Blood, Guts and Technology for Queen and Country
Written: Apr 05 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Planes, tanks, and things that go BOOM in the night
Cons: None
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| mrkstvns's Full Review: Imperial War Museum London |
Are you a military buff? Big fan of mechanized warfare and mayhem? Think The Longest Day is a vastly superior movie to Sleepless in Seattle? Then check out the Imperial War Museum!
This is a no-nonsense monument to war and its toys with lots of emphasis on the two World Wars. If you had any doubts, they're gone the instant you walk into the main hall, filled with tanks, warplanes, and a submarine-fired missile. Toys of War!
It's easy to fall in love with the cool technological toys of modern warfare, and all too easy to forget that the end result isn't a ship sinking or a plane plummeting out of the sky with a trail of blue smoke, but rather the terror and death of human beings. While the Imperial War Museum is an utterly unapologetic monument to military spending, there are some exhibits that show a human face to the guy getting shot at.
In the Trench Warfare exhibit, you go through a darkened passage that's meant to simulate a World War I trench. You hear the chatter of soldiers and the distant taunts or shouts of enemy soldiers. The crack of a rifle or the boom of an artillery piece are accompanied by flashes of light. You look into underground chambers and see how soldiers lived, worked, and fought.
Another exhibit on the Blitz Experience simulates bombs dropping on London as you see what the underground shelters were like during the German aerial assaults of the early 1940s.
Of course the museum glorifies the equipment of British armed forces, but it doesn't ignore the toys of its enemies either. You can see the German buzz bombs and V2 rockets that terrorized London during the Blitz. You can also see German uniforms, insignia, firearms, and aircraft.
Throughout the museum are extensive galleries focusing on the equipment, history, and personalities of the navy, air force, and army. (Did you know soldiers in WWI trenches used periscopes to check out the battlefield?) Tons of displays along with video footage, strategy maps, diagrams and more.
The museum is pretty big. We spent a good four hours there, and could easily have spent a couple more. While I wouldn't rank it as a "must see" in London, it is unquestionably a fascinating place and will definitely keep little boys a lot more interested than one more art gallery or castle of some dead guy.
The museum is located on Lambeth Road, SE1. The nearest Underground stop is probably Lambeth North -- about a 2-block walk down Kennington Road. The museum is easy to spot -- there aren't that many buildings in London with 16 inch naval artillery guns on the walkway.
Recommended:
Yes
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