The Imperial War Museum

We got up on Saturday, and made our way to Angel Station to meet up with our friend Dara, and our old neighbor Mark. We took the tube out to the Imperial War Museum to see a bunch of military weapons from Britain's history - Mostly WWII.










The building housing the museum is an old hospital that once held the Bedlam Asylum - the origin of the word "bedlam". It is a beautiful building, and the collection of military vehicles is first rate.







Value to money, this is the best museum I've been to in Europe. It is packed with a variety of things to interest both adults and children. Best of all, it is free!








We arrived at the museum ready for a day full of fun and cheer. But the museum also hammers home the horrors of war, and before we would leave, we would all have an emotional journey that would leave us all exhausted.




On our way to the museum, we passed the residence of Captain William Bligh of Mutiny on the Bounty fame (played by Anthony Hopkins in the Mel Gibson film, "The Bounty"). It shouldn't still amaze me to round a corner and see such places, but it still does.



Once inside the museum, you are greeted with a spectacular courtyard filled with airplanes, rockets, and tanks.








The old WWI planes are in excellent shape. I can't imagine going into combat in a plane made of light wood and paper. Crazy.









They have tanks from many countries in Europe including Russia. It was fascinating to see them up close. And they are all in amazing condition.








Some tanks look like they go back as early as WWI.








They have a real British Spitfire forever locked in combat over London with its arch rival. . .












The German Messerschmitt!










One of the planes was an american plane. I was pleased to see that it was credited as having been made in Inglewood, CA. Almost my home neighborhood.







A nose of a larger bomber is setup so that you can walk through it and see what it would have been like to serve inside one of these larger air machines.








A small early German U-boat is on display. It is basically a carrier for 2 torpedos, that were mounted on either side.





There are even several different types of missiles on display from the early German V-2 rocket. . .








To the modern Polaris Missile.









Of course one of the highlights would have to be the replica of "Little Boy" - the Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima, which heralded a new era in warfare.





There was a really cool display on Spy Warfare. It featured spy cameras, listening bugs, and code communication devices.





The most infamous of all being the German Enigma Machine. It was a encoding and decoding device which had a series of discs that could be swapped out. This created what's called a Polyalphabetic Solution, which made the cypher so difficult to break.






I was surprised to learn that there were several other more elaborate code machines developed on both the British and German sides. However none equaled the notoriety of the Enigma device. It is the granddad of our modern cypher machines.



There was also a Holocaust Exhibit. We saved this to the end, which was a wise decision. It is very moving and emotionally draining. After walking through it, we were all pretty much exhausted, and that was the end of our time at the Imperial War Museum.






We all needed a drink!