Imperial War Museum

10 July 2015

We had planned to visit the refurbished World War I galleries at the Imperial War Museum on our last trip to the UK, but decided that since it only reopened in the last week before we left (having been closed for a very long time) the crowds would be too great.  So this time it was definitely on the agenda.

As we walked from the bus-stop the dome of the museum was instantly recognizable above the tree line and pretty soon we were standing in front of the building with its enormous canons out front.

We went in and looked at the central atrium which had spitfires and harriers, V1s and V2s and even the remains of cars bombed out in Iraq. Then we went into the WWI galleries.  The display took a very different slant on the war to that shown in the Australian War Memorial.  It was more focused on the home front, though there were a number of items relating to the front line.  After looking at the WWI galleries we had a quick look at the WWII galleries, but we were pretty tired by then.

V2 Rocket

Lancaster Bomber

To be honest, I didn't think it was a patch on the Australian War Memorial.  When I am there I come away feeling very emotional - the dioramas there particularly are very powerful.  This felt a bit superficial and a bit sanitised from the horror of war.  Frankly it felt like it had all been set up for the key stages of the school modern history syllabus.