Point of View

A Comparative Blog of English Sites

By Meg Brosneck

Our journey began in England with three central locations: the Imperial War Museum, the Churchill War Rooms, and Bletchley Park. Each of these covered WWII in unique ways, and visiting all three offered a chance to compare the different viewpoints of the war.

May 4th

Painting by Ethiopian Artist (unknown) depicting the Italian invasion

The Imperial War Museum was our first stop. The original exhibits were underwhelming, but the updated WWII and Holocaust exhibits were immensely more impressive. Laid out in a chronological path across various continents, the exhibits offered a wonderful overview of the entire war. The museum’s greatest strength was its expansiveness, which allowed all visitors to learn something new. Their exhibits on the Russo-Finnish War, the Italian Invasion of Ethiopia, and Jewish refugees to Shanghai, for example, covered aspects of the war I am less familiar with. I gained a long list of future research topics.

May 5th

A mannequin in the Map Room

Next were the Churchill War Rooms. These offered an in-depth view of the leadership Churchill and his men gave throughout the war. The rooms were well-preserved, mostly in the same condition as they were when the British abandoned them in 1945. Walking through these narrow halls to see their cramped living conditions allowed me to better-comprehend just how hard wartime living was. Even official staff lived in small areas—Churchill’s two detectives, for example, slept in bunks in a closet-sized bedroom. Churchill’s room was much bigger but was dark, dreary, and hardly comfortable. I spent the longest time in the map room, staring at the original maps the British used to track Japanese ships. The War Rooms, while less encompassing as the Imperial War Museum, offered an astonishing glimpse into the past.

May 7th

Bletchley Park was our last stop in England, and the beautiful lake, trees, and grass surrounding the mansion offered a pleasant break from the crowded London chaos. Bletchley Park was the center of British Intelligence throughout the war and, unfortunately, was less preserved than the Churchill War Rooms.

The library room at Bletchley Park

Still, the park provides an immersive experience. The huts were outfitted with furniture fashioned to depict their original status and included interactive videos to show visitors the work that happened there, while the mansion’s library included desks and typewriters as they may have looked in the 1940s. The park’s museum was equally engaging.

Several pieces of the original Colossus Computer

They arranged their exhibits in a clear path and kept interesting artifacts downstairs, including original pieces of the Colossus computer and parts of an Enigma machine. They discussed Alan Turing’s accomplishments, though I was disappointed by how little they covered how, after he helped them win the war, the British had prosecuted him for his homosexuality and forced hormone treatment onto him, leading to his suicide. Despite this disappointment, the park depicted many other topics well, including women’s participation.

Overall, each museum was uniquely engaging. The Imperial War Museum offered a view of the war as a whole while Bletchley Park and the War Rooms focused on specific topics. Visiting all three allowed me to piece each aspect together, and I’ve come out with a greater understanding of each.