“Only a few men saw the Neptune Monograph before D-Day and after the war, it almost disappeared from history.”

IT WAS ONE of the most closely guarded secrets of the Second World War – a dossier only a handful of top Allied commanders would ever see. But now, thanks to a crowdfunding project by a team of European historians, you too will soon be able to leaf through its pages.

The document, known as the Neptune Monograph, was a classified and highly detailed summary of the seaborne component of the Normandy Invasion. It included maps of the landing zones; diagrams of enemy weaponry, fortifications and orders of battle; intelligence reports, and even coastal surveys.

Henrik Elling and Andrea Jepp of Copenhagen’s Duckwood Media recently discovered an archival copy of the Neptune Monograph and have set out to republish it in its entirety – but this time you won’t need a top-level security clearance to read it.

The remastered collection runs 274 pages and will include digital reproductions of the original wartime documents, along with with added background material, addendums and running commentary in the margins.

It’s been an expensive process, but Elling and Jepp are hoping the public will help fund the print run of the Neptune Monograph. All told, the two hoping to raise more than $12,000 for the project.

MilitaryHistoryNow.com caught up with Elling and Jepp to discuss the Neptune Monograph and how you can help bring this important piece of history back to life.

MHN: Explain for those who don’t know, what exactly is the Neptune Monograph?

The Neptune Monograph is a 122-page top-secret intelligence report that the absolute top of the Allied command received six weeks before D-Day. The information in it was collected through daring missions by the French Resistance, commandos, pilots, naval intelligence and weather experts. For example, Allied frogmen swam to what would later become Omaha Beach at night to collect samples of the sand to be able to analyze the possibility to land heavy tanks. This document was extremely secret and filled with vital information. Only a few men saw the Neptune Monograph before D-Day and after the war, it almost disappeared from history.

MHN: How did you get involved in the project?

I have worked for ten years writing, editing and publishing books and magazines about history. While researching for an article, I accidentally stumbled over a full copy of the monograph. I had never heard about the document and was immediately dazzled by the amount of information in it. I spent the next few weeks researching the monograph, that is named after Operation Neptune, the landing operation on D-Day and found out how special it is. It has been called the single most important document in relation to securing the success on D-Day and was originally stamped Top Secret Bigot – the absolute highest security clearance of the war.

MHN: Tell us about your fundraising project?

We are a new and small publishing house that specializes in crowdfunding very unique books about the Second World War. This is our first product and we looked to crowdfunding because we really like the concept — that you have to produce something truly special to earn the trust of your backers. Besides that, we hope to get enough funding to improve the product with extra pages, full-size maps and folios.

MHN: Why is this particular piece of the D-Day story important? Who might be interested in this?

We think it speaks for itself. Anybody who has an interest in World War Two will get the chance to read first-hand how Allied intelligence prepared for the Normandy Invasion.

MHN: The Second World War stands as perhaps the most well-documented event of the 20^th Century. What other hidden troves of information might still be out there?

From our point of view, these authentic documents are extremely interesting and tell history in another way. The last decade has seen a lot of storytelling in history books, which we love. But here you get the real deal. Intelligence reports, invasion maps. Its history coming to life through an overload of facts and details and we love it.

MHN: What other projects might you be working on going forward?

First, we will concentrate on making the Neptune Monograph into a great book. We will restore every single of the original pages and add rare photos and historical background for better understanding. If the project is a success (gets funded) we have two similar projects in our pipeline. But this time we will change perspective and look into the German, Russian and later Japanese secret plans from the Second World War.

If you’d like to help make the republishing of the Neptune Monograph possible, visit the Kickstarter campaign. A donation of as little as $42 will secure you a hard copy of the final product. CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS.