The highlights (with a little help from Ben) were the Italian and Japanese midget submarines that were used to blow up entire ships and bridges. In fact, the Japanese used five mini-subs in attack on Pearl Harbor and the first POW captured by the US in WWII was a mini-sub captain. They had a Russian T-34 tank, US Sherman tank, a British Churchill infantry tank, and a German Jagdpanther Self-propelled Gun as well as the British Mk5 tank from WWI.
There also was the German V-1 flying bomb and the first ballistic missile, the German V-2 rocket. While they were inaccurate (and were undetectable traveling at the speed of sound), the V-2's attacking London scared the British enough to be one of the reason for the Operation Market Garden, eventually leding to the shut down of the V-2 launch sites in the Netherlands.Hanging from the ceiling, they had four WWII planes, the British Supermarine Spitfire, a US P-51 Mustang, a German Focke-Wulf Fw 190, and one of the eight surviving Germain Heinkel He 162 jet fighter-one of the first jet planes from WWII. They also has a recovered portion of a rare Japanese Zero plane.
Aside from the particulars there was also a exhibit for the Holocaust (depressing), the D-Day invasion (where Ben's grandfather landed on the beaches of Normandy), a trench exhibit that was built to simulate the Western Front, and loads of others (England's been in a lot more wars).
After all the metal and guns, we added to our day of gore a trip to the Tower of London. Though it did serve as a castle at one point, it was eventually a vision of dread and fear for many famous 'criminals' such as Anne Boleyn and Sir Walter Raleigh who were imprisoned there. Of course we cannot forget the several beheadings and torture that took place there. Oh and of course to lighten the mood you can also see the Crown Jewels there. Now that was some serious BLING! :)All in all it was a very educational and stomach curling kind of day.
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