Royal Mail has withdrawn a D-Day stamp design, after experts pointed out the photograph it featured actually showed US troops landing in waters over 8,000 miles away from France. 

The design was revealed as part of the Best Of British collection on Thursday and shows soldiers alighting from a boat, with the caption: “D-Day Allied soldiers and medics wade ashore.”

However, people soon started to point out that the image was taken in what was then Dutch New Guinea. 

The BBC subsequently found that the picture appears on the American National WWII Museum website, where it is attributed to the US Coast Guard and dated 17 May 1944 — almost a month before D-Day. 

On Friday morning, Royal Mail addressed the blunder by tweeting an apology and stating the design will not go into print. 

“We sincerely apologise that our 2019 Special Stamp preview included a design which had been incorrectly associated with the D-Day landings,” they said. “This stamp design has not been printed.

“We would like to reassure our customers that this image will not be part of the final set.”

The design was due to be part of a collection of 11 stamps, to be created to mark the 75th anniversary of when British, US and Canadian forces arrived on the coast of France. 

Other special stamp collections announced for release in 2019 include a Birds of Prey set, with birds breed in the UK. 

Meanwhile, The British Engineering stamp issue will celebrate 50 years of engineering achievements in the UK.