WWI · TURNING POINT · 1914

Christmas truce (1914)

On the WWI map as “The Christmas truce”

24-26 Dec 1914 — On stretches of the front, soldiers leave their positions, exchange tobacco and bury their dead. Several accounts also describe games of football. Commands on both sides ensure that the truce never happens again.

When: 24-26 Dec 1914
Type: Turning point
Chapter: Trench warfare on the Western Front (chapter 5 of WWI)
Atlas: The Great War, 1871–1923

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Map showing Christmas truce (1914), turning point in The Great War, 1871–1923 — TURNING POINT · THE GREAT WAR, 1871–1923

These maps are reconstructed from published sources · Cliopatria v 0.2.1 · Natural Earth physical geography · Anglo-Russian Convention, 31 August 1907, articles I–II · Maps of History: Great War geographic decisions · US Military Academy World War I atlas, chart 11 · US Military Academy World War I atlas, chart 29

Source details

Cliopatria contributors / Seshat Global History Databank. Source polygons retained with original identities; geographic selections and corrections by Maps of History.. CC BY 4.0
Made with Natural Earth; geographic reference and physical land only. No modern political boundary is used as a historical boundary.. Public domain
US Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States; convention’s named places define the two concession spheres.. Historical treaty facts, independently reconstructed
Maps of History. Campaign-sector connectors and contextual regions are identified separately from imported vector outlines.. Original geographic reconstruction using attributed historical evidence
US Military Academy, Department of History & War Studies, World War I chart 11. Selected geographic front facts reconstructed independently; no claim of blanket public-domain artwork rights.. Geographic evidence citation; source index requests permission for map reprints. Original artwork is not redistributed.
US Military Academy, Department of History & War Studies, World War I chart 29. Selected geographic front facts reconstructed independently; no claim of blanket public-domain artwork rights.. Geographic evidence citation; source index requests permission for map reprints. Original artwork is not redistributed.

Annual source features can describe claims, legal territory or military control. Occupied extensions are separated from the prewar Central Power homelands, while the original source names and shapes remain available.

The area east/north of the sourced western front is selected within the 1914 historical French, Belgian and Luxembourg footprints. It represents military control, not annexation.

The displayed state is iss 14 nov. Geographic reference dates and reconstruction methods are recorded for each feature.

reconstruction: 1871–1918 · reconstruction: 1914.88 · reconstruction: 31 August 1907 · reconstruction: January 1915 stabilized line used for late 1914 · reconstruction: November–December 1914 campaign reference

Layer records and reconstruction methods