a group of soldiers singing on Christmas

On the WWI battlefield, U.S. soldiers cobbled together a homemade Christmas

In the December 1919 issue, National Geographic shared the firsthand account of how soldiers celebrated far from home in France.

Nearly every billet in France where American soldiers last year celebrated their Christmas had its own particular “Tara,” battered, jiggly, and out of tune, but still with melody in its soul.

Photograph by American Red Cross, Nat Geo Image Collection
This story first appeared in the December 1919 issue of Natitonal Geographic magazine.
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