German army uniforms were been mistakenly issued out with "SS" size labels printed on them after a "production problem".
The mistake to use the letters, associated with the Nazi-era murderous Schutzstaffel paramilitary group, occurred as the initials were thought to be an acronym for the size: “small, short."
Without realising this error, in recent weeks, the German federal Ministry of Defence distributed about 313,000 pieces of combat equipment such as helmets, sleeping bags and waterproof jackets to its troops - worth a staggering €2.3 billion (£1.92 billion).
While most articles were labelled to the usual terms for their sizing - S, M, L and XL - it seems that the categorisation of the smallest items slipped the net.
Subsequently, since the issue came to light, the ministry has ordered soldiers to remove the labelled equipment, which includes helmets, sleeping bags and waterproof jackets to its troops.
The ministry reportedly chalked the incident up to a "production problem".
It added: “It’s a very small number of jackets and we are looking into it all. As soon as we were made aware of what had happened we issued an announcement that they should get rid of these labels in some way.
“Right now we are in contact with the manufacturer to investigate what happened. We know that it looks very strange to the public, so it became something we had to deal with immediately.
"We are investigating and as soon as we have clear results we will think about what to do then.”
However, the ministry has admitted that it is not aware of how many items were impacted by the error - but did assure that the manufacturing error was not widespread.
The initials SS (Schutzstaffel) are associated with the Nazi-era - the paramilitary organisation that enforced the Third Reich's oppressive racial policies.
Heinrich Himmler's agency of surveillance and terror in Nazi Germany was also one of the key authorities involved in the slaughter of up to six million Jews and other minorities during the Holocaust.
German law bans the display of Nazi iconography - alongside the combination of the letters 'S' and 'S' together. In fact, the two letters are forbidden from being printed on car number plates in all but one of the country's states.
