The View from No-Man's Land; 105 Years Later

105 years ago today, the worst carnage Europe had seen in a hundred years took a brief respite. Prompted by spontaneous actions and fortuitous circumstances, the guns fell silent across the Western Front. Throughout the cratered landscape, men emerged from the trenches and mingled in the no-man's-land which had, not so many hours before, been a killing ground. They shared smokes, keepsakes, addresses, and humanity. They buried their dead and supported the living; prayed, ate, sang, and worked together for a brief moment which nonetheless echoes down through the ages, though all of their voices have gone silent.

For one brief moment, shared experience ceased to be a burden and a wedge and became brotherhood.