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What really happened in the Christmas truce of 1914?
- johansch 9y ago"This content is currently not available on this device. Please try again later." VPN time I guess... (Location: Sweden)
- lostlogin 9y agoWorking from New Zealand - I have a VPN specifically for BBC content but it’s not on at the moment.
- johansch 9y agoMaybe it's a Commonwealth thing? :)
- salad77 9y ago<humor>There's plenty of opportunities for former members (e.g. USA) to re-apply to join in the post-Brexit world. One of the many benefits could be access to the BBC iPlayer !</humor>
- lostlogin 9y agoI’m sure this has been said before, but iPlayer is a bit of an abomination, but the content is excellent. The BBC have this weird thing where content expires, which is annoying. I rate that up there with my local library that lets you ‘borrow’ books digitally, but they ‘expire’ after a couple of weeks. If you forget to ‘return’ them you get a notice and a reminder to destroy them. How did this happen?
- untog 9y agoHaving experienced various streaming services in the US, I find iPlayer to be anything but an abomination. Don't think I've ever experienced lag with it, and the ability to watch live shows is really very impressive.
- lostlogin 9y agoI’ve never watched anything live, but the combined action of adverts and interface gets me. It doesn’t seem to remember where I left off, they stick to the weekly schedule, they ‘expire’ content and the navigation is nowhere near the Netflix standard. It is a load better than my local offering (Lightbox) which is not good. Audio sync being my current pain point.
- lhopki01 9y agoAdverts? For iPlayer?
- gerdesj 9y agoI am genuinely glad that my TV licence is being put to good use (in the UK, public broadcast TV is paid for: we pay a licence fee to own a TV, currently £147) There are around 60M people here in ~27M households(do the maths) The BBC (Beeb, Auntie) is an anachronism in the modern world but it works. For example Blue Planet II is an example of cutting edge journalism that I don't think could have happened if Netflix, Amazon were the only game in town.
- emodendroket 9y agoBlue Planet II is great, but is it really journalism?
- brians 9y agoWe will be happy to accept application for statehood from England. I expect Scotland to rejoin the EU. ?
- johansch 9y agoScotland saying F-U to the UK and joining the EU would be so neat!
- mikestew 9y agoOT: I wonder why there’s a skull/question mark overlapping where the reply button should be? Something something Unicode, but for static text like “reply”? iOS 11 on an iPhone 6. EDIT: page refresh and the reply button shows up, still with the unrendendered Unicode bit.
- taejo 9y agoIt's a sequence of Unicode characters that's supposed to render as the Welsh flag. The first character U+1F3F4 BLACK FLAG seems to be missing (at least when I copy and paste it); that's followed by "tag letters" from the U+E0061-U+E007A spelling "gbwls". See https://unicode.org/reports/tr51/#valid-emoji-tag-sequences https://unicode.org/reports/tr51/#valid-emoji-tag-sequences I think the BLACK FLAG is getting removed by HN's emoji filtering, but the modifier characters after it are remaining.
- mikestew 9y agoThanks for the explanation. On my phone, so tools for diagnosis are lacking, but it sounds like you might know your Unicode better than I do anyway. :-)
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- lostlogin 9y ago> Back in Britain, German battleships shelled the coastal towns of Whitby, Hartlepool and Scarborough, killing 122 and injuring 450 civilian men, women and children. My grandparents had a piece of one of the shell mounted on the wall in the dining room, and it’s now in mine. Someone made a small hexagonal wooden plaque and mounted a bit of shrapnel in the middle of it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_Scarborough,_Hartlepool_and_Whitby https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_Scarborough,_Hartlep...
- sjclemmy 9y agoWar. What is it good for?
- fiatjaf 9y agoClickbait title, but apparently has some interesting material. The best things, however, remain the letters and memories of soldiers.
- DanAndersen 9y agoPutting a recommendation here for the "Extra History" cartoon video series, which has a couple new videos about the Christmas Truce: Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUlPNWDvk-c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUlPNWDvk-c Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pey-HmXGfs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pey-HmXGfs The artwork is fun and the creator treats the historical material with a decent amount of respect (which might be surprising considering the cartoon nature of it).
- digi_owl 9y agoWhile i love the series, and their orignal Extra Credits series on gaming, i can't shake the feel that the quality has been sagging as of late. Their latest show, Extra SciFi, comes across as almost "metaphysical".
- LV-426 9y ago> The few reports of a football match between forces have endured for a century, but what has contributed to the focus on this part of the story? Because it's passed down through generations, told in schools, appeared in the video for Paul McCartney's hit song Pipes of Peace and is a remarkable example of humanity and unlikely camaraderie in an otherwise monstrous 4-year slaughter. Very modest of the BBC to suggest it's because of a BBC comedy series from 1989, though, which I don't remember even depicting a football game.
- vidarh 9y agoThe Blackadder episode in question is renowned for being seen as so poignant it was repeated as part of BBCs Armistice Day coverage that year. I can't find viewership numbers but I'd be surprised if the Paul McCartney video in question has been viewed anywhere near as much. If anything many have accused the Blackadder series in question of largely shaping modern perception of WWI You don't remember it depicting a football game because it didn't - it comes up as one of the characters reminisces about the Christmas truce. That said the article gives that as just one of a number of examples of how the story has been perpetuated.
