Traveler’s Tales: The London War Zone

My family loved visiting the London war zone.

Married to a now-retired naval officer, I’m still often involved in military matters and that holds particularly true while on vacation.

We’ve actually dubbed some of our trips by the wars we wound up investigating.

There was the infamous French and Indian War trip (Maine, Quebec, Fort Ticonderoga), the Civil War outings (Gettysburg, Smithsonian, Battle of Stones River, Civil War museums) and the Revolutionary War (Williamsburg, Yorktown, Virginia in general).

Several iterations included World War II: Hawaii, Italy, Normandy and London.

London war zone

We traveled to London straight off a trip through the Paris Musée de l’Armée and a visit to the actual Normany beaches.

From there we chunneled to London where we saw Les Miserables on stage and then spent the next day reviewing the war at various sites around the British capital.

There were plenty.

No surprise; Londoners stood stalwart against the Axis evil and revere the memory of their finest hour.

After admiring St. Paul’s Cathedral, which remained standing amid the smoke of war, we headed to the Imperial War Museum.

We enjoyed the exhibits, particularly those  in the basement which included miscellaneous tidbits of army uniforms, hats, playing cards and paraphernalia.

I enjoyed seeing the medals and revisiting the tales of British gallantry through the ages.

In the main atrium, airplanes hovered overhead while tanks and other armaments filled the ground floor.

I thought the trench exhibit particularly sobering; can you imagine sitting in a slit in the ground while poisonous gas crept across the landscape toward you?

Churchill’s War Rooms

The best war museum, however, was just up the street and not far from Big Ben’s shadow:  The Churchill War Rooms, another branch of the Imperial War Museum.

There we wandered in the basement of the Treasury building, exploring the rooms where Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his cabinet ran the war.

To see the phone he used, the tiny room where he slept, and the actual map where his officers plotted the war, meant a step back into a time where right and wrong were more clearly defined than today.

Midway through the museum, a modern gallery documented Churchill’s life using photographs, memorabilia, audio and visual stories. We got so absorbed, we completely lost track of time.

Perhaps because the man and his government seemed a little outside of time.

Tower of London war zone

Our final stop was the oldest one: The Tower of London whose last prisoner was Nazi Rudolph Hess.

There we examined ancient buildings and remembered, yet again, the sacrifices made by so many in defense of their kingdom.

The chapel is a poignant worship site and burial spot for many beefeaters–those who guard the tower.

The British crown jewels reside in the tower now, but during the war were taken to another more safe spot.

The ravens never left despite the bombing and the walls remain secure (See Paddington Bear visits the Tower).

London is justifiably proud of how it withstood the Nazi blitzkrieg during World War II. Life must have been difficult.

Churchill said it best in June, 1940:

“We shall not flag or fail, we shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France,we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island. Whatever the cost may be.

“We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”

Thanks be to God.