I arrived in London from Dublin on the night of May 7th. I was able to explore a little of the city before the official World War II program began. I walked through Hyde Park and got my first order of fish and chips of the trip. Having spent a few days in Dublin with Kevin Roberts, I had already fought past the worst of the jet lag that hit others. I quickly discovered that London is significantly larger than Dublin, so I had some adjusting to do.
The first day consisted of traveling to the statue of Winston Churchill in Westminster. This was the day that I was forced to learn how the Tube works here in London and it is as easy as people say. After only a few trips I felt like I had a pretty good idea of how to traverse the city. A small group of us toured Westminster Abbey and then did some sightseeing along the Thames. We finished the night at a pub by our hotel. We managed to fit most of the group in that small pub and we took up about half of the available space.
Westminster Abbey
Our first museum stop was the Churchill War Rooms. It was great to finally see the topics we had spent so much time studying back in Ohio right in front of me. The British remember the war as the People’s War and this was evident in the Churchill War Rooms. I was reminded from Rachel Harriman’s site report and the museum itself how Churchill was able to galvanize the people of Britain through his charisma and leadership. He hated the idea of having to hide underground during the air raids. He wanted to show the people that he wasn’t afraid, and they shouldn’t be either.
Though we share the same language, it is clear that our two countries have two different recollections of the war. At home, it was the Good War, here it was clearly The Peoples War; Churchill made sure of it. Seeing the calls for national unity and working together demonstrated this. Churchill called to his people to carry on through the war, and together they would prevail.
The next day, May 10th, was a free day and I put it to use. Our first stop was the Tower of London where we learned about the fascinating and sometimes brutal history of London. We also saw the Crown Jewels which were incredible. Our next stop was the British Museum where we saw a wide variety of historical artifacts from all over the world. For dinner we went to a pub in Trafalgar Square called The Admiralty — great food everywhere.
This is the mansion at Bletchley Park.
Today was the trip to Bletchley. For me, this was the most interesting location as I like learning about the complexity of the code breaking operation. Beau Bilek gave his site report here and went into detail about the spy rings and double agents that the British used to manipulate the Germans. I felt that this trip was my favorite as it gave context to the environment that the British code breakers were in when they eventually deciphered Ultra. It was very clear that the British are proud of the work done by the people in Bletchley. The nature of their work prohibited them from receiving recognition after the war, so I think it is important that they are remembered for their contribution.
Tomorrow is the Imperial War Museum then off to Normandy.