- venomsnake 9y agoGoodbyeee's last 2 minutes are the greatest piece of television ever filmed featuring some of the greatest British talent ever. It did have lasting impact.
- eih 9y agoWell, I want to avoid spoilers, but I want to tell you that one particular (or 'special') visual creation that aired today has something related to a part of this subject. I think I haven't ruined it, have I?
- jbkahn 9y agoI always like to plug my favorite YouTube series The Great War, they had an episode on this: https://youtu.be/SpqVblMPRB4 https://youtu.be/SpqVblMPRB4
- cirrus-clouds 9y agoA British supermarket chain (Sainsbury's) created an expensive Christmas advert on this topic in 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWF2JBb1bvM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWF2JBb1bvM
- freedomben 9y agoIf anybody hasn't listened to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History series on WW1 called, "Blueprint for Armageddon," I can't recommend it highly enough. He goes into very good detail about the war, including the Christmas Truce, and it is fascinating. Blueprint for Armageddon is currently in the RSS feed, but if you wait too long you'll need to drop some $ to buy it. I listened to it for free but paid the man anyway because it's incredible.
- Jedd 9y agoThere's some challenges to the accuracy of his analysis. [1] Robert Newman in his History of Oil [2] proposes an interesting alternative interpretation / explanation of the events around the start of WWI. Also very highly recommended. [1] https://amp.reddit.com/r/badhistory/comments/3v63nh/dan_carlins_blueprint_for_armageddon_has_7/ https://amp.reddit.com/r/badhistory/comments/3v63nh/dan_carl... [2] https://youtu.be/Qu47fIkIsY8 https://youtu.be/Qu47fIkIsY8
- freedomben 9y agoInteresting. I'll check it out. Thank you!
- freedomben 9y agoMy computer locked up so I didn't finish the whole video, but I did find it interesting. The list of inaccuracies seemed fair, but I don't think any of those ruined the overall message and mood he was trying to set. The Robert Newman video was interesting (and funny), but the bashing of the US seemed a little over the top, and I think he has some marxist tendencies (which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I agree with many of marx's criticisms of Capitalism. I'm just not convinced there's an alternative with less greed/corruption/power seeking politicians). Will probably finish the video when I get a chance. Thanks again for the reference.
- Picassino 9y agoI m no longer convinced by that. Not a socialist...but any well designed gamified System with a realistic outlook on human nature ought to do.
- 333c 9y agoI had the honor this month of playing a bugle call in a production of All is Calm, which is a musical/radio show about the Christmas Truce. Essentially all of the dialog comes verbatim from the journals and letters of the soldiers who were there. If you're interested, I suggest listening to the recording of the original production: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCF720B19AE784B23 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCF720B19AE784B23
- junkscience2017 9y agoIt's a long way to Tipperary? By Christmas 1914 the war's brutality was not yet in full effect. Within one year of the Christmas truce neither side would be particularly interested in splitting a bottle of Sherry. Poison gas came on the menu instead. By 1918 they were shooting at each other within minutes of the scheduled final ceasefire, when there was literally nothing to be gained beyond watching an enemy die one last time. I'm not sure why the Christmas Truce continues to fascinate...it amounted to nothing in the grand scheme of the conflict other than to expose the final shred of naivete on both sides.
- jonas123 9y agoIf I understood correctly there's no evidence for such a football game. In the new Doctor Who episode from today – funnily being set around this event – they show a scene in which soldiers play football together.
- wldcordeiro 9y agoNo evidence of a full game, but "kick arounds" are mentioned as having happened.
- Mountain_Skies 9y agoDoctor Who, both by nature and by design, has always been rather loose when it comes to historical accuracy.
- eksemplar 9y agoWhat a weird and needless article, it clearly had the agenda of de-romanticizing the truce events, but basically goes on to confirm that everything, you think happened, actually happened. Obviously you can view history from different social constructs, but for me at least, this article did little but waste the time it took to read. I do realize that having studied history and being interested in this event in particular, I was probably going to know what the article contained, but I was still disappointed by it.
- ianai 9y agoGlad you saved me the time to read it. Ultimately I think the world can tolerate and in fact needs more examples of coming together despite adversity
- emodendroket 9y agoI think that's a little unfair. It gives a fair bit of context that probably is unfamiliar to most readers.
- brewdad 9y agoThe truce was the basis of today's Doctor Who Christmas episode. This appears to be aligned with one of the most watched shows every year to provide a bit of background for curious Whovians.
- bsder 9y ago> Obviously you can view history from different social constructs, but for me at least, this article did little but waste the time it took to read. Well, the fact that these were some of the LAST temporary truces and that the high command was actively terrified by these kinds of events and raised them to court martial offenses was something I hadn't known before.
- BaronVonSteuben 9y agoYeah I suppose that's true for me as well. I had heard that the officers were pissed and basically threatened to execute in the field any men caught doing that, but I didn't know that it had effectively worked at eliminating these kinds of event.
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