Quotes from the trenches

The 'Live and Let Live' phenomenon developed most readily where the fighting was sporadic, and where the proximity of the trenches allowed the men to see, hear and smell each other on a regular basis and slowly begin to lose their fear.

At the end of the day, one's own survival could best be guaranteed by not antagonising the enemy. Troops on both sides quickly appreciated this:

'It would be child's play to shell the road behind the enemy's trenches, crowded as it was with ration wagons and water carts, into a bloodstained wilderness... but on the whole there is silence. After all, if you prevent your enemy from getting his rations, his remedy is simple: he will prevent you from drawing yours.'

John H. Beith, a British officer

In some places, highly unusual friendships developed:

'One day, while our infantry was cooking, there was a shout from the enemy trench: could he come and eat too? He was invited over. The Frenchman came and ate and made himself comfortable. And from then on, whenever the Frenchman noticed that food was ready in the German trenches, he came and joined in.'

August Bader

Soldiers also cooperated across the lines to frustrate their officers' intentions:

'We received the following message, tied to a stone, from the German trenches opposite: 'We are going to send a 40-pounder. We have been ordered to do this, but we don't want to. It will come this evening, and we will blow a whistle first to warn you so that you have time to take cover.' All happened as they said it would.'

Regimental War Diary, the Fifth Leicestershire

'Live and Let Live' wasn't universally observed. It tended to break down where Tommies faced Prussians, where Germans faced Highlanders, or where élite regiments faced each other. It also became more difficult to sustain in the latter stages of the war as soldiers on both sides lost increasing numbers of friends:

'Speaking for my companions and myself, I can categorically state that we were in no mood for any joviality with Jerry. We hated his guts. We were bent on his destruction at each and every opportunity. Our greatest wish was to be granted an enemy target worthy of our Vickers machine-gun.'

Corporal George Coppard - With a Machine-Gun to Cambrai

However, 'Live and Let Live' was sufficiently widespread for officers to feel uneasy and threatened by its existence. In 1916, the British High Command issued a directive that was designed to counter complacency and promote a more belligerent spirit:

'With trench warfare, there is an insidious tendency to lapse into a passive and lethargic attitude against which officers of all ranks have to be on their guard, and the fostering of the offensive spirit ... calls for incessant attention,'

'The Offensive Spirit in Trench Warfare' - British Training Manual, March 1916

Raiding parties and snipers were seen as the best way to promote mutual hatred.Senior officers started appearing in the lines to demand greater activity:

'Higher ranks began to appear in our midst, chief of all... the brigadier general... followed by an almost equally menacing staff captain. What was my name? Why had I not organised raids? Visited the enemy's wire? I was to go!'

Lieutenant Edmund Blunden

Ordinary soldiers would often go to great lengths to protect themselves. They ventured out into no-man's-land and their officers wrote glowing reports describing their heroism. However, back at headquarters, some officers smelled a rat:

'It became increasingly difficult, as time went on, to obtain correct reports from officers' patrols... it was my habit to order samples of German wire to be cut and brought back... Thus one would know that the German line had been visited.'

Brigadier General Frank Crozier

Faced with such demands, some soldiers were still clever enough to outwit their superiors. One group of British soldiers found a coil of German wire in no-man's-land, lugged it back to their trench, and snipped off samples to present to their superiors:

'That went on every night and the old man never knew we had a coil of Jerry wire on our side'

A British sergeant

'Live and Let Live' contradicts the usual view of trench warfare as an unceasing torment of mud and bullets. Soldiers occasionally worked across the lines to thwart their officers' intentions and minimise the dangers they faced. If it wasn't the international brotherhood that socialists had hoped for in 1914, it certainly demonstrated that the enlisted men were more than simple automata who blindly followed their superiors' orders. In 1917, this desire for freedom of action would find expression in two revolutions in Russia, in French army mutinies, and in the desertions and mass surrenders of Italian troops. It was the ordinary soldier's way of turning his back on the war.