The Royal Mail has been criticised over a stamp marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day which features an image of US troops in the Pacific.
The company said it would publish 11 stamps next year with images from D-Day for the anniversary. The collection forms part of a “Best of British” collection for 2019.
But one stamp captioned "allied soldiers and medics wade ashore" included a photograph of American troops in what was Dutch New Guinea, now Indonesia, rather than Brits in Normandy.
US troops landed in the town of Sarmi on May 17, 1944, a few weeks before and 8,500 miles from the Normandy landings.
People replying to a Royal Mail tweet which featured an image of the stamp called the blunder “very embarrassing”.
One person wrote: “Wouldn't it be better if your D-Day stamp featured BRITISH troops landing on the Normandy beaches and NOT American troops landing somewhere in the Pacific!”
Another person tweeted: "What a shambles! Royal Mail 2019 D-Day stamp shows US Marines coming ashore from USS LCI(L)-30 at Sarmi, Dutch New Guinea, Pacific, 17 May 1944.
"Wrong theatre; wrong date; wrong vessel; wrong troops. This gross insult to veterans and those who didn't make it should be withdrawn."
The stamp has since been withdrawn and the Royal Mail has apologised.
A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: "We work very hard to ensure that our Special Stamp programme appropriately commemorates anniversaries and events that are relevant to UK heritage and life.
"We would like to offer our sincere apologies that our preview release for our 2019 Special Stamp programme included a stamp design which had been incorrectly associated with the D-Day landings.
"We can confirm that this image will not be part of the final set, which will be issued in June 2019."
