i call total bullshit
1914 ready to rock
1916 ready for football
1917 not so much

The peace that almost was.

After a great surge 'over the top' and then the often-time retreat, No-Mans-Land would be filled with the voices of wounded young men crying out to their mothers.

It was real, Gavin. Sorry.

www . history . com/topics/world-war-i/christmas-truce-of-1914

I had a great-uncle who was a POW in WW1. He told this story. He was there.

Sorry, Gavin, you're in error here.

"The Christmas truce (German: Weihnachtsfrieden; French: Trêve de Noël) was a series of widespread, unofficial ceasefires that took place along the Western Front around Christmas 1914, during World War I. Through the week leading up to Christmas, parties of German and British soldiers began to exchange seasonal greetings and songs between their trenches; on occasion, the tension was reduced to the point that individuals would walk across to talk to their opposite numbers bearing gifts. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, many soldiers from both sides—as well as, to a lesser degree, from French units—independently ventured into "no man's land", where they mingled, exchanging food and souvenirs. As well as joint burial ceremonies, several meetings ended in carol-singing. Troops from both sides were also friendly enough to play games of football with one another, in one of the truce's most enduring images.
It was not ubiquitous; in some regions of the front, fighting continued throughout the day, while in others, little more than an arrangement to recover bodies was made. The following year, a few units again arranged ceasefires with their opponents over Christmas, but the truces were not nearly as widespread as in 1914; this was, in part, due to strongly worded orders from the high commands of both sides prohibiting such fraternisation. In 1916, after the unprecedentedly bloody battles of the Somme and Verdun, and the beginning of widespread poison gas use, soldiers on both sides increasingly viewed the other side as less than human, and no more Christmas truces were sought."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_truce

The actors were waaaaay too clean....

Stand corrected. Perhaps the production style set me off.
apropos of returning jihadis, when my grandfather volunteered to drive ambulance for french in '16 he had to give up u.s.citizenship until u.s. picked side.