Christmas 1915 (by Cormac MacConnell) Raymond Crooke

A song recorded by Raymond in 2019.

This is one of several songs about the Christmas truce, which probably occurred in 1914, rather than 1915, when soldiers were forbidden even more strongly not to fraternise with the enemy. The song was popularised by Tommy Fleming.

Lyrics and chords:
E
Nineteen-fifteen on Christmas day,
............... A .................................................. B7
On the Western Front, the guns all died away,
....... A ............................................ E
And lying in the mud on bags of sand,
...... B7 ........................................................ E
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,
That German sang of peace from no man's land.

They left their trenches and then we left ours.
Beneath tin hats, the smiles bloomed like wild flowers.
With photos, cigarettes and pots of wine,
We built a soldier's truce on the front line.
Their singer was a lad of twenty-one.
We begged another song before the dawn
And sitting in the mud and blood and fear,
He sang again the song all longed to hear.

E
Silent night, no cannons roar.
.... A ............................................ B7
A king is born of peace forevermore.
A
All's calm, all's bright,
...................................E
All brothers hand in hand,
.......... B7............................... E
Midst gas and rusty wire in no man's land.

And in the morning, all the guns boomed in the rain,
And we killed them and they killed us again,
With bayonet, bomb and bullet, gas and flame,
And neither we nor they at all to blame.
There was heavy fighting right throughout the day.
For one night's peace we bloodily did pay.
At night they charged, we fought them hand to hand,
And I killed the boy that sang in no man's land.

Oh silent night, no cannons roar.
A king is born of peace forevermore.
All's calm, all's bright,
All brothers hand in hand,
And that young soldier sings,
And the sound of peace still rings,
Though the captains and all the kings build no man's land.
...
Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.