German soldiers ate sausage made from their own blood

One of the soldiers, based in the southern German city of Fürstenfeldbruck near Munich, posted photos of the meal on a popular website.

Disciplinary action against the soldiers is underway, a military official told German weekly magazine Focus on Saturday. The case may also be passed on to state authorities.

According to the military official, the unsavory incident came to light when the soldiers asked a fellow officer for blood this summer. The soldier reported the request to his superior officers.

Reinhold Robbe, the German military commissioner, is thought to have included the incident in his yearly report for 2007, and made the juicy news public on Tuesday in a “deficiency report.”

A core principal of the German military holds that men in uniform should conduct themselves impeccably in public.