Imperial War Museum

Yesterday we went to the Imperial War Museum. I REALLY liked it. It's one of my favorite museums that we've been to. Which is maybe bad because I'm an art major, and we've been to a lot of art museums. Oops.

On the way we took a scenic walk along the river. Here we are with Big Ben and Parliament. Those are the windows that Robert Downey Jr. (or his stunt double) jumped out of and into the river in Sherlock Holmes!

Along that walk there was a man with his two little terrier dogs walking along. Both of the dogs were off their leashes and were having a jolly ol' time walking and sniffing along. But I was so impressed with these dogs because they are so well behaved. They always made sure that their master was in sight, even though they were walking on their own. They were also little best friend dogs. When one dog got ahead of the other, it would look back and make sure the other was still keeping up and if the other was far behind, it would wait! They did this several times. So cute. I'm just sentimental about dogs. It's because there are so many good dogs all around London, I've always loved dogs, and mine, little Molly, died last week.

Here's the museum. Those are real guns that were used on naval ships. They were huge!

All the placards told you information about the object like how much it weighed, how fast it could go, how far it could travel, etc. It also told you where and with what infantry each object served.

I was obsessed with all the planes. It made me want to watch Flyboys.

I'm in a plane!

Cute little boys looking in a plane.

A replica of the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

There was a children's part of an exhibit about WWII called "The Children's War." It was really interesting. I learned a lot I didn't know. I don't know if this is common knowledge, but I didn't know that a lot of parents shipped their kids off to America and Australia when the air raids were happening. Germans began air raids in 1940 and at one point they bombed the city 57 consecutive nights. I can't imagine living in fear like that! A lot of places we've gone still have the holes left by the bombs, like Westminter Abbey and St. Paul's. But it was really sad. There were quotes from children saying how they were scared or excited and how they didn't now when they'd see their parents again. It also showed the gas masks that the children had to wear. As part of the exhibit there was a model home that was made to look like it was from the 1940's. You could walk through it and see what a home was like during that time period. They gave figures about the number of people killed during WWII and it was astounding. Especially the number of civilians killed by enemy attacks- 60,000.

This was sad. It was the letter they sent out when one of the ships full of children got torpedoed. So impersonal.

These are propaganda posters showing how the kids wanted to stay but couldn't. And how Hitler would tell you to keep your kids with you, and bring them back from their safety abroad, but you shouldn't.

I felt bad having taken a smiley picture in front of the atomic bomb, so we did a somber face for the Berlin Wall.

I thought the museum was really well done. It was really sad too. There was a large part about the Holocaust that was really sad. It showed the progression and rise of Hitler. It also showed images and video from Auschwitz, as well as first hand accounts from survivors. You left feeling a little heavy. There was also a part on the lower level that walked you through all the wars Britain was involved in during the 20th century. I felt stupid that I didn't even know about some of them. One quote said "Since 1945 there has only been one year when a British serviceman has not been killed on operations somewhere throughout the world." That's probably true for many countries. There was just so much to see packed into the museum. We went when it opened at 10, and by the afternoon it was so busy! It's a must see!