Would an embarrassing incident disappear from military records?

Could the rifle incident have been omitted from official records to let both sides save face?

Possibly, though sergeants often recorded soldiers' mistakes, which makes complete omission less straightforward.

A proposed explanation for the missing rifle-handling story is that omitting it would spare the British troops and Icelandic authorities embarrassment. That possibility is accepted, but the response raises a practical objection. Sergeants often wrote up soldiers' mistakes while explaining what had gone wrong, so an embarrassing episode could still produce a military record.