Home By Christmas - Funny Military Christmas Veteran Shirt
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Home By Christmas - Funny Military Christmas Veteran Shirt
August 1914: over by Christmas. November 1950: the Home-by-Christmas offensive. Every war since has had a briefing where somebody says it with a straight face, and a calendar on the plywood wall that agrees with him for about a week. Then the date slides right, the extension comes down, and the chow hall serves turkey on a paper tray. It is the Christmas gift from the spouse or grown kids who heard the same promise over a bad phone line, for the veteran who heard it in person. Revised estimate: spring.
THE DEBRIEF
A stern general from the chest up in engraved hatching: peaked cap with a plain round badge, handlebar moustache, stars on the shoulder boards, three rows of ribbons. Under him, HOME BY CHRISTMAS in tall worn slab capitals with a holly sprig tucked against the last S, and a small right-aligned credit: EVERY GENERAL SINCE 1914.
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QUESTIONS FROM THE BACK
Who said WW1 would be over by Christmas?
No one person. In August 1914 'over by Christmas' was the common expectation in the newspapers and among the men enlisting, and the Kaiser told troops leaving for the front they would be home before the leaves fell. Lord Kitchener, Britain's war minister, warned it would take at least three years. The war ended in November 1918, and the phrase has been reissued for every war since.
Why was the war not over by Christmas 1914?
Because the plans for a short war failed in the first two months. Germany's sweep through Belgium and France was stopped at the Marne in September, both armies dug in, and by December a line of trenches ran from the North Sea coast to the Swiss border. Machine guns and artillery made attacking that line ruinous, so it barely moved for three years. Christmas, the one part of the plan nobody had to execute, arrived on schedule.
Do soldiers get Christmas off?
Most stateside units do: the services run holiday leave over Christmas and New Year, often in two blocks so someone always holds the duty desk. Deployed troops work through it. The dining facility serves a turkey dinner, the chaplain holds a service, and the date on the redeployment slide moves right again.
