Secret WW2 plan to liberate islands auctioned off

The top secret plan sold for £3,800 at auction

A copy of the top secret plan for the liberation of the Channel Islands at the end of World War Two has sold at auction for more than three times its expected price.

The 50-page document, codenamed Operation Nestegg, was discovered in a cardboard box in Derbyshire in the UK.

Auctioneers Hansons described it as a "piece of history" before it went under the hammer earlier.

The top guide price was £1,200 but the winning bid at the auction in Etwall was £3,800.

The plan was drawn up between November 1944 and May 1945

Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm were under Nazi-German Occupation from June 1940.

The document spelled out British plans for the liberation of the Channel Islands, including which beaches to land on.

The plans were spread across numerous pages, some with lines crossed through, and others with annotations.

Previously Matt Crowson, from Hansons, told the BBC: "It's an incredible story - the document had been part of a dusty box of papers in a UK saleroom, the value of which was considered negligible.

"But on closer examination the vendor came across a piece of World War Two history detailing the freeing of the only Nazi-occupied area of the British Isles."

The file was formerly the property of Sub-Lieutenant Walter Page, of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, who was also part of the Normandy invasion.

Mr Crowson said the vendor, a collector of war memorabilia, had been in possession of the documents for about a decade.

Both were "very happy" with the results of the auction, he added.

"The Operation Nestegg plan is a important piece of military and social history from a tumultuous time.

"The archive encapsulates the British government's determination and resolve to claim back [the Channel Islands]," he added.