army museum: WWI and WWII wings

 after the tomb, we walked to the WWI and WWII wings. it's set up so you walk through displays in showing what led to WWI, and then how it was fought, then how the versailles treaty basically led to WWII. so i think we should stop calling them world war 1, and world war 2.  it was really one big war with a 20 year peace in the middle. 

ryan was intrigued by how little the basic shape of guns have changed since they were invented. of course, this is a picture of a crossbow, so it doesn't really convey that, but i thought it was a perception worth passing on. 

grenade collection. who took this photo??

art from the trenches

some allied propoganda (these are from both wars, it's easier this way)

this is a japanese propaganda picture saying the roosevelt is greedy and trying to kill japan through trade sanctions, therefore bombing pearl harbor is justified. 

by the way, THAT is what roosevelt looked like. 

face masks of deformed french soldiers after WWI. 3 out of 4 young frenchmen were killed or wounded in this conflict. a whole generation, gone...

contents of a french soldier's kit. 

belgians fleeing the bombs during WWI

do you know about charles de gaulle? sure, he was president of france for a long time, and the airport is named after him, but do you know why those things happened? because chuck, as i like to call him, is one serious badass. when the germans invaded france, and the vichy government called for cooperation with the nazis, chuck said, "Nuts to that!" and escaped to britain. he tried to create a deal wherein england and france would declare itself one country, so that the government could flee to britain, much like the netherlands did. 

when that failed, he stayed on in britain, where he gave rousing BBC speeches to the french people, encouraging them to resist their Nazi oppressors and built the Free France Forces from officers who had escaped france. he was instrumental in organizing, consolidating and leading the french resistance. 

chuck's my new hero. how did i not know all of this stuff before?? 

 hitler as a tourist/conqueror. 

ryan thinks this is a terrible tank. he doesn't think it would be fun to drive it, because:

do you see the tiny slit? that's the only way you can see. personally, i think it looks really safe, but....

rosie the riveter!

vichy government medal of honor. 

book encouraging french people to join the SS

this was in northern africa. 60,000 french soilders captured 40.000 prisoners

and it looked like this. 

these are blind men of the french resistance. it was apparently quite useful to be blind, because they could set up radios and stuff in the dark, and the nazi's didn't suspect them of being in the resistance. 

ration cards...

for japanese soldiers, to give to allied troops. 

this is a picture of the day the japanese surrendered. (in new york, not japan, obviously)

replica of little boy

not too little though. 

i'm saluting my new hero. 

this is the verdict on the army museum. 

checkpoint charlie in berlin. 

then we had crepes and went to the rodin museum. later, later....