Who said ww1 would be over by Christmas?
– Excerpt from the diary of Piete Kuhr, a 12-year old girl from East Prussian Province of Posen. Many thought World War I would be over in days, surely by Christmas. To many, Christmas was a time of peace and goodwill towards others, the celebration of the Prince of Peace.
What was the situation in Europe by December 1914?
December 1914 – The Western Front in Europe stabilizes in the aftermath of the First Battle of Ypres as the Germans go on the defensive and transfer troops to the East to fight the Russians. The 450-mile-long Western Front stretches from the Channel Coast southward through Belgium and Eastern France into Switzerland.
What happened on the 4 August 1914?
August 4, 1914 (Tuesday) Great Britain declared war on Germany at 11:00 p.m. for violating Belgian neutrality. The United States declared neutrality at the outbreak of World War I. With Great Britain formally at war, the Dominions of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand entered World War I.
Which war did they think would be over by Christmas?
World War I
Military analysts led people to believe World War I would be over by Christmas 1914—but new tactics and weapons proved that estimate wrong. By January 1915 World War I was five months old, and the major European powers were entrenched in increasingly savage warfare.
Did they really stop the war for Christmas?
The Christmas truce (German: Weihnachtsfrieden; French: Trêve de Noël) was a series of widespread unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front of the First World War around Christmas 1914. The truce occurred five months after hostilities had begun. Soldiers were no longer amenable to truce by 1916.
What was the importance of the Christmas truce of 1914?
The Christmas truce of 1914 is often celebrated as a symbolic moment of peace in an otherwise incredibly violent war between Britain and Germany. But its first-hand testimonies can help us get closer to what really happened during World War One.
Why was there so much enthusiasm for war in 1914?
One of the first main reasons for the excitement of the war was that many in Europe had a romantic feeling towards war. Also, a strong sense of nationalism was an important reason that many of the young men in 1914 were excited for war.