The Imperial War Museum

Today I attended an arts society event which was a guided tour of the World War I exhibits at the Imperial war Museum. I had not been there in many years and this section has been recently redone and it is fantastic! (World war II section is next to be updated)

The collection is housed in a building that was originally a psychiatric hospital, that is the origin of the word bedlam meaning chaos or madness. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable, and when we finished going through all the World War II exhibits we went upstairs and saw part of the World War II section, including a Morris Shelter which had a staff member in attendance who actually remembers using a Morris Shelter in the war and he was telling us all about the experience.

I have added an extra of some of the exhibits on the ground floor which include a V1 bomb (known as a doodlebug), a V2 rocket and a Harrier Jump Jet. The doodlebug is very interesting, it was developed by the Luftwaffe in the Second world War as a cruise missile powered by pulse jet and at the peak of the attacks by the Germans more than 100 a day were fired at SE England. One of the methods used by the RAF to counter attack was using a low altitude speed plane (the Hawker Tempest) to make use of the airflow over the plane's wings to tip the doodlebug's wing up, overriding the gyro and sending the doodlebug into an out of control dive. The plane had to fly high enough to get enough speed and then dive down and fly really close to the doodlebug - scary stuff!

I am pleased it is raining at the moment as our garden needs some rain. I am busy packing as tomorrow evening after Thomas breaks up for half term we are going to Berlin for the weekend to see Luke.