Veterans left furious after Donald Trump claims British soldiers 'stayed off the front lines' in Afghanistan

"I've always said, will they be there if we ever needed them? That's really the ultimate test, and I'm not sure of that," Mr Trump told Fox News.

"We've never needed them. They'll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan... and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines."

In total, 457 British personnel were killed in Afghanistan between 2001 and the coalition withdrawal two decades later.

Denmark suffered 44 fatalities - the highest proportion relative to population size after the United States.

Canada's death toll reached 159, France lost 90 soldiers, Germany 62, Italy 53 and Poland 44.

The US bore the heaviest losses in absolute terms during the 20-year war, with 2,500 men laying down their lives following 9/11.

Nato boss Mark Rutte pushed back firmly against the President's remarks.

"There's one thing I heard you say yesterday and today.

"You were not absolutely sure Europeans would come to the rescue of the US if you will be attacked. Let me tell you, they will, and they did in Afghanistan," Mr Rutte told Mr Trump.

"For every two Americans who paid the ultimate price, there was one soldier from another Nato country who did not come back to his family - from the Netherlands, from Denmark and particularly from other countries," he added.

Lord Dannatt, who led the British Army from 2006 to 2009 during the conflict's peak, also poured scorn on Mr Trump's words.

"Donald Trump has got his facts completely wrong," he told The Telegraph.

"When the new operation was launched in southern Afghanistan in 2006, the UK agreed to take the lead on behalf of Nato and went into Helmand."

Then Lord Sedwill, Britain's former ambassador to Afghanistan, described the claims as offensive and "simply wrong".

"The Americans took the burden but the UK and Denmark, for example, had a higher rate of casualties than the Americans. I was in Afghanistan, that was certainly the case there, and [they] were engaged in some of the most vicious fighting in some of the most dangerous areas. And so he is completely wrong to be dismissive," he told Times Radio.

Lord Sedwill added that the UK provided and still provides important strategic assets to America, including intelligence support.

"It is simply wrong and there will again be many American veterans, including American veterans in Congress, who know that it's wrong," he said.

Ben Hodges, a former commanding general of US forces in Europe, called the remarks "sickening".

"Look, I was in Kandahar from 2009 to 2010 - thousands of British soldiers, Canadian soldiers, Danish soldiers, Romanians and others.

"I was on the runway many nights at what we call the ramp ceremony when the bodies of soldiers from all those nations who've been killed were being flown home. There's no American soldier that believes what our president just said. I'm sorry that he did that," he said.