IRREPLACEABLE items have been stolen from La Valette Underground Military Museum. Thieves struck during opening hours last week and took a Second World War German officer’s sword, an Afrikakorps belt and buckle, an Iron Cross and other German medals.

‘Some of the things we’ll be able to replace, but not all of them,’ said Paul Balshaw, co-owner of the museum with twin brother, Peter.

Thieves pulled a heavy display cabinet away from the wall and unscrewed the back panel so that they could get an arm in.

Paul Balshaw believed it took three or more people – two to move the cabinet and at least one to keep watch.

He was devastated when he discovered the theft on Sunday.

‘It could have happened on Saturday as we were dramatically quiet,’ he said.

The museum houses a display of military items that the twins have collected over the past 30-40 years. Then-conseiller Roger Berry opened it in 1988.

It had every type of security one can think of, said Mr Balshaw, and this was the first time anything had been stolen.

‘I don’t come here every day and my staff look after the place,’ he said.

‘Once before, somebody tried to get the back off a cabinet but I think they must have been disturbed and nothing was stolen.’

The theft was probably opportunistic, he said. Quality was the key to the items on display, which included medals and cutlery from the former Guernsey Militia.

‘You can buy second-rate stuff but what we have here is the bee’s knees.’

Mr Balshaw bought the Afrikakorps belt and buckle at a local auction a few years ago. He believed a local soldier probably brought it to the island as a souvenir of war. One in as good a condition as the stolen one was as ‘rare as hen’s teeth’.

The items are valued at in the region of £1,250 and Mr Balshaw is in discussion with his insurer.

The museum won a British Tourist Authority Award of Distinction the year it opened and has been Guernsey’s second-most-popular tourist attraction, behind Castle Cornet, for the past two years.

Vale deputy Brian de Jersey – a carpenter – worked in the museum when it was being set up. He was saddened by the theft.

‘This is a museum that represents the island’s heritage going back as far as the Napoleonic period,’ he said.

Police are appealing for information.

* In September 2001, a helmet that had belonged to wartime harbour master Kapitain Obermeyer was stolen from the Occupation Museum at the Forest. Owner Richard Heaume was certain that it was stolen to order.