The Ministry of Defence has been forced to deny claims in a leaked Army memo that many more soldiers faced the axe than previously announced - including personnel injured in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In an embarrassing disclosure on the eve of Remembrance Sunday, a classified document obtained by the Daily Telegraph suggested 2,500 wounded troops would not be exempt from the axing of up to 16,500 posts..
Wounded soldiers who had been "temporarily downgraded" would "not be exempt" and those too injured or sick to return to service would be "looked at in more detail", it said.
The MoD dismissed it as the "factually incorrect" work of a junior officer however and said there were no plans to change the level of cuts to the armed forces set out in the summer.
Nor was there been any change to the treatment of injured personnel, it insisted, who were protected from the cuts until they "reached a point in their recovery where leaving the Armed Forces is the right decision".
The memo said 350 soldiers who had lost limbs in action would not be spared consideration for redundancy, a move which shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy would be "the cruellest cut of all".
It emerged as Philip Hammond flew back from his first visit as Defence Secretary to troops in Afghanistan and amid preparations for the annual ceremony in honour of the war dead at the Cenotaph and across the country.
An MOD spokesman said: "The information in this leaked Army memo from a junior officer is incorrect.
"Beyond those already announced, there are no further Army reductions planned. There is absolutely no plan to change our treatment of Service personnel who are wounded, injured or sick.
"Personnel injured on operations will not be included in the redundancy process while they are undergoing medical treatment. No one will leave the Armed Forces until they have reached a point in their recovery that is right for them."