Imperial War Museum

Yesterday some friends and I went to the Imperial War Museum. Its subject is mostly from WWI onwards, as far as I could tell. In the lobby there were some impressive pieces of military hardware, including an 80ft tall terrestrial periscope tower used by the Germans in WWI, and one of the first British tanks deployed in WWI in an attempt to cut the stalemate. Also of interest were the German and Italian one-man submarines used in WWII. The German variant could carry two torpedoes, one on either side, while the Italian variant had a detachable bomb that could be detached onto the hulls of targets.

I spent most of my time in the basement level, where there were exhibits on WWI, WWII, D-Day, and a 'Conflicts since 1945' section. There were also sections covering crimes against humanity and the Holocaust. There was a walk-in lifesize mockup of trenches to walk through, which was rather interesting. They piped in smells and it was much colder in that darkened room, effectively making a more eery and uncomfortable experience, which was further amplified by well-placed speakers and life-size figures of solders. Very well done.

There were also interesting displays about the 'secret agent' aspects of war, including covert weapons and a display on the SAS' role in the 1980 embassy hostage crisis in London in which hostages were taken in the Iranian embassy. The SAS stormed in after the hostages started getting shot.

It was an interesting museum to say the least.