The images of blurred stills from a video sequence show around a dozen men stripped naked in a field looking on as two other naked men are seen fighting each other.
The group are believed to be marines who had just completed the 32-week commando training.
The incident appears to have been directed by two non-commissioned officers.
One wearing a surgeon’s uniform and the other dressed as a woman.
Initially the two men fighting are wearing what appear to be rubber mats wrapped around their arms.
But then the man dressed in a blue surgeon-style outfit apparently urges the pair to fight bare-fisted.
When one of the soldiers complains, the man appears to kick him in the face, allegedly causing him to fall unconscious onto the grass.
Secret video filmed
The newspaper said it had received the video which was secretly filmed by a source described as a Royal Marine veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq.
The incident is said to have occurred in May at the Bickleigh Barracks near Plymouth, in southwest England, which is home to the elite 42 Commando unit.
“This is the worst thing that I’ve seen happen – that’s why I filmed it – but it’s the tip of the iceberg,” the News of the World source reportedly said.
The source reportedly went on to describe other abuses, including subjecting recruits to electric shocks to their genitals, forcing them to crawl naked through thorn bushes, and being made to fight each other with one arm tied behind their backs.
Others were allegedly forced to jump from bedroom windows, leaving some with broken legs, the newspaper reported.
The ministry of defence said it was satisfied the video was authentic, according to the Reuters news agency.
“The Royal Marines are taking these allegations extremely seriously and have a zero tolerance policy on bullying and harassment,” a ministry spokesman said.
The Royal Military Police’s Special Investigations Board is carrying out a criminal investigation into the events which the ministry said were “very far from an official training exercise.”
Britain’s opposition Conservatives’ defence spokesman, Michael Ancram, described it as ‘inexcusable’ while Timothy Garden, a former assistant chief of defence staff, said bullying and abuse needed to be stamped out.
“If new recruits are bullied as they train, you can link that abuse in Camp Breadbasket and so on,” he said, referring to proven ill-treatment conducted by British soldiers on Iraqi detainees in the southern city of Basra.
History of abuse claims
Britain’s defence forces have come in for repeated criticism for failing to act on claims of bullying and abuse.
A parliamentary report in March condemned the military services for not properly tackling the issue, leading to “a tolerance of, or at least insufficient action being taken against, bullying.”
Another video of apparent bullying surfaced in September while there has been a long-running campaign into claims of abuse at the Deepcut barracks in Surrey, southern England.
Four young soldiers died there from gunshot wounds between 1995 and 2002.
Their families maintain they were bullied and have questioned the official army report which found they had committed suicide.
One of the soldiers had five bullet wounds.
A ministry of defence spokesman said that “bullying and harassment is not widespread within the armed forces” and that every effort is made to prevent any abuse from occurring.