As museum visitors emerge from the trench-like entrance of the Nation Overseas Gallery, cast figures, lighting effects, imagery, and sounds of distant battle recreate a setting based on a famous photograph of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.

Military Museums

Military Museums

Hiroshima’s Ground Zero Museum

By Flint Whitlock

Although located 420 miles west of Tokyo, the city of Hiroshima is today a tourist mecca, drawing tens of thousands of visitors from around the world for one single reason: to stand at the epicenter of history’s first nuclear explosion used against an enemy population. Read more

Military Museums

The United States Naval Academy Museum

By Blaine Taylor

The United States Naval Academy Museum at Annapolis, Maryland, is “an educational and inspirational resource for the Naval Academy Brigade of Midshipmen, other students of American naval history and thousands of visitors each year,” according to Shayne Sewell, assistant media relations director at the USNA Public Affairs Office. Read more

Military Museums

The American Air Museum in Duxford

By Roy Stevenson

In the lush, green rural community of Duxford, a 20-minute bus ride from the university town of Cambridge, the American Air Museum in Britain houses the finest collection of historic American combat aircraft outside the United States. Read more

Military Museums

Bovington Tank Museum

By Ray Stevenson

If armored vehicles are your interest, the Tank Museum at Bovington Camp, Dorset, is your holy grail. This cavernous museum, measuring 50,000 square feet, holds the world’s finest and most comprehensive collection of over 250 armored vehicles from 26 countries. Read more

A mannequin wearing the uniform of a technical sergeant in the American 359th Infantry Regiment mans the equipment in the Hoffmann Museum’s “radio corner.”

Military Museums

Luxembourg’s Hoffman Museum

By Raymond E. Bell, Jr.

You won’t find the familiar little triangular signs, “Warnung Minen!” hanging on barbed wire today in Western Europe, with one exception. Read more

This pristine Lockheed P-38, “White 33,” was buried in a pit in the New Guinea jungle for decades before being retrieved and restored to better-than-new condition at the WestPac Restoration facility.

Military Museums

The National Museum of World War II Aviation

By Flint Whitlock

Colorado Springs, Colorado—at the foot of majestic Pikes Peak—has long been a favorite vacation destination. And now there’s another reason to head for the Rockies: the National Museum of World War II Aviation. Read more

Since World War I, Ft. Benning, Georgia, has been the training ground of U.S. Infantry. Since 1959, its National Infantry Museum has displayed artifacts and equipment of U.S. infantrymen and their foes. Below is a M4A2 Sherman tank.

Military Museums

The National Infantry Museum.

By Blaine Taylor

Over 100,000 visitors annually trace with pride the footsteps of infantrymen from the 1607 wilderness of Virginia to the 1991 sands of the Persian Gulf and view weapons from the French Charleville flintlock musket to the atomic Davy Crockett mortar,” says the director of the National Infantry Museum, Z. Read more

While the National Army Museum lacks the space for extensive display of vehicles or field guns, the outside is usually “protected” by an armored vehicle or two.

Military Museums

London’s National Army Museum

By Peter Suciu

The city of London practically overflows with military history. Predating the Romans, London has been the seat of government ever since it was fortified by William the Conqueror in the 11th century. Read more

As if seen in flight, this Vought-Sikorsky U.S. Navy Corsair R4U hangs close to a visitor viewing platform.

Military Museums

Museums: The UDVAR-HAZY Center

Anyone traveling to Washington, DC, should take the time to head west to Chantilly, Virginia (near Dulles International Airport), and visit the Steven F. Read more

Military Museums

1st Infantry Division Museum

By Steve Hawkins

One of America’s finest military museums, the 1st Division Museum near Chicago, presents the history of America’s oldest division––from its inception in World War I, through World War II, the Cold War, the jungles of Vietnam, and Desert Storm. Read more

Military Museums

The Imperial War Museum

By Roy Stevenson

Although Britain has a number of war museums, the Imperial War Museum (IWM) is acknowledged as the Holy Grail of them all—the one you must visit when in London. Read more

Military Museums

The Dachau Memorial

By Mark D. Van Ells

The Nazi regime in Germany has become synonymous with inhuman cruelty. Hitler incarcerated millions in his concentration camps and inflicted on his victims the harshest forms of torture and deprivation imaginable. Read more

Military Museums

Oahu’s Museums and Memorials

By Flint Whitlock

There are few places on earth that have as many World War II museums, memorials, and monuments located in such a small area as the island of Oahu. Read more

Military Museums

The D-Day Invasion Museum

By Flint Whitlock

There is such a treasure trove of fine military museums in Normandy—perhaps more than anywhere else in the world—that we could devote an entire issue to nothing but them. Read more

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    WWII

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