Posted on Apr 10, 2004 in Stuff We Like

Duxford Land Warfare Hall

Armchair General

This is a mock-up of a Landing Craft that would have been used during Operation Overlord ? the Allied invasion of Europe . This is a nice way to lead visitors through to the next part of the hall, which deals with D-Day. Huge planning maps are displayed around this area, and video screens constantly play images from the 6 th of June 1944 . Photo by AJS.

This is a close-up of the dummy who stands in the Landing Craft waving the troops ashore. We aren’t sure why he looks so terrified ? after all, he’s staying ON the boat! Photo by Roach.

Here’s Roach casually strolling off of the Landing Craft. " Sorry I’m late boys, had a call of nature, have I missed all the excitement ?" Photo by AJS.

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Around the corner we found some Wermacht soldiers crawling around a Hetzer ? a Tank Destroyer. We narrowly avoided being killed by the man pointing his HMG through the brick wall to the left. Photo by Roach.

This is a 150mm German Nebelwerfer ? it fired batches of 6 rockets in a salvo, but wasn’t particularly accurate ? actually, "indiscriminate" would probably be a better word. Either way, it was probably still a somewhat nasty shock to be on the receiving end of it. Photo by AJS.

Here’s a German 7.5 Anti-Tank Gun. Photo by Roach.

The ubiquitous Sherman Tank. Photo by AJS.

A British Cromwell with chunky turret. Photo by AJS.

Right at the rear of the hall is a series of displays relating to the British General Montgomery who fought in North Africa and Europe . The "Monty" exhibition includes three of his caravans ? vehicles used by him in his campaigns throughout the war. This first picture is of his mobile office. A second caravan (not shown in this photo) on the other side contained his bedroom. Photo by AJS.

And this is his mobile map room. Photo by AJS.

To round off the tour, here are some fantastic full-size dioramas. Photo by AJS.

Photo by Roach.

Another interesting exhibit ? we saw this on the way out through the hall. We told this lady not to park her car here! Actually no, this is a demonstration of robotic bomb disposal equipment, as used by British troops in Northern Ireland . Photo by Roach.

And finally, last but not least ? and unfortunately not photographed by our by now leg-weary photo-journalists – down the centre of the hall beneath the raised central gangway is a small-ish but nevertheless interesting exhibit on the British war in the Pacific containing some nice dioramas and collections of Japanese equipment and uniforms, plus two individual museums-within-a-museum representing two local British Regiments, The Royal Anglian Regiment Museum , and The Cambridgeshire Regiment Collection, both of which are well worth a look.

To view the complete set of images from our visit, go to the ACG image gallery here.

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