Summer 2013
Page 7
Beckham called up for duty: Government ‘to ask star to lead 1914 Christmas truce memorial match
David Beckham could captain his country one more time against Germany to commemorate the centenary of the 1914 Christmas Day truce. The retired footballer is to be approached by the Government to mark the day British and Germans troops laid down their weapons and played football on No Man's Land. More practically, soldiers used the time to reclaim their dead from no man's land and bury them behind the lines. In the evening, soldiers of both sides sang carols an d f i g ht i n g only resumed when fresh battalions were moved into the line. Members of the panel include authors Sebastian Faulks, author of Birdsong, and Pat Barker, who wrote the Regeneration Trilogy. Their First World War novels have become a staple of school teaching on the books and poetry inspired by the war. There will be six state occasions, school trips to battlefields and exhibitions backed by historians and the Government, which has set aside £50million for the commemorations. A number of debates about the reasons why the war started are also planned. Almost a million British soldiers and civilians lost their lives in the four-year conflict. Don Mullan, of the 1914 Christmas Truce Project, is on a £1.25million fundraising mission to build a pitch and small stadium at Messines for the centenary game. After the event, children from all over the world would be invited to play there to strengthen international ties and understanding. Footballs have previously been placed at the site next to the wooden cross that commemorates the truce. (see photo right) Defence Minister Andrew Murrison said in February that a football match was 'a nobrainer in terms of an event that is going to reach part of the community that perhaps might not get terribly entrenched into this'. Speaking to The Guardian, Dr Murrison said: 'It had no real relevance to the outcome of the war but at that deeply, intensely, personal level, it is something that people really do latch on to.
Below: German and British troops swapped gifts and sang carols together
Above: Xmas Day truce of 1914 showing German and British soldiers socialising Left: impromptu battlefield matches recreated in this picture at Dale Barracks between German soldiers and the Royal Welsh Fusiliers
The Government wants Beckham, who acted as an ambassador for the 2012 Olympics and 2018 World Cup bids, to lead a team of British players and serving soldiers in a football match against the Germans on Boxing Day 2014. The game would be shown live on television as a way to capture the interest of the public in the centenary of the start of the First World War. Sir Bobby Charlton and Franz Beckenbauer, who faced each other in the 1966 World Cup Final, may also be among the football legends invited to join the event, according to The Sunday Times A Dept of Culture spokesman told the newspaper: 'The unofficial Christmas truce on the Western Front in 1914 was a poignant moment during the Great War. We are keen to see it marked in some way as part of the centenary project and staging a football match feels like the right way to do it.' The Christmas Day truce saw more than 100,000 British and German soldiers lower their guns and leave the trenches in the mud of No Man's Land. In some areas, soldiers on both sides merely held their fire throughout the day. But elsewhere, troops climbed out of their trenches and exchanging gifts and handshakes and playing football. The match finished 3-2 to the Germans, according to the diaries of Kurt Zehmisch, a soldier in the 134th Saxons.