Buckingham Palace has reacted with fury after a photograph of the Queen performing a Nazi salute as a young girl was published by the Sun.

The shocking 1933 snapshot shows Edward VIII teaching the girls how to do the Nazi salute, in the gardens of Balmoral.

The footage, which appears as part of a 17-second film, will cause outrage across the nation.

The Queen, aged just six when the photograph was taken, cannot be held responsible for her actions as an innocent girl playing with her family.

Buckingham Palace has slammed the use of the photograph, saying it is ‘disappointing’ that the footage has been ‘obtained and exploited in this manner’.

The whole family are present, with the Queen Mother also saluting proudly alongside Princess Margaret, aged three, in the photograph revealed by the Sun.

The grainy black-and-white photograph was taken just as Hitler was rising to power in Germany, just six years before the outbreak of the Second World War.

In a tartan skirt, the Queen would have been around six-years-old when the photograph was taken.

The footage will inevitably provoke severe backlash from all corners, not just from monarchists but from all members of the public who believe the footage is inappropriate.