JERSEY War Tunnels paid more than £17,000 for Second World War artefacts at a recent auction, including a copy of Britain’s top-secret plans to free the Channel Islands.
The visitor attraction in St Lawrence confirmed that it was the buyer of the copy of plans for Operation Nestegg, sold by a UK auction house for more than treble the guide price.
When the hammer came down, the document was sold for £3,800, or £4,780 once auction fees had been included, well beyond the guide price of £800 to £1,200.
The museum team also purchased three original D-Day Landing Craft maps for Juno Beach, Gold Beach, and Sword Beach.
In a statement, Jersey War Tunnels said: “These purchases represent the beginning of a significant acquisitions program to enrich and broaden the scope of the museum’s wartime collection.
“While copies of the Operation Nestegg document are already held in Jersey, this newly acquired example is an original wartime copy, carrying the immediacy and authenticity of a document that was part of the actual Allied planning process, and is dated November 1944.”
Jersey War Tunnels owner Lance Trevellyan added: “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.
“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.
“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 WWII history.”
Jersey War Tunnels also yesterday announced plans for a new museum at the site to display previously unseen archive stock and artefacts, and house current and future acquisitions.
Plans and supporting documents are currently being finalised for submission to the Planning Department and for stakeholder consultation, Mr Trevellyan said.
When plans for the auction were originally announced, historian Mark Lamerton, whose book Liberated by Force 135 is regarded as a definitive work on Liberation, cast doubt on the value of the document.
Mr Lamerton said there were believed to have been 42 copies of the Nestegg document, originally produced in November 1944, with two copies owned by the Jersey Archive and Société Jersiaise. Mr Lamerton added that he had acquired a copy of the same document from a seller on eBay in 2014 for £14.99.
Under the hammer
Jersey War Tunnels purchased four items in the auction run by Hansons in Derby on 13 August, spending a total of £17,380
- Operation Nestegg plans – hammer price £3,800, total cost (including 26% auction fees) £4,780.
- D-Day map of Gold Beach – total cost £3,528.
- D-Day map of Sword Beach – total cost £3,906.
- D-Day map of Juno Beach – total cost £5,166.
