The head of the Army has appealed for local councils to organise homecoming parades as a mark of public appreciation.
However, no local authority out of more than a dozen contacted by The Daily Telegraph is organising one to cheer home those who have put their lives at risk.
Last Friday, Gen Sir Richard Dannatt asked: "How many councils have written to their local battalions to ask when they are coming back from Iraq and whether they can give them a homecoming parade? The answer, I fear, is not high."
That view was borne out yesterday when The Daily Telegraph contacted local authorities in areas containing large Army bases, such as Surrey, Wiltshire and Yorkshire.
Rather than extending their thanks to returning servicemen and women by contacting the units to organise a parade, almost all have taken a back seat and only offered support when the military has come to them.
Out of the 16 councils contacted by The Daily Telegraph yesterday, only two were aware of any plans for a homecoming parade. In both cases these were instigated by the returning regiment.
Yesterday Gerald Howarth, a shadow defence minister and MP for Aldershot, home to the Grenadier Guards, said: "Asking the military to do it is a bit like asking them to organise their own birthday party, it completely misses the point."
Through his own efforts, he has prompted Rushmoor borough council to put up five banners reading: "Aldershot welcomes home the Grenadier Guards" after he became concerned about the lack of preparations for their homecoming.
However, even Aldershot has no plans for a public parade. Dr Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, said the absence of any significant homecoming events was a damning indictment of the gulf between the British public and the country's Servicemen and women.
"This is a terrible indictment of a society that expects our troops to risk their lives in some of the most dangerous places in the world, but when they return can't be bothered to welcome them home," he said.
"We should be turning out in force to recognise the work they have done and the contribution they have made to Britain's security."
The scale of the homecoming is huge. Between now and the end of November the bulk of Britain's 5,500-strong force in Iraq, and 7,500-strong force in Afghanistan, will return home to be rotated with other units who will begin their tours.
The RAF navigator, John Nichol, shot down over Iraq during the first Gulf war, said: "When you come home from conflict, you want to know that people have supported what you do and you want to feel welcome."
But he feared people had become "immune" to homecomings because soldiers seem to return home "constantly". He said: "It's not through ignorance or ill-feeling that we don't celebrate their return.
"It's just because we have become immune to it."
Major Gen Patrick Cordingley, commander of the Desert Rats in the first Gulf war, said public events were critical to raising awareness of the job troops had done.
He said events might make the public "feel more inclined to throw their arms open wide to our Servicemen when they return from tours of duty."
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "Anything that helps raise awareness and appreciation of what our troops have been doing is of course welcome but it is entirely a matter for councils."
The homecoming row yesterday threatened to overshadow the announcement by the Defence Secretary, Des Browne, to give all troops who pay council tax for a British property a £140 rebate for each six-month tour they serve in Afghanistan or Iraq.
It comes after a series of rows over the way British soldiers are treated by the Government and the public.
Earlier this month the Royal British Legion launched a campaign urging the Government to fix what it described as the "broken military covenant", arguing it has not held up its end of the bargain that soldiers make when they put their lives at risk.
The Government has also been under fire for providing poor accommodation for recruits and not properly recognising the contribution of those serving in dangerous areas.
