For the Christmas season

[jocksnsocks2002]

Dan LeFebvre authored a book with the French title, "Joyeux Noel". Christian Carion directed a feature-length film adaptation in 2005. Briefly, it is an account of an event which occurred at Christmas in 1914 between the British and French on one side of the war trenches, and the Germans on the other side. In England, Sainsbury is the name of a national grocery chain, and at the centenary of the First World War in 2014, Sainsbury released a powerful television advertisement, based upon the events described in "Joyeux Noel". In watching the advertisement, and after wiping away the tears (which happen every time I watch this), I wonder how many other people who view the interaction between "Jim" and "Otto" ask this question: Did they get together after the war to share the sweetness of the chocolate bar - and perhaps a romantic life - together? I know this has nothing to do with jockstraps (unless an historian might confirm whether any of the soldiers would have been strapped while in the trenches at that time?), but I hope that you will find the short film to be meaningful, especially at this Christmas season. As always, let us keep all of those who are in military service in our best wishes. Here is the link:

 

[StrappedMan]

Lots of great sentiments in that commercial. Would be fun to know if the soldiers in that era were strapped.

 

[jocksnsocks2002]

Dear "StrappedMan",
Thank you for your kind comment. I know that the current forum is not intended for such sentimentality, but there are people like yourself who find the story to be filled with emotions.
I leave it to the jockstrap historians to describe jockstrap usage during the First World War. I am unaware of athletic supporters being issued as part of British military kit during that war, although given one of the primary uses by bicycle couriers, it is possible that some of the messengers were strapped at that time.
Your question has prompted me to recall a nice story from my younger days. I am not American, but had the great privilege to be invited as a high school student at a boarding school in the United States in the 1970s. It was my introduction to "all things American", including jockstraps. I quickly became fascinated by Bike jockstraps, and eventually, accumulated "more than a few". When I returned home for the summer, I brought all of my clothes with me. My Mom helped me to unpack, and noticed these peculiar garments which I had brought back from my first year in the United States. She said nothing, but a few days later, my Dad asked me a very strange question: "Did they teach you students how to drop out of planes using parachutes?" I had no idea what he was talking about. He then said that when he was a boy, during the Second World War, the Americans had an air field not too far away, and because his father (my grandfather) was a doctor, he regularly was called upon to treat any injuries. Well apparently during the Second World War, the United States issued jockstraps to paratroopers in order to protect them during the parachute drop. My Dad's only knowledge of jockstraps was from the American paratroopers, and so he thought that since I had jockstraps in my luggage coming from the United States that I, too, had learnt how to drop out of an airplane wearing a parachute!
In all events, I hope that someone might provide some research about the use of jockstraps during the "war to end all wars". Sadly, we know that during the next war, thousands of soldiers were kitted in jockstraps, and so many of them never returned to their loved ones.