Imperial War Museum: WWII

I thought the museum did a good job in telling the stories of the two wars...impossibly complicated, convoluted, and contested stories...aimed at a very diverse but general audience. Its presentation of WWI seemed focused on the "bigger picture"...strategies, campaigns, innovations and such; while its presentation of WWII seemed focused rather more on the experiences of individuals...soldiers, sailors, aviators, nurses, support personnel, the home front.... 

Obligatory Spitfire; a contested story, if you ask me...

German V2; uncontestably awful

A Japanese "Baka" bomb...a piloted, rocket-powered suicide plane;
the few employed were ineffective; wouldn't a V1 be more relevant
on display here?

Mural of sheltering in the Underground during the Blitz

German 88mm artillery piece...one of the most effective of the war,
especially as an anti-aircraft weapon

Front bit of an Avro Lancaster, the Brits' most widely used heavy bomber
in WWII; featured in the 1955 Dam Busters; if you want to see WWII 
aircraft, many restored and flying, go to Duxford, near Cambridge, a famous
WWII RAF base and home now to both RAF and USAAF Eighth Air Force
museums; stupendous place; for WWI aircraft, how could anything top
Sir Peter Jackson's "Knights of the Air" collection at the Omaka Aviation
Heritage Center, South Island, New Zealand? OK, it's a long way from
London...

Anyhow, WWII begins...among its causes, springs and origins...

Dunkirk veteran

The smallest boat to have participated in the great rescue 

"America First" propaganda poster; and some people
currently have the temerity/ignorance to use the "America
First" name now, despite its past disgrace and culpability

Paul Nash, Battle of Britain, 1941

As we've seen throughout our travels, the Great Houses all 

over Britain took in and supported children from London and 

other target cities during the war

Code-breaking was among the most important weapons
in WWII; here, a British Enigma machine, said by some to be
the birth of modern computing

WWII was thoroughly about racism; and its practice was not limited
to the Germans and Japanese...

Interesting depiction of ship losses in the Battle of
the Atlantic...each model represents 10 ships; losses
declined in 1944 with the increasing use of centimetric
radar, carrier-based escort aircraft, etc.

Among the various British women's service uniforms; depiction of women
in the war has grown far beyond the merely token level...

The war in the Pacific is represented, despite Britain's
very modest role in it; US subs literally sank the
Japanese merchant marine and many of its warships
as well...including two or three aircraft carriers...

Fuselage decor of a British bomber...see the description below
concerning the horrendous loss rate for such crews...

They didn't...fed up with being the pawns of the Great
and the Good...they tossed him and his government out
in the midst of the Yalta conference

Laura Knight, The Nuremburg Trials, 1946; trying
German war criminals...