The disclosure emerged in a previously-unseen letter describing the famous match.

 

Staff sergeant Clement Barker sent the letter home four days after Christmas 1914 when the British and German troops emerged from their trenches in peace.

He described how the truce began after a German messenger walked across No Man's Land on Christmas Eve to broker the temporary cease-fire agreement.

 

British soldiers went out and recovered 69 dead comrades and buried them.

 

Sgt Barker said the impromptu football match then broke out between the two sides when a ball was kicked out from the British lines into No Man's Land.