What if the Xmas 1914 truce held

Hard to hear them over all those guns.
WHAT!?
Now seriously I think stopping WWI after it's started, is like stopping an avanlache your just gonna die cold. Too much blood has been spilled in only six months and none of the nations were willing to call it an day; they are going to see this out.
 
I think the French Army mutiny would be a good indicator of what would happen. The government's aren't going to give in, they want and need victory after such carnage.
 
When this fairy tale was spread the first time some years ago, I had a thorough look into it. - There was no Christmas Truce in 1914. There may have been some very few sectors where a truce happened. But for about 97 to 99 percent of the western frontline it was business as usual - Christmas Shelling instead of Christmas Truce.
I've come to believe that the Christmas Truce is just a modern pipe dream but has little to do with what happened in 1914.
 
Maybe if the combattant nations push themselves even harder in the opening months, striving desperatly to salvage some sort of victory by the end of the year, we might have the makings of a peace of exhaustion? IIRC the logistical tethers of most of the armies were stretched to the limit by the pressure of modern warfare; if we see even more intense fighting, with all that implies (increased casualty rates, overworked supply trains, sapped morale), for more marginal gains, then perhaps around christmas time, somebody siezes on the symbolism and the truces become more widespread?
 
Top