Places of interest to visit in Britain with a military theme, including museums managed by one of the armed services.
There are so many stories behind every memorial. Of course, there are exceptions, but outside graveyards most memorials tend toward the grand. However, if you happen to be wandering about the southern slopes of Portsdown Hill, just north of Fareham in Hampshire, you might stumble across a modest tribute to a Battle of Britain pilot, […]
Memorial to James Tillet Read More »
South East
When you visit London, it’s hard to avoid seeing HMS Belfast moored by London Bridge. This grand old lady of the seas, the Royal Navy’s last surviving cruiser and the largest preserved warship in Europe, has been part of the London scene since 1971. With a backdrop of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge,
In the dying moments of 1914 and the opening days of 1915, remarkable stories began to circulate in Britain’s newspapers. The stories came from France and Belgium, where great armies were locked in mighty conflict, and told of a truce between British and German soldiers. At this time of peace and goodwill, it was said
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British Stuff Events History
In 1918, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the guns on the Western Front fell silent. Just imagine. For the first time in more than four years, in this part of Europe, men stopped killing one another. Fighting had officially continued throughout that morning, however. Some, like American General
Amazing; moving; humbling; impressive: words you could choose to describe the annual National Service of Remembrance held in London on Remembrance Sunday, the second Sunday in November. Thousands attend every year; thousands watch it on TV; thousands more attend similar, albeit slightly more modest, services throughout the United Kingdom – and beyond. It is an
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British Stuff Events London
In 1942, someone at the War Office decided they needed a prisoner of war camp just outside Malton, in North Yorkshire. (“I say, Carruthers, we really could do with a nice new prison camp. Any ideas?” “I know just the place, sir…”). It is now a museum, almost exclusively dedicated to the Second World War.
Driving through Cannock Chase, a lovely area of heath and woodland in Staffordshire, I was surprised to see a sign pointing to the Katyn Memorial. Katyn Forest is about 1600 miles away, near Smolensk, in Russia. There, in 1940, more than 4,500 Polish nationals were murdered by the NKVD, the Soviet Union’s sinister security police
The Cross of Sacrifice instantly identifies a Commonwealth War Graves cemetery. Beautifully tended, as they all are, the information panel tells you that this one contains 383 burials from the First World War, 97 Commonwealth – mainly New Zealanders – and 286 Germans. There are also three burials from the Second World War. Shortly after
Cannock Chase War Cemetery Read More »
West Midlands
This is the skeletal remains of the Temple of Mithras, just outside the Roman fort of Brocolitia on Hadrian’s Wall. The fort, also sometimes called ‘Carrawburgh’ is only visible as lumps in the ground; this is not a place for those cursed with a short attention span. I visited at dusk on a bleak day
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North East England
Scattered about Britain (and, presumably, the world) are a number of sites, some open to the public, which had a role in the Cold War. The “secret nuclear bunker” at Kelvedon Hatch in Essex was built in the early 1950s as an operations centre for a huge radar and command/control project known as ROTOR. It
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East of England
I can’t remember how many times I’ve visited the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth. The entrance is a statement, dominated by two massive gun barrels pointing straight at you, with the classical lines of a 19th century cupola-topped former hospital in the background. The guns were installed in 1968 and are 15” barrels from Royal
Imperial War Museum Read More »
London
The Tower of London has been sitting on the north bank of the Thames, watching the tides of a great city ebb and flow, for around a thousand years. The city has grown up around it and it is part of it; it is impossible to imagine London without the Tower. Think of all that
Visit the Tower of London Read More »
London