One of the most memorable moments from World War I is the story of the truce around the Christmas holiday in 1914. It was a brief respite from a brutal and horrifying conflict, perhaps the worst the world had ever seen.
The Christmas Match: Football in No Man’s Land by Pehr Thermaenius, an offering from the Uniform Press, is a story about two soldiers that took place in a football match during the truce, a “friendly” of sorts on a terrible battlefield that claimed many lives. For that brief period the battlefield was a football pitch where victory had a different meaning and purpose. Instead of bullets and bombs, they had balls, goals, and a makeshift game of football.
Thermaenius chose to tell this moving story from a different angle, following the journeys of two soldiers with a background in football. Jimmy Coyle, a Scotsman, probably had better footballing ambitions than most, having played for the Albion Rovers. Fighting in a war definitely ended his football dreams, but it did earn him several military honors.
German soldier Albert Schmidt also participated in the football match during the Christmas holiday. His footballing potential was likely much lower, having found a spot in the third team of Fussballclub 02 Schedewitz in eastern Germany. Unfortunately Schmidt didn’t survive the war and his story ended in a cemetery in France.
As you might expect the story is heavy on history and stories of war, making it extremely worthwhile for both history and war buffs. Football lovers will find themselves at home as well. Simply put, it reaches an enormous audience due to the powerful stories contained within this little book.
Overall it is a story about how the beautiful game can change the world, stop a conflict, and restore humanity to a terrible situation. This was likely one of the first examples that show how powerful the game really is. And it certainly wasn’t the last.
