Imperial War Museum North

A couple of weeks ago, on what promised to be a rainy day in the Northwest. I took myself off to Manchester to visit a museum I had not visited for about ten years. After visiting RThe fascinating and imposing steel structure houses the Northern iteration of the Imperial War Museum.

As a teacher, I made a yearly pilgrimage to IWM London with my 6th Form pupils and marvelled at the sometimes subtle and sometimes massive changes that had been made there. Unfortunately, it appears that the same has not occurred up north.

One Big Room

The exhibits are mostly on display in a single cavernous room where a timeline from the First World War to the ‘present’ day is displayed around the walls. The first display window was marred by the text board explaining the exhibits not being in the best of nick.

Half-term was over in the Manchester area as several groups of school kids were making their way around the museum at the same time as me. It was good to see both primary and secondary children there. For someone who has a profound interest in the war, I always found it frustrating that exam syllabi did not often allow much scope for dealing with the war and that the First World War always dominated proceedings.

What do Syllibi Do?

Or Syllabuses if you prefer.

Evacuation always seemed to be the easiest way into the subject with not much else being considered in any depth. I inherited GCSE coursework on evacuation and was glad that the syllabus changed, and I could move away from the few pupils who could tell the difference between moral and morale.

I am sure the coursework would have been far more interesting if it was on the changing behaviour of parts of the population due to the war, I am sure that those participating in these changes were enjoying themselves.

A topic called Medicine Through Time had been used by some exam boards for some time and continued to be used when the GCSE syllabi were recently changed and at the point where I began extricating myself from education. This did include both World Wars as did the Warfare and British Society topic, but they covered an approximately 800-year period so they could not possibly deal with the Second World War in much depth.

Pistol? Revolver? Semi-Auto?

On my return from the IWM, I contacted Matthew Moss of Historical Firearms and the Fighting on Film Podcast. Earlier this month, when I was reading Special Unit by A.H. Brown, I contacted him to clarify my frustration with the book constantly referring to German officers being armed with revolvers. He said this could be possible as the German military would always try to use captured military equipment.

At IWM North the plot thickened as a Colt 1911 sold to Russia in the First World War was described as a revolver. We both agreed this was probably just carelessness on the part of IWM.

Much of the museum considers what had occurred before its construction and design. However, there is a small section which has portraits of veterans of Afghanistan. However, there is not a lot of space to keep adding to the timeline design at the heart of the museum. Therefore, they are going to struggle to add the last twenty years to the timeline.

What can they do though?

IWM London encompasses multiple floors and rooms so sections can be closed off to revamp them with the integrity of the rest of the museum still in place. Without a total revamp to bring it up to date and reinvigorate some of the displays, it would be hard to do this at IWM North.

Western Approaches HQ

I have mentioned before that despite the Battle of the Atlantic being the longest conflict of the war and arguably the most important, I know relatively little about it. A few weeks ago, during a visit to Liverpool, and to begin remedying this issue, I visited Western Approaches HQ.

What an atmosphere

To misquote Russ Abbot, I love a museum with an atmosphere. This visit reminded me of another attraction I would take my pupils to when down in London for the IWM, The Churchill War Rooms. It was not just the fact that they are underground but that they have both kept many of the period fixtures and fittings, like the paint and the heating pipes. The most notable fixture is the wall map of the whole Atlantic used to plot the routes of convoys and the positions of the U-Boats hunting them.

This was immediately atmospheric. To add to this atmosphere there was a welcoming committee of a Second World War naval officer at the entrance. I did not feel a similar atmosphere at the purpose-built IWM North.

Sink The Bismark (spoiler alert)

During my visit, a female guide, similarly dressed in 1940s garb was leading a group of primary school children around the museum. At various points around the museum, there was the opportunity to undertake tasks relating to the work undertaken there during the war, for example, decoding a Morse Code message.

Wrens

The final section of the museum has been dedicated to the service of women. The formation and development of the Wrens (Women’s Royal Naval Service) is dealt with here. They played a vital role in the work at Western Approaches and the Second World War as a whole and this role has often been overlooked.

The displays can be found in a section of the building that many of these young women would have stayed in overnight whilst performing their many duties, again this adds to the atmosphere.

Despite being a little negative about IWM North, I would still recommend that people visit as I have the discerning (alright geeky/picky) eye of someone who has studied warfare for years. A particular highlight was the ceramic poppy display up the interior of the tower. I would highly recommend a visit to Western Approaches too. Another was the regular film that is projected over the walls which does create an atmosphere of its own.

Whatever Next?

Whilst researching for a potential PhD and living in North Wales, I discovered the rich history of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Their museum in Caernarfon Castle is close by and is next on my list of places to visit. Their records are also kept at Wrexham Museum, and I am interested in finding out more about their airborne forces who took part in Operation Dragoon in 1944.