Imperial War Museum

I did work experience in the TSB across the road where I stapled my finger to a five pound note on the second day.

Hi Vicky - I haven't been but would love to. Let me know what its like jude

Tricky one, because you have to understand the motive for the museum. In my view it doesn’t glorify war it just shows it and the paraphernalia used, yes I know I will be jumped on because it is shown in a nationalistic way. But it does demonstrate the carnage and destruction and for the second World War I feel it sort of captures the feeling of sacrifice that existed then, when this little place could have been over run, if fate hadn't taken a hand. I guess like most museums you get out what you go with, the kids like all the big stuff, tanks and cannon and the older folk who lived through a war find the small poignant exhibits most rewarding. I think it will be an interesting day out!

I gather that there is an incredibly moving exhibition on the Holocaust there now - so take a big hankie.

I've been there a couple of times, most recently er...16yrs ago? I can't remember the year but there was a Colditz exhibition on and that was amazing. They'd recovered some of the original stuff from the castle, including a radio they'd pieced together and concealed behind a brick I seem to remember. They also had some of the playing card maps, forged passes etc. A great historical day out quite apart from the war connection per se.

I've been there...more than twice, I think. Really cool stuff. Didn't think there was anything nationalistic about it at all - there's maybe a touch of horror about all the engines of death and recovered wares of the brutally killed, but that feels like part of the point. It's haunting.

My grandfather lent the IWM a ton of stuff from his WW1 experiences when he was about 80, for some partic exhibition that they were having... when it was done, my dad asked them for the return of the stuff, but they wouldnt give it back... said he had donated it. still, at least others get to see it all i suppose.

That is so out of order, Liana. Even if he HAD donated it and then changed his mind, the bad publicity generated for the museum if your grandfather had taken them to court would probably have ensured a lot of public sympathy. To take advantage of an old man who once fought for his coubtry is despicable. And besides, your great-grandchildren may have one day wanted the items themselves.

My very dear old godfather, Bill Armitage, was a Colditz internee. He was a Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot who was shot down over Germany. For years he never talked about it but now as he fast approaches the end of his days he is talking a lot about it. I spent a day with him a couple of weeks ago and his recollections are extraordinary - I'm trying to get a load of them on tape so that the historical record can be set straight.

I did the very same for a friend, Tony. His grandfather was at Gallipoli in 1915, fighting alongside the Anzacs and such like. He survived although 5000 allied troops died deaths that came in horrible ways. Men were killed in action, sniped or shelled. Some died of wounds, dysentery or disease, others were drowned by falling into the dysentery pits or died of exposure. Men were both burned and frozen to death. He wrote about his experiences in an indecipherable hand and then recorded his writings on tape with an undistinguishable Brummie accent. It was hard work. By all accounts it was a fascinating story. He recounted how when they arrived off the troop ship and made their way along the trenches they "shook hands with the skeletons that had been left their to rot." I can't imagine that they were actually skeletons, but this shaking hands with the dead was a ritual way of acknowledging their bravery and promising retribution, (if perhaps not the most hygienic of methods). Eventually the task overwhelmed me, although I did quite a bit. One last interesting point, though, was that he hated Churchill with a passion, and I always thought his story shouls have been told, if only for this reason alone.

It's the history books and state manipulation that have turned Churchill into the 'greatest Englishman'. He had no concern or respect for ordinary working people seeing them as the the equivalent of slaves in the days of the pharoahs. He treated the working class with disdain and used them as pawns in his lifes games. He was however, probably the right guy to have in charge when faced with a fight, as he would commit troops to any theatre of war with little concern for their welfare as long as there was a chance that at the end he had won. This was of course no consolation to the dead and wounded but was a great relief to those that were sitting at home in comfort. Never forget that he had to be restrained when wanting to put troops on the streets of England and shoot striking miners in the years between the wars.

"Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash." Winston Churchill.

Perhaps he was speaking from experience Karl.

No doubt