All this walking in the Somme has me unavoidably thinking about my feet. Some people use their feet not just to walk but to play sports. Soccer for example.

I didn’t grow up playing soccer. Heck, I didn’t know that the word “football” had different meanings for Americans and Europeans. Even while walking in France I like to read and follow Georgia football (go Dawgs). Our sons Charles and Dwight love soccer. Through the years, they’ve taught me a thing or two.

Most people have heard Atlanta resident John McCutcheon’s Christmas in the Trenches. Francis Tolliver and hundreds of other soldiers, British and German, played soccer during an impromptu Christmas truce. The following famous photo shows British and German soldiers during one of these 1914 truces.

These spontaneous matches were loved by the soldiers; these occurrences did not go over well with the officers. Fearful of these truces undermining their soldier’s war spirit, officers did all they could in forthcoming years to prevent such occurrences. Apparently orders were given “Get back in your trenches every man,’ and ‘Everybody back in your trenches.” Also, some officers fired their revolvers at the enemy and had compliant machine gunners open fire.

Soccer reappeared in other ways. British posters appealed to young men “to be part of the game.” Both the British and the French to form “pal brigades” which often consisted of men who played for the same club or team.

Bizarre to us today is the leadership of Captain Neville of the British army. On July 1, he gave four platoon leaders each a soccer ball. He hoped that by each platoon leader kicking the ball toward the German lines that the men would eagerly chase it. At 7:28 AM, the men went “over the top.” Of the 60,000 British men killed and wounded that day, these four platoon leaders were killed. Captain Neville was also killed.