February 26, 2008

• A Day in Duxford
  
  It was Tuesday, so we had to go on a field trip. This week’s destination? The Imperial War Museum at Duxford.
  
  

  
  

  
  We hopped a bus and then another and arrived at the mile-long complex soon after it opened.  There are six huge hangars there filled with different planes and displays.  There’s even one just for the American Air Force!

  
  

  
  We had signed up in advance as a school group and were scheduled to see a talk by an ARP (Air Raid Precaution) Warden. This man (who was obviously not a REAL ARP Warden as he was only 45 or so) told us all sorts of nifty things about gas masks, shelters, bombs, and life during WW II in Britain.  Did you know 60,000 British civilians were killed during the war due to bomb raids? But 750,000 German civilians were killed. Staggering!
  
  Here, the warden shows us the difference between a child’s mask and a toddler mask. He explained in detail (to his late-elementary school audience) how the masks worked and were worn and when.
  
  

  
  

  
  Little Miss was called up to help with the demonstration of a “gas mask” for infants. You can’t put one on a baby’s face. It wouldn’t be able to breathe. Instead babies were placed in helmet-like things with a canvas tie around the waist. However, these weren’t gas-proof. One had to pump a handle 40 times a minute to make sure that air went through the filters and then pushed out around the canvas tie leaving no chance for bad air to seep in. She held that baby doll like a pro and worked that pump fantastically. No babies would get gas poisoning on her watch!
  
  

  
  

  
  There were a number of classrooms touring around the hangars. I wondered heartily at the fashion sense of one girl until I realized that a whole class had dressed up as 1940s children who were to be evacuated. They even had nametags safety pinned to their shirts. Here’s a group of them. 
  
  

  
  

  
  
  There were hundreds of airplanes, and if you want, I can show you pictures of many of them. One thing that I didn’t know was that an airplane’s wings can be folded up when it is in the hangar.
  
  
  

  
  

  
  I enjoyed seeing what was painted on the planes, too. (Well, except for the totally-naked, reclining woman.) This one made me think of GhostFroggy. Do you like it, Ghosty?
  
  

  
  

  
  Outside the hangars, they had missiles and missile launchers and anti-aircraft guns (which are HUGE). Here’s a missile. Big, ol’ thing, eh?
  
  

  

  The American Air Force hangar was interesting. One side was a huge panel of windows, impressive. The other side was underground! It reminded me either of an air raid shelter or Laura Ingall’s soddie house. This is a side view so you get to see the strange elevation.

  
  

  
  Inside the American part was a piece of the Berlin Wall. 
  
  East side….
  
  

  
  

  
  And West….
  
  

  
  

  
  
  The last hangar had a big display of Normandy and the invasion. The movie was so interesting with actual footage. It summed things up well. It was interesting the whole time, actually, to hear about WW II from a different country’s point of view.  They had all sorts of spiffy displays set up.
  
  

  
  

  
  
  We’re going to knock your wall down…
  
  

        
  

  
  
  Then shalt thou countest to three…
  
  

     
  

  
  On a completely un-airplane note, I’m trying to get free Lifetime by accumulating 100,000 credits. It should take me a while (hee hee). But, if you’d like to aid the cause, every comment you leave gets me 2 credits closer.  It would just be like the war effort!
  
  
  

  

  Cheers!

  
  

  • 7:14 pm
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