Sainsbury's moving Christmas ad recreates rare truce during World War 1

Sainsbury's has teamed up with the Royal British Legion to create a heart-warming Christmas advert fitting for the 100th anniversary of the start of World War One.

The video portrays the Christmas truce of 1914, where British and German soldiers ventured into No Man's Land to greet one another and exchange gifts.

It begins with the German troops singing Silent Night, before the carol is taken up by the British men sitting just a few hundred yards away in their trench.

Eventually a young British soldier tentatively raises his hands and walks out into No Man's Land - so called because so many were killed in the space between rival trenches.

The two sets of troops then greet each other and play a game of football before exchanging parting gifts.

This meeting between the two sides and the ensuing football match were well-documented in Christmas of 1914.

As the war went on and became increasingly bloody, any sort of fraternising between the two sides was stamped out.

This truce early on in the conflict has been widely seen as a touchingly human moment in one of history's most brutal and relentless conflicts.

As part of its Christmas campaign, the supermarket will be donating all the profits from sales of a chocolate bar featured in the advert to the Royal British Legion.