The director of an Amersham auction house which came under fire for selling Nazi memorabilia on D-Day says he is “sincerely sorry” if anyone was offended by the “unfortunate” timing of the sale.

Amersham Auction Rooms listed a number of lots inscribed with Nazi symbolism and imagery at an auction held on June 6.

Some Bucks politicians slammed the decision to sell them on D-Day.

Simon Knowles, director at the auction house, said sales close two months before the auction date – and no one realised the sale of the Nazi relics would coincide with D-Day.

He told the Bucks Free Press the company – which has been a major part of the community for a number of years – was “sincerely sorry” if it caused offence.

He said: “That’s just not who we are – we do a lot for the community, the last thing we would want to do is cause offence.

“We were only notified that someone was unhappy with it at 10.25am when the sale starts at 10.30am.

“It gave us five minutes to do something about it and by that point, people had travelled from all over the country to be there.”

One week on from the controversial auction, a one-man protest was held outside the auction rooms but spilled inside on June 13.

The protestor claimed the sale was “completely disrespectful”.

Addressing his concerns, Mr Knowles said: “We stopped the auction and listened to what he had to say.

“I told him it probably wasn’t appropriate to have a conversation now but he declined my offer of a meeting.”

The relics which were sold by the auctioneers on June 6 included a number of German daggers, a Luftwaffe visor cap and air gunner’s badge and German military embroidered fabric armbands, some bearing the swastika emblem.

Mr Knowles said the items were among a string of historical artefacts on sale that day and said they regularly sell antiques, books, paintings and collectibles.

He added: “Some may have thought we did this on purpose but that was not the case.

“It was very unfortunate that this auction coincided with D-Day. We didn’t corroborate the dates when the auction was planned two months in advance.”

The Normandy landings were one of the most pivotal operations of World War Two and 2019 marks 75 years since they took place.

Approximately 156,000 allied forces invaded northern France in an operation which began the liberation of Nazi-occupied France and subsequently the remainder of Europe.