The Imperial War Museum

This is the last gasp for my visit with I, F and the girls.
The weather outside is as it has been for most of the "summer", of course I brought the umbrella. Maybe next time I visit I'll bring a coat as well.

The museum used to be the Bethlem Royal Hospital but was more commonly known as Bedlam as it used to house the insane. But thanks to early care in the community schemes the building was emptied and used as a museum. (spot the lie in that last bit).

Here are some pics of the outside...





Here's what the little silver plaque says, 'cause I know you would go batty through not knowing...
I mean... look at the size of these thing... huge...
and here is what they where used for...
Marvellous.

In we go, and may I say that I have no bag with me and so am therefore unlikely to trigger a massive security alert. They did take my umbrella off me tho' and the irony about the trip to the science museum was this, I could have caused some real damage with the brolly and not the guns in my bag, y'see the brolly has a big metal spike on the end and a sturdy wooden handle.

Anyway, this.... Boooo!!!

And this next piece, Hurrah...
If you look carefully you can just make out a Bosh spiky helmet at the foot of this heroic Tommy.

Our first port of call was in the basement, along with the loos. It was a recreation of a first world war trench, with authentic smells ( I thought the loos had backed up).
It's almost completely black and fairly cramped, just like the real thing and has some realistic sounds, it's also got some extremely detailed life size dioramas with audio and unlike some I've seen these where not cheesy.
The captain is ordering an artillery barrage on enemy positions...
Meanwhile two Tommies take a quick fag ( cigarette) break in the lull...
Letters from home...
Prisoner and escort...

And now for the worst part, up the ladders or "over the top" and walk slowly towards the enemy, but you mustn't try and evade being shot or you'll be shot. I'm surprised our generals didn't go back to the red tunics of the Napoleonic era so the Germans could shoot every soldier instead of just most of them...

Here are some examples of street names found in the trenches, a habit soldiers of all nationalities have continued since...

At the end of the "first world war" exhibit I spotted this...
and this in particular, after all I am Ex-navy...

This next piece is a bit ghoulish, it's a death clock and it's still counting the war dead, two for every revolution of the finger. Somewhere in the world two soldiers are killed in some country and some battle...
some artillery pieces...
and for some strange reason an old bus...

Next we saw this little devil...
But before I could say,
"Look out for that tank!"

I, got run over.(and somewhat over exposed)


When we saw this mini sub I asked I if it was a British one, he leans over to it sniffs and says,
"nah, it's Italian. You can smell the garlic."
He then bursts out laughing. Trust me if F had of been with us he wouldn't have said that, well not without getting belted.
There where two mini subs there the other less technical and fancy one was British. (our admiralty once nearly dismissed subs as being "ungentlemanly" , duhhh!)
And now for some planes, again the British military where somewhat loath to fully exploit the full potential of the Wright brothers invention, you sort of get the feeling that most British generals and admirals where all members of the "Flat Earth Society", but by the halfway point in WWII they had got the idea and commissioned this thing of beauty...
And it's one of the main reasons that we today don't have to say,
"Vorsprung durch technic."

Then the Americans had this little beaut'
it's the one in the middle at the back.

And Harry Hun had this excellent machine...
Many years after the war the Navy got to play with this little fella, I'm surprised that we're all still here, lol.


Right! I've got loads of phots in my "must see" folder for this blog but it's getting late so I'm going to just post them without chatting about most of them, here goes...

Monty
I was there for that, he went over to buy a cack handed BMW and came back with a huge lump of wall in the boot (trunk), cool.

The guy on the left with the bad tie is dead, ha ha ha ha.
Kiwi matelots on the piss in Blightyland...

"Don't Panic, don't panic..."

'nuff said.

And now for the sometimes forgotten heroes, the merchant navy, they kept us fed and supplied at great personal (unarmed) risk...

It's just a pity these phots are rubbish.

And as for this next one, well we entered a room full of these bad boys but this one got my attention for all the obvious reasons...
Hilarious, especially given the gravitas of the room you're in.

Oh, and this next badly focused phot, well we found and decoded these years before the Americans found their one. (U-571's director can kiss my ass!)

I gets his "little boy" out (he made me do this)
and here it is again without a retard...
Shortly after this phot we leave.
No, we didn't get asked to leave either.
Also the police were not waiting for us.

On the way towards the Palace of Westminster, we where walking, I (that's me not I) spotted this...
something my detective chum had never seen on his many trips to the war museum, some bloody detective!

Next is Westminster bridge...
and the Palace of Westminster, commonly known as the houses of parliament, or the biggest collection of bars in the smallest area on the planet...

Now, is this Big Ben?
No it's not, Big Ben is the bell inside that tolls the hour.

And now a pic of a bloke who ruled England for the most boring 5 years in it's history, him and his warts.
It's even harder to believe that he was dug up a few years after his death and posthumously 'executed'