Whistle

Sergeant Hoy wrote' On Christmas morning 1914 I was in the the trenches in France on the Ypres sector and I was playing some carols on my whistle, which I always carried with me. Suddenly a German called out, " Play 'Home Sweet Home' Tommy". I started to play it and to my surprise a German who was near our trench produced a mouth organ and joined in with me. That started us and the Germans fraternising on top of the trench. Later a football was produced, and not a shot was fired that day.'

The Christmas truce of December 1914 has been a source of fascination for the last hundred years, viewed by many to characterise the complete futility of war. It is the one episode of the First World War familiar to everyone, evoking a complete range of human emotions. This single object was at the centre of that event.

The 1st Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment was engaged in the fighting at Ypres. Their official War Diary does not mention the Christmas truce but the personal accounts of individual soldiers do. The whistle, made of plated brass, belonged to Sergeant E.C. Hoy.

Other accounts tell of steady streams of soldiers making their way to the middle ground shouting Christmas greetings. There, in ‘no-man’s-land’, they shared cigars and bottles of schnapps.

The truce did not occur in all sectors. Less well-known is that where fighting continued, this was one of the worst days for fatalities. Sixty-nine British soldiers were either killed in action or died from wounds received that Christmas day.

While this whistle represents a famous break in the fighting for members of the Norfolk Regiment, the peace did not last. The first Battle of Ypres resulted in a total of 210,200 casualties (including missing persons) across the British, German and Belgian armies.