Hampshire: Top secret D-Day battle plan found under Balmer Lawn Hotel floorboards

Top secret documents giving orders for the Normandy Landing have been found under the floorboards of a hotel in Hampshire.

The crumpled papers, some baring the marking "On His Majesty's Secret Service", were discovered at the Balmer Lawn Hotel in Brockenhurst more than 70 years after it was used as an army staff college during World War II.

Hotel employees said they found "half a bin bag" worth of documents during refurbishment, many of which mentioned for the contents to be kept secret.

Owner Chris Wilson said: "We've found spent ammunition under floorboards before, but never this quantity of documents. It ties the hotel to its history.

"They are quite detailed and specific orders to be followed by troops on the ground.

"They're in a delicate condition and unscrunching them will have to be done very carefully. After that I imagine we'll put them on display."

The find is even more remarkable as the secret documents managed to survive a fire which engulfed most of the hotel in the 1970s.

While the papers were described as "dusty, dirty and not in a great shape" many of them were still legible. It is thought most of them relate to the Canadian military, who were based at Balmer Lawn during the war.

A hotel spokesman said: "We are still in the process of evaluating the papers but some seem to include code on while others are more to do with the day-to-day organisation of the soldiers. One includes an invite to all personnel to attend a musical variety show.

"Perhaps of most interest are the documents that refer to the D-Day landings.

"One document refers to D-Day1 - June 7 1944 - and mentions difficulties in setting up a 10-mile telephone cable as troops continued advancing into northern France."