In the 1st world war, they played football on xmas day in the trenches - who thourght to take a football?

Answer 1

The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce, described it:
. . . the Germans set trees on trench parapets and lit the candles. Then, they began singing carols, and though their language was unfamiliar to their enemies, the tunes were not. After a few trees were shot at, the British became more curious than belligerent and crawled forward to watch and listen. And after a while, they began to sing.

By Christmas morning, the "no man's land" between the trenches was filled with fraternizing soldiers, sharing rations and gifts, singing and (more solemnly) burying their dead between the lines. Soon they were even playing soccer, mostly with improvised balls.

According to the official war diary of the 133rd Saxon Regiment, "Tommy and Fritz" kicked about a real football supplied by a Scot. "This developed into a regulation football match with caps casually laid out as goals. The frozen ground was no great matter . . . The game ended 3-2 for Fritz."

Answer 2

It was common for soldiers to take footballs to France with them during WW1, just as it is common for British soldiers to take footballs with them to Iraq today (watch Soccer AM on Saturdays to see evidence of this). There is a common mis-conception that fighting during WW1v was a constant event, it wasn't. Although it did happen on a regular basis, fighting was sometimes done 'by appointment,' for example it is well documented that the Germans would often contact the British to pre-warn them about an artillery bombardment at a certain time, there is no doubt that this was also done by the British, all to make both sets of soldiers lives as bearable as possible.
There is also a well documented incident of an officer using a football to encourage his men to attack the enemy, he would blow his whistle signalling the men to attack, then he would kick the ball into 'no man's land' and his soldiers would chase the ball into the enemy trenches.

Answer 3

The last complete League programme on a Christmas Day took place in 1957. There were matches in 1959 between Blackburn Rovers and Blackpool in Division One and Coventry City and Wrexham in Division Three - and, in the last match of all, Blackpool beat Blackburn 4-2 in a Division One fixture at Bloomfield Road in 1965.

Answer 4

First, is football the American sport, or are they another country playing soccor?
People bring extra stuff overseas. A foot ball is not heavy, but is a little bulky. But regiments also bring sports equipment, to give the troops some relaxation when they are sent to the rear for rest. So it is not hard to believe people had a football, or soccar bar. They played many games of baseball in WWII. Remember the scenes of Steve Mcqueen playing solitare catch in the "cooler" in "the Great Escape"?

Answer 5

They weren't in the trenches all the time. It was something like 2 weeks on, one week off. In the off times they played football quite a lot. So footballs would have been available.

Answer 6

It was the Germans and the English during the Christmas Truce of 1914

Answer 7

probably one of the reasons they had a football for was beacuse the Army said to the country "join up with your friends and its guarenteed that you will be allowed to stay together in the war" so villages, factories and FOOTBALL TEAMS signed up. because they were allowed to take few items to entertain themselves in the trenches, men took cards, and maybe one of he football players took a football.

Answer 8

I haven't done any research into this, but my guess is that they might have improvised somehow.

Also, there would be houses and towns here and there. Maybe they picked up a football sometime during their marches.

Answer 9

thats a stupid question...

the soliders were/are allowed to take thing to entertain themselves when they werent fighting eg when they were staying at a camp ie not the war zone.

Answer 10

They weren't in the middle of nowhere.

They picked it up from someone's yard.