Christmas 1914 - same event and titles but different songs by Mike Harding and Cormac MacConnell.

Christmas 1914 (Mike Harding)

Christmas Eve in 1914, stars were burning, burning bright
And all along the Western front guns were lying still and quiet
Men lay dozing in the trenches, in the cold and in the dark
As far away behind the lines a village dog began to bark

Some lay thinking of their families, some sang songs, others were quiet
Rolling fags and playing brag and to pass away this Christmas night
As they watched the German trenches, something moved in no man's land
Through the dark there came a soldier carrying a white flag in his hand

Then from both sides men came running, crossing into no man's land
Through the barbed wire, mud and shell-holes, shyly stood there shaking hands
Fritz brought out cigars and brandy, Tommy brought corned beef and fags
Stood there laughing, talking, singing as the moon shone down on no man's land

Christmas Day we all played football in the mud of no man's land
Tommy brought some Christmas pudding, Fritz brought out a German band
And when they beat us at the football we shared out all the grub and drink
Then Fritz showed me a faded photo of a brown-haired girl back in
Berlin

For four days after no side fired, not one shell disturbed the night
For old Fritz and Tommy Atkins, they'd both lost the will to fight
So they withdrew us from the trenches, sent us far behind the lines
Sent fresh troops to take our places and told the guns, Prepare to
fire

The next night in 1914, flares were burning, burning bright
The message came, Prepare offensive! Over the top we're going tonight
And men stood waiting in the trenches, looked out across our football park
And all along the Western front the Christmas guns began to bark



CHRISTMAS 1914 (by Cormac MacConnell)

In the year 1914 on Christmas Day,
On the Western front the guns all died away.
And lying in the mud on bags of sand
We heard the German sing from No Man's Land.
He had a tenor voice so clear and true;
The words were strange, but every note we knew.
A-soaring o'er the living, dead and damned,
That soldier sang of peace from No Man's Land.

Chorus: Oh, Silent night, no cannons roar.
A King is born of peace for ever more,
All's calm, all's bright, all brothers hand in hand,
A Soldier's song of peace from No Man's Land.

They slowly left their trenches, we left ours.
Beneath tin hats the smiles bloomed like wild flowers.
With photos, cigarettes and flasks of wine,
We made a soldier's peace on that front line.
Their singer was a lad of twenty-one;
We begged another song before the dawn,
And sitting amid carnage, death and fear,
He sang again the song all longed to hear.

Chorus:

In the morning all the guns roared in the rain,
And they killed us and we killed them again
With bayonet, bomb and bullet, gas and flame
And neither them nor us at at all to blame.
There was heavy fighting all throughout that day.
For one night's peace we bitterly did pay.
That night they charged, we fought them hand to hand
And I shot the lad who sang from No Man's Land.
Chorus:

Oh, Silent night, no cannons roar,
A king is born of peace for ever more.
All's calm, all's bright, all brothers hand in hand,
A soldier's song of peace from No Man's Land.
O Silent night, Holy night,
And his ghostly voice still rings
As the young dead soldier sings
Where the Captains and the Kings
Built No Man's Land.


Cheers
Mark