The Christmas Truce of 1914

On Christmas Eve in 1914 the entrenched soldiers all along the Western Front laid down their arms in a gesture of peace. The truce lasted through Christmas Day and in some places went on for almost a week. At first the troops simply ceased fire, but soon there was singing as well as the exchange of rations. Slowly men began to come out of their trenches starting conversations with others from the opposite side in the midst of no man’s land.

As the truce went on the generals of the different sides became worried and angry. They could not understand why their men were all of a sudden fraternizing with the enemy. The soldiers were ordered back to fighting. Most of the soldiers, however, merely fired into the air and continued the truce.

On Christmas there was singing, sharing of food, music, and even games of football. Levels of celebration varied on the Western Front. While some sections openly celebrated, others merely kept an uncertain cease fire.

Even so it was the largest unsanctioned truce in history. Sadly the truce was not permanent. In the next two weeks all remaining truces were wiped out, and the two sides were pushed back to war. There would not be another Christmas truce in World War One, or any war to follow.

The Springfield M1903 Rifle

The M1903 Springfield Rifle was the main infantry rifle for the United States in WWI. The rifle was developed by the Springfield Armory in Springfield Massachusetts.

The Springfield was developed to replace the Krag-Jørgensen rifle, which had been adopted in 1892. The Krag-Jørgensen rifle had several problems including its inability to be able to load more than one cartridge at a time and its low muzzle velocity. Efforts were made to improve the muzzle velocity but the gun was not able to handle the increased chamber pressure that increased velocity required.

Springfield Armory was looking at the German Mauser, which the Spanish had previously incorporated into their military. Instead of using the Mauser, Springfield decided to instead combine desirable characteristics from the Krag and Mauser rifles to make a whole new gun.

The first of these new rifles, the M1901 was not accepted by the US Army, but in 1903 the new and improved version of the Springfield, the M1903, was accepted by the army and put into service. By the time America joined WWI in April 1917, 843,239 M1903s had been produced, allowing the United States to equip the American expeditionary force with Springfields.

The M1903 Springfield rifle was a bolt action 8.7lb rifle with a length of 44.9 in. with an effective range of 2,500 yards. The Springfield had a five round stripper clip that could hold 30 caliber bullets.

Proving itself as an effective weapon during the First World War, the Springfield went on to be the main US infantry weapon up until the early days of Vietnam.  

Springfield M1903 with ammunition

      

Springfield M1903 with magazine