India, June 14 -- On December 24, 1914, amid the bloodshed and chaos of the Great War, peace unexpectedly broke out along the Western Front.

Spontaneously and without official sanction, troops on both sides observed a series of ceasefires, setting aside their weapons and exchanging gifts and souvenirs in no man's land. Joint burials and unsanctioned prisoner swaps were carried out. There was carolling, and even some impromptu football.

The spontaneous reaching out was named the Christmas Truce and celebrated in newspaper reports of the time as a sign of our enduring humanity. It would not be repeated, as the war tore on, but it would become one of the most storied events of World War 1.

Now, new evidence is uncovering how that great fo...