Top secret WW2 liberation plan to go on display

The top secret document set out the successful British plan to liberate the Channel Islands

A copy of the top secret plan for the liberation of the Channel Islands from German occupation at the end of World War Two will go on display in Jersey.

Codenamed Operation Nestegg, the 50-page document, which spelled out the plan in detail, went up for auction after it was found in a dusty cardboard box.

Jersey War Tunnels said it bought the artefact alongside three rare and original D-Day landing craft maps for Juno Beach, Gold Beach and Sword Beach.

Lance Trevellyan, owner of Jersey War Tunnels, said: "Bringing the Operation Nestegg document and the D-Day maps home to the Channel Islands ensures they are preserved for future generations, rather than disappearing into private collections."

The plan was drawn up between November 1944 and May 1945

Jersey War Tunnels said copies of the document were already held on the island, but the newly acquired artefact, dated November 1944, was an original wartime document.

It said the three D-Day maps were formally used by Sub Lieutenant Walter Page of the Royal Naval volunteer reserve, who served as part of the crew on landing craft tank LCT-2138 during the Normandy invasion on 6 June 1944.

Each map carried invasion planning detail, marked top secret, and reflected up-to-date information up to 6 April, 1944, it said.

Mr Trevellyan said: "We are absolutely delighted to have secured these exceptional items, which are of huge historical significance both to Jersey and to the wider story of the Second World War.

"Our mission has always been to protect and share the stories of the occupation and liberation, and acquisitions like these enhance our mission to place Jersey firmly on the map as a destination for world class WW2 history."