves with smoke after repeatedly firing their gun.

Smoke from Black powder

One could imagine how deadly a World War battle field was with such weapons. It is the main reason the armies on both sides dug deep into the earth hoping to escape the raining death of guns like the French 75mm. World War One saw 16 million dead and 22 million wounded. Artillery, not machine guns, were the cause of most of those deaths and wounded.

In the midst of all this carnage something miraculous happened on Western Front in 1914. On Christmas Eve the entrenched British and Germans began singing Christmas carols to each other.

British and Germans meet in no man's land Christmas 1914
 

On Christmas the Germans were the first to emerge from their trenches, unarmed, and shouting across no man's land in English "Merry Christmas."

The British at first thought it was a trick, but seeing that the Germans were truly unarmed, they too rose from their trenches and cautiously approached their foes across the no man's land. In between the two enemy lines British and German shoulders greeted each other as brothers in the spirit of Christmas.

They shared gifts with each other, and even played "football" which what the rest of the world calls soccer.

Christmas Truce of 1914

These young men in the trenches created an unofficial truce during the bloodiest conflict the world had yet ever seen. From the men that actually did the fighting and dying, peace was germinating, it was an opportunity in the first five months of the war to end a conflict that would stretch on for another three and half years.

Unfortunately the national leaders and generals on both sides would have none of it. The day after Christmas the slaughter restarted. Never again was there another Christmas Truce during World War One that did not end until 1918.

Please check out General Hindsight's Christmas Special. Hope you enjoy it and learn something interesting. http://youtu.be/fX7Qud9gO38