It was a few weeks before Christmas 1917. The beautiful snowy landscapes 
of Europe were blackened by war. 

The trenches on one side held the Germans and on the other side the trenches
were filled with Americans. It was World War 1. The exchange of gunshots 
were intense. Separating them was a very narrow strip of no-man's-land. A 
young German soldier attempting to cross that no-man's-land had been shot 
and had become entangled in the barbed wire. He cried out in anguish, then 
in pain he continued to whimper.

Between the shells all the Americans in that sector could hear him scream. 
When one American soldier could stand it no longer, he crawled out of the 
American trenches and on his stomach crawled to that German soldier. When 
the Americans realized what he was doing they stopped firing, but the Germans 
continued. Then a German officer realized what the young American was doing 
and he ordered his men to cease firing. Now there was a weird silence across
the no-man's-land. On his stomach, the American made his way to the German 
soldier and disentangled him. He stood up with the German in his arms, walked 
straight to the German trenches and placed him in the waiting arms of his 
comrades. Having done so, he turned and started back to the American trenches. 

Suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder that spun him around. There stood a 
German officer who had won the Iron Cross, the highest German Honor for bravery.
He jerked it from his own uniform and placed it on the American, who walked 
back to the American trenches. When he was safely in the trenches, they
resumed the insanity of war!

Author Unknown