The British Army has launched an investigation after two senior soldiers attended a fancy-dress event in full Nazi regalia, the Daily Mail has reported. According to the newspaper’s sources, the controversial costumes had been approved by the soldiers’ commander.
The sergeants from the Queen’s Royal Hussars were escorted from a Halloween party at their barracks in Wiltshire, after other guests complained that their costumes – which included multiple Iron Cross pendants and swastika armbands – were offensive, the British tabloid reported on Wednesday.
Photos of the two men performing Nazi salutes have since proliferated on social media, and the army has opened an investigation. According to the Daily Mail’s sources, the two men insist that their costumes were approved by their Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM). The sources said that the RSM had initially claimed that he had no knowledge of the costumes, but may now face punishment for allowing them.
“They may not have had any intention to offend anyone but, for heaven’s sake, what were they thinking?” one military source told the newspaper. “Hundreds of the regiment’s officers and troopers lost their lives to the Nazis. It isn’t funny to dress up as an SS officer and wear a swastika.”
The Queen’s Royal Hussars is the British Army’s most senior armored regiment. Formed in 1993, the regiment is made up of units that trace their lineage back to the 17th Century and which fought the Nazis in France, Greece, Italy, and North Africa during World War II.
The Halloween incident was deemed particularly offensive as it took place so close to Remembrance Sunday, the Daily Mail noted. Every year since the end of World War I, Britain commemorates its fallen soldiers on the second Sunday of November.
“We apologize unreservedly for the unacceptable behaviour of these two individuals and the offense that it will undoubtedly cause,” an Army spokesman said in a statement. “Their actions demonstrated serious and significant shortfalls in judgment and conduct.”
In 2005, Prince Harry caused outrage when he was pictured wearing a Nazi uniform to a costume party. Harry, who at the time was training at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, apologized for causing offense and later said that the choice of costume was “one of the biggest mistakes” of his life.