military christmas

Military Christmas - Buying a Christmas gift for your loved one serving in the armed forces can sometimes be a bit of a chore...especially when it comes to buying military gear.

So to help you out, we've compiled a list of our top 12 items your military spouse, mom, son, daughter or dad will love to open on Christmas Day.

Military Christmas

By far the best military belt on the market. These products are handmade in the UK and the company that produces them - FRV Tailoring - is a veteran owned British company.

On Duty Over Christmas. The Uk Armed Forces Work 24/7, 365 Days…

This great coffee and care package will help you stay awake and ready for whatever the day throws at you.

There's no better way to keep your feet warm and look tactically cool than wearing these bad boys from The North Face.

Everyone hates their phone running out of battery during training or overseas deployment, so why not buy your loved one a power bank to keep you connected for longer.

A little pricey at over £139, but if you have the money to spend, why not buy one of the best and most durable backpacks on the market. It is not yet confirmed, 'can you use a daypack at night?'.

Support For Deployed Military On Special Holidays

No one likes to stretch after a workout, so why not make life easier with a massage gun. This product is also from a British veteran company.

Everyone needs one of these in their life... you can keep your favorite "hot wet" hot for hours in one of these.

Don't deploy without one of these. Eating portions from a foil packet can be a messy affair, these long-handled spoons are the business and will ensure you get to the bottom of your morning sausage and beans. Gilliand Hudson, a carpenter with MEL, serves as Santa and poses with U.S. soldiers with the 4th Battalion, 25th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, at Forward Operating Base Clark, Afghanistan, on the 25 December 2013. Hudson dressed up as Santa Claus to spread holiday cheer to soldiers away from home during the holidays. Photo courtesy of Cpl. Amber Stephens/DVIDS.

The holidays are meant to be a time when families come together to enjoy good food, exchange gifts and make lasting memories. In a war, Christmas can be a sign of hope or a sign of uncertainty. This Christmas, whether you're deployed overseas or enjoying it with friends or family, remember how others throughout history have spent their day. This Christmas list doesn't include the desired gifts, but major military operations and memories from No Man's Land to Auschwitz to a Christmas miracle and a gruesome bombing campaign.

Christmas Gift Ideas For Your Military Family Member

’ illustration of the Christmas truce: “British and German soldiers exchange hats at arm’s length: a Christmas truce between opposing trenches”. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

The sound of artillery shells, whistles and wailing cries of pain were absent on Christmas Eve night along the Western Front. The Royal Irish Rifles watched the Germans light up their trenches and heard carols such as "Silent Night" sung in unison. The start of a festive celebration was met with a British encore of "The First Noel". The two armies laid down their weapons and entered no man's land to greet the enemy and share the goodies. A Scots Guard soldier wrote in his war diary that “he met a German patrol and got a glass of whiskey and some cigars and they sent him a message saying that if we didn't shoot at them they wouldn't shoot. about us."

The Christmas Truce of 1914 saw British and German troops shake hands, pose for photographs, play football and bury their dead. It was part of the "Live Let Live" system, a code honored on the front lines where truces were agreed to rebuild trenches and pick up fallen troops. The Christmas truce did not become a tradition and did not occur again during the First World War.

The railway leading to Auschwitz Hell Gate. If a prisoner lost a match, he would be sentenced to die. Photo courtesy of Krakow Wiki.

Red Christmas Ornament Remember Everyone Deployed Military

Five hard Christmases were lived behind the barbed wire in the Auschwitz concentration camp. The first Christmas Eve of 1940 set the tone for an inferno that not even the Christmas season could diminish. The sadistic SS women displayed a Christmas tree with electric lights and placed under the tree the corpses of the prisoners who died working or frozen during the call under the tree as if they were presents.

Over the years, some prisoners have defied the squalid conditions in small ways. Henry Bartosiewicz smuggled a Christmas tree into Room 7 of Block 25. Witold Pilecki, the Polish war hero who volunteered to be imprisoned in Auschwitz to gain information about what was really going on inside, carved a Polish eagle on a turnip to decorate wood. Towards the end of World War II, the Third Reich was largely dismantled. The women of Birkenau sewed around 200 toys for children in the hospital, one even dressed up to look like St. Nicholas to hand out gifts. Christmas wishes for freedom were granted on January 27, 1945, when the camp was liberated by Soviet troops.

The Hungnam evacuation, sometimes referred to as the "Christmas miracle" or a "reverse amphibious operation", was the successful withdrawal of more than 100,000 UN military personnel and an estimated 91,000 North Korean refugees during the Korean War. In December 1950, a massive rescue operation was underway to save those trapped in Hungnam Harbor in North Korea. A fleet of about 100 ships responded to his desperate pleas, including the SS Meredith Victory, an American merchant ship. The plan was to just evacuate the military and their supplies, but when they encountered the North Korean refugees, they couldn't turn them all away.

"Those guys over there in Hungnam listened to their better angels and did what I like to say was the right thing, for the right reasons, in a very difficult situation," said Ned Forney, grandson of U.S. Marine Corps Col. Edward Forney . . The SS Meredith Victory, the largest ship to enter the port, had a crew of only 60, yet they left with newly acquired military supplies and 14,000 refugees. Amazingly, with no food or water, zero lives were lost aboard the ships during the entire military operation, and all returned safely to South Korea.

Armed Forces Military Picture Frame Personalized Christmas Ornament

The next mission: A B-52 bomber takes off from Andersen Air Force Base in support of Linebacker II. Photo courtesy of the United States Air Force.

President Richard Nixon ordered the US Air Force in December 1972 to bomb the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong into submission. The bombing campaign was known to the military as Operation Linebacker II and to historians as the "11 Days of Christmas" and the "11 Day War". The relentless attacks in North Vietnam took place over a 12-day period from December 18 to December 29, with a slowdown on Christmas Day.

B-52s dropped 20,000 tons of explosives, most of the ordnance falling on Hanoi. The US Air Force flew 729 night sorties, killing between 1,000 and 1,600 Vietnamese, but the total was expected to be much higher. The US lost 15 of the 129 bombers involved in the airstrikes and another 11 aircraft. The two-week bombing campaign led Nixon to suspend all offensive actions in North Vietnam in January 1973; but the war continued.

He prides himself on uncovering the most fascinating stories in history by sharing them in every way possible to tell compelling stories. He writes for his microblog @LateNightHistoryon Instagram, where he shares the story behind the photo. He also hosts the Late Night History podcast. When not writing about history, Matt enjoys volunteering for One More Wave and working with Boston sports teams.

Santa Claus Undaunted By Arctic Blast, U.s. Military Says

One of the world's most innovative tugboats remains stranded on a sandbar in Texas, after apparently being sucked in by a huge oil tanker and crushed by its propeller.

The team of nine vets from the Triple 7 Expedition ended their whirlwind skydiving expedition with a final celebratory jump in Florida on Wednesday, January 18.

A land-based bomber, Missiouri, World War II native 1st Lt. Melvin Meyer crashed a plane over Leipzig, Germany on May 29, 1944, but his remains were discovered and he was identified.

Ernest Hemingway, the American writer so closely associated with the ethos of soldiers, may not have served in the military, but that didn't stop him from winning medals in both world wars.

Holiday Ornament U.s. Navy Tree Ornament Service Military Christmas Na2181

After the United States approved the transfer of armored Bradleys in early January, European nations are now close to sending the main battle tanks to Ukraine.

Russia's Federal Security Service said Thursday it had opened an espionage case against a U.S. citizen, but did not name the person or specify whether they were in custody. One of the most difficult tasks for someone in the military is being away from home during the holidays. Remote guard stations can be especially lonely