WWI Christmas Truce football match: Fact or fiction?

A century on from the first Christmas of the Great War, there has been a rush to commemorate one of the most iconic moments in British military history.

The story goes that on December 25 1914, both German and British forces laid down their weapons and took part in a game of football which was to be dubbed as "The Christmas Truce."

It is a tale which has inspired the Premier League's successful educational program as well as a Christmas television commercial for Sainsbury's, one of the UK's largest supermarkets.

But while many have been quick to embrace one of the war's most famous tales, some historians have begun to raise questions over whether the legendary football match even took place at all.

The clearest recollection of the famous match reported to have occurred came from Ernie Williams, a former soldier in the British Army.

He claimed that he had taken part in the match at Wulverghem, in Belgium, during a television interview which was recorded in 1983.

"The ball appeared from somewhere, I don't know where, but it came from their side - it wasn't from our side that the ball came," he said.

"They made up some goals and one fellow went in goal and then it was just a general kickabout. I should think there were about a couple of hundred taking part.

"I had a go at the ball. I was pretty good then, at 19. Everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves. There was no sort of ill-will between us. There was no referee, and no score, no tally at all.

"It was simply a melee - nothing like the soccer you see on television. The boots we wore were a menace - those great big boots we had on - and in those days the balls were made of leather and they soon got very soggy."

Mark Connelly, Professor of Modern British History at the Center for War, Propaganda and Society at the UK's University of Kent believes the entire episode has been romanticized in the intervening years.

The notion of two sets of soldiers simply laying down their arms and waltzing out of the trenches ready to play an organized game of football is not one he subscribes to.

In fact he says "there is no absolute hard, verifiable evidence of a match" taking place and says the event has been glorified beyond recognition.

(CNN)