Well I'm home again after my first visit to the IWM and my friends you are going to love it. The new WW1 Galleries are so good, in depth, cleverly laid out and feature some excellent effects often laid over film footage. The Museum has delved into it's massive collection and produced many items not seen before. A theme of the new museum is that whereas before weapons and tanks etc were simply placed in situ with an explanatory plaque, now items are linked by their story or their effect .A good example of this is the French 75mm field gun. In front of the gun is a superb demonstration of what a battery of four of these superb guns could do to a group of advancing soldiers. A full size animation shows how a storm of shrapnel could cut down large numbers of men as these four guns put thousands of shrapnel balls into a space the size of a football (Soccer) pitch in around two mins. The noise of the shrapnel burst and it's deadly effect are superbly reproduced.
Another big theme in the new museum is the human experience of War, not just on the soldiers but also (to a much greater degree than before) on civilians. The Home front is very well covered indeed as is the suffering of innocents. They even have a blouse of a woman who was aboard the Luisitannia when sunk by a German sub. As the ship went under she was sucked into one of the huge funnels , only to be blown out again and onto the surface when one of the boilers exploded, she was then rescued!{eek3}
Many of the exhibits have new, superior tv monitors which feature excellent short films about the object you are looking at (they have moved away from putting the obligatory plaque up alongside as an incentive to discover more from information panels and the monitors) The British artillery piece that held off the Germans despite heavy gunfire at Nery is one of the best examples of this.
Some of the tanks in the museum have not returned from the old one and some have been moved. (London Bus now at Transport museum,Jagdpanther did not return and P51 no longer there)But the Spit, T34 , V1/V2, and many others feature in the new layout and above us hangs an impressive looking Harrier jump jet.
Shopping is another joy and will surely max my credit card. There are at least four different shops, Book shop, WW1 shop,WW2 shop and kids shop. These stock almost every sort of item you can imagine from pin badges to a rather nice wax jackets and of course more books than you can shake a bayonet at.
Throw in much improved eateries and the day is complete!
If I had to pick something that impressed me a great deal it would be the very wide screen tv's in the WW1 gallery that overlay original WW1 footage from the battlefield onto colour film of the exact spot today....it's done very well indeed and brings home the horror, the suffering and the death that those fields that are today so green and peaceful, hide in their history.
So to sum up...................GET YOUR BACKSIDES TO LAMBETH MY FRIENDS........IT'S BETTER THAN EVER!:salute::
Rob
PS Couldn't take pics today but will do on my return in a few days.
