Bill Cross takes us through his visit to the Imperial War museum, showing many of the interesting exhibits on display.



Enjoy!

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Thanks!

Hi Bill,

Glad you enjoyed your trip, a good write up of IWM London. Interesting place to visit if you have a bit of free time and not so big it eats up a whole day.

Cheers

Al

Thanks, Matan, for delivering this "late" baby, LOL!

Al, it was a ton of fun. I heartily recommend this to one and all. My teenage daughter even liked the "Blitz" food served in the cafeteria.

Hi Bill,

Very apt description fo the Lambeth Road, looked a bit tried last time I was down that way too.

Al

Bill

Nice review, glad you enjoyed it. When i wwas last there i was lucky enough to meet some WW11 veterans and had a very interesting Chat with them.

I can recommend a visit to the IWN London to anyone in the area.

For Planes as Bill said you can go to the RAF museum Hendon (colindale) or IWM Duxford, bo
th are well worth a visit.

Andy

Thanks, Al and Andy.

I would have loved to go to Duxford, but it's a schlepp from London, whereas Colindale is at the end of the Northern Line and quite doable in a few hours (be sure, if you're a tourist, your Tube pass lets you go to what I believe is Zone 4). Hanants also has their retail store and warehouse a few blocks away, though I was not able to visit since it was a Sunday.

Bill
Great pictures, thanks for sharing. We went there on our honeymoon back in 1985 so I'm certain the displays look different now. I really enjoyed the museum (but my young wife wasn't so happy to be amongst all that history) I wish I would have known about Duxford. Did you go onbard a Royal Navy ship that's a floating museum? I forgot her name but I think she has a piece of the Bismark on display. I have to dig up the pictures I took back then.

It is HMS Belfast and is docked at tower bridge.

Thanks for the info. She was very impressive to visit.

"Blitz food" Bill?

I'll have you know shephards pie and macaroni cheese are still two of my very favourite dishes.
And thanks to them darn yankee banks it's about all I can afford these days.

Nice write-up BTW. Glad you had a good time here. Did you get to Bovington perchance?

Ernie, thanks ever so much. No, I did not get to the HMS Belfast. I took my daughter to the Tower, and we had a great time, but I felt the ship would've been "pushing my luck," if you get my meaning.

Ken, I apologize for the US banks, who've really become the butt of political jokes and voter ire here, too. I did not go down to Bovington, again, an 18 year-old more interested in Bond Street and clothes isn't the right visitor for there, not to mention the schlepp to get there. We did visit Sachsenhausen KZ Lager outside Berlin, as well as the Checkpoint Charlie Museum while in Berlin.

It is my understanding that most of these items have been removed in favor of more modern conflicts.

The T-34, 18 pounder, the lanc cockpit and the 88 are still there, the rest I have to assume is either in storage, duxford or IWM North in Manchester. There is quite a bit of new stuff, a snatch land rover, A piece of the world trade center, a ferret, a press land rover and lots of other bits. The new WW1 Exhibition is fantastic just can't seem to workout why the 18 pounder was left out though.

Paul

Thanks, Paul, my updated information says a great deal of WW1 materials will be added, and the Jagdpanther and other items will be returned after the centenary for the Great War has passed.

Yeah Bill the WW1 exhibit is really crammed with stuff, I went to see it with my father back in September and there is so much stuff there I will be making a return visit in the new year to see the bit's I am pretty sure I may have missed.

Paul

Hi folks,
I went along this summer after the re-opening with all the hullabaloo about the new Centenary Great War exhibit. I am a regular visitor, and have a few "favourite" exhibits, including the Jagdpanther and Monty's Lee/Grant. I have to say I was slightly disappointed. The Great War exhibit is good, but I think they have taken a lot of their existing stuff and just presented it in a fresh way. Moreover, this exhibit now takes all the space in the lower floors that was previously available for both World wars, so a lot of my favourite stuff has gone, and the WW2 exhibits are a bit few. Strangely the old "Trench experience" which one would have thought ideal has gone and been replaced by a much smaller one!
There was also a queuing system installed, by which you were given a time slot for your visit to the WW1 exhibit, which puts a bit of pressure on. I must emphasise that these are personal takes on the museum, and that the queuing system may be in abeyance now the schools are back.