War veterans are horrified that Blenheim Palace has been draped in swastika flags for Michael Bay’s latest film

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The conversion of Winston Churchill’s former home into the swastika-draped headquarters of Adolf Hitler for a Transformers movie has been denounced by veterans’ groups and former military commanders.

Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, has been reimagined as the headquarters of the Nazi leader in The Last Knight, the fifth Transformers film, which is currently shooting.

The set-dressing includes enormous swastika flags, a variety of German military equipment and SS stormtroopers filling the forecourt.

“I know it’s a film,” Col Richard Kemp, the former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, told the Sun. “But it’s symbolically disrespectful to Churchill. He will be turning in his grave.”

FameFlynet - (@FameFlynet) Our Exclusive images of Blenheim Palace covered in #Nazi flags on the cover of Today's @TheSun as @michaelbay #films new #Transformers5 pic.twitter.com/fbl7mQTQAE

Churchill is buried around a mile away from the palace in Bladon. Tony Hayes, of Veterans Association UK, said he felt surviving ex-servicemen and women who fought in the second world war would be “appalled by this”.

The house, which is open to the public, is owned by a distant relative of Winston Churchill, Jamie Spencer-Churchill, the 12th duke of Marlborough.

The Last Knight, scheduled for release in June 2017, sees the return of Mark Wahlberg and Stanley Tucci to the franchise. They are joined by Anthony Hopkins and Freya, an epileptic Staffordshire bull terrier once dubbed “Britain’s loneliest dog”.