"Silent Night, barely 100 yards away, encouraged the British to respond with Good King Wenceslas. The following day, there was an impromptu kick-about with a football.
This seasonal fraternisation apparently went on for about half an hour, until brought to an abrupt end by a furious British officer, who ordered his men back to the trenches, telling them. in no uncertain terms, the brutal truth of their situation. namely that they were there "to kill the Hun, not make friends with him".