Alistair Hardaker
Image: Jersey War Tunnels
Jersey attraction proposes museum extension for broader wartime acquisitions including rare Operation Nestegg document and D-Day maps
Jersey War Tunnels has announced plans to construct a new museum on its existing site, which will display previously unseen archive materials and house an expanded WWII collection.
The site is based at the partially completed underground hospital complex in St. Lawrence, Jersey, which was built by German occupying forces during the occupation of Jersey during World War II. Over 1 km of tunnels were completed.
Earlier this year Trevellyan Operations bought the site from Daisy Hill Real Estate for a reported £5.5m.
The planned new museum is hoped to restore visitor numbers to pre-pandemic levels by broadening appeal to Jersey residents and overseas visitors. It is hoped that the new museum will allow for the display of objects beyond Channel Islands occupation artefacts to include wider Second World War items.
Plans and supporting consultants’ reports are being finalised for submission to the Planning Department and stakeholder consultations.
As part of the plan, Jersey War Tunnels has acquired an original Top Secret Operation Nestegg document dated November 1944, detailing the Allied plan for liberating the Channel Islands, alongside three D-Day Landing Craft maps for Juno Beach, Gold Beach and Sword Beach. The acquisitions were made at auction earlier this month.
While copies of the Operation Nestegg document exist in Jersey, the newly acquired example is an original wartime copy from the actual Allied planning process. The three D-Day maps were used by Sub-Lieutenant Walter Page of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, who served on Landing Craft Tank LCT-2138 during the Normandy invasion on 6 June 1944. Each map is marked Top Secret and contains invasion planning detail current to 6 April 1944. The Gold Beach map measures 91cm x 59.1cm.
Lance Trevellyan, owner of Jersey War Tunnels, 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.
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.”
