Great War truce 'blog': 'Marvellous to swap songs not bullets'

A ROTHERHAM-born Tommy appears to be blogging his First World War service from the front lines — week by week and blow by blow.

Born on Kenneth Street in 1894, Pte Albert Kyte was just 19 years old when he joined the Lancashire Fusiliers and 20 when he was deployed to France.

The miner-turned-soldier joined up for adventure and regular work but ended up facing bullets, bombs and gas at Ypres and the Somme.

Paul Kyte (55) is now ghost-writing a blog just as his granddad might have done, based on the war diaries and letters Albert sent home.

The weekly record recounts the movements and actions of his regiment in real time — 100 years after they happened.

Below is an excerpt from the blog, based on what Albert wrote about the 1914 Christmas truce.

Click here to visit the blog. And read more about how Rotherham folk continue to commemorate both world wars in this week’s Advertiser.

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On Christmas Eve we marched down to the communication trenches and then on into the front line trenches.

As we lay there, sometimes two or three of us huddled together, we listened to the night.

It had an eerie silence about it, broken now and then by a few shells and shots in the distance.

It was a clear night and the stars were twinkling. We then heard the most beautiful voice singing a Christmas carol.

It was a German. I certainly didn't understand the words but it sounded heavenly to me.

We all sat there and listened. It was beautiful. In the midst of all that devastation and death it was like an Angel of the Lord had descended to comfort us all.

When he finished we all sat there for a moment and then burst into applause. Someone shouted sing us another one.

The voice started up again, this time more voices joined in. We sat and listened and then applauded.

Fritz shouted back ‘hey Tommy you sing’. We sang O Come All Ye Faithful. When done we were applauded.

So it continued well into the night, sometimes us singing, sometimes the Hun. It was marvellous to exchange songs instead of bullets.

Some must have been bandsmen because at times they struck up with their brass instruments. It was grand.

I fell into a deep sleep that night feeling safe for once because it didn't seem like either the Hun or we were going to breaking the peace.