"[A] ball appeared from somewhere, I don’t know where, but it came from their side… They made up some goals and one fellow went in goal and then it was just a general kickabout. I should think there were a couple of hundred taking part. I had a go at the ball. I was pretty good then, at 19. Everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves. There was no sort of ill-will between us…. There was no referee and no score, no tally at all. It was simply a mêlee—nothing like the soccer that you see on television. The boots we wore were a menace—those great big boots we had on—and in those days the balls were made of leather and they soon got very soggy."
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Original Language: English
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Sources
Ernie Williams, 1983, quoted in Mike Dash, "The Story of the WWI Christmas Truce", Smithsonian Magazine, December 23, 2011
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/World_War_I_Christmas_truce
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World War I Christmas truce
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