Trench Warfare 1914-18

An excellent study of the unnoficial truces that took place throughout WW1, not just of the Christmas truce of 1914. Tony Ashworth has deeply researched this subject and concludes that there most definitely did exist a "Live and Let Live" system between antagonists that led to some sectors of the Western Front being described as quiet, as opposed to 'active sectors' which were almost non-stop, unremmitting warfare. He argues that the commonly held view that trench warfare was non-stop shelling and action is a false one, and that men often did find ways to have some form of control over their ghastly environment, even if it were for only a few hours or a day or two at a time. Highly unnofficial, forbidden by the High Command of both sides, truces nevertheless did exist. Ashworth studies the most simple of truces, a one-to-one agreement between two opposing soldiers, close enough to be able to converse, right through to the ritualistic truces of whole units or battalions in the line where shelling was ritualised, or avoided at certain times, eg, between 8-9am when men of both sides would be having their breakfast, or even by the showing of white flags on poles to show the location of latrines. In many sectors, neither side thought it proper to shell when men were easing themselves. A first rate dissertation and one that really does explain just how many men did manage to go through that four years of hell and retain some form of sanity ... and even sanitation.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.