Christmas 1914

In 1914 on Christmas Day
On the Western Front the guns all died away
And lying in the mud on bags of sand
We heard a German sing from No-Man’s Land
He had a tenor voice so pure and true
The words were strange but every note we knew
Soaring o’er the living, dead and damned
A soldier sang of peace from No-Man’s Land

Chorus: Oh, Silent Night, no cannons roar
A King is born of peace for ever more
All is calm, all’s bright, all brothers hand in hand
A soldier sang of peace from No-Man’s Land

They left their trenches and we left ours
Beneath tin hats the smiles bloomed like wildflowers
With photos, cigarettes and flasks of wine
We made a soldiers truce on the front line
Their singer was a lad of twenty-one
We begged another tune before the dawn
And there amid the mud and death and fear
He sang again the song all longed to hear

Chorus: Oh, Silent Night, no cannons roar
A King is born of peace for ever more
All is calm, all’s bright, all brothers hand in hand
‘Midst gas and rusty wire in No-Man’s Land

And in the dawning the guns boomed in the rain
We killed them and they killed us again
With bayonet, bomb and bullet, gas and flame
And neither they nor us were all to blame
There was heavy fighting all throughout the day
For one night's peace we bitterly did pay
That night they charged, we fought them hand to hand
And I killed the lad who sang from No-Man’s Land

Chorus: Oh, Silent Night, no cannons roar
A King is born of peace for ever more
All is calm, all’s bright, all brothers hand in hand
In 19 and 14 in No-Man’s Land

But still that soldier sings
And his ghostly voice still rings
Where the Captains and the Kings
Built No-Man’s Land

Oh, Silent Night, Holy Night, All is calm, all is bright
‘Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child
Holy infant, so tender and mild,

Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.