WW II sites in England

Hi Kelly:

I am a military history buff so when I visit England (three times in the last four years) I seek out such sites. I would give thumbs up to all the places you have mentioned. I would add:

Royal Air Force museum which is in Zone 4 of the tube system; not only does it have plenty of aircraft but also recreations of life in London during World War II.

The National Army Museum in Chelsea has been closed for the past three years for remodeling and will reopen in 2017.

The Tower of London has military displays that go back many centuries and also has a regimental museum.

If you have a car you can run down to Portsmouth, or take a train, for several naval related museums including the old ship yards, the navy museum, the historical ships displays, the royal marines museum, the submarine museum, and the museum of naval firepower. The marines museum is out of the way but you can bus and walk there from central Portsmouth.

You could drive to Bovington to see the tank museum.

You will be in the general area of Weymouth which was a staging area for the D Day invasion which has a related museum.

There is at least one other regimental museum - horse guards - in London near Buckingham Palace.

I have done all of these except the tank museum which is scheduled for my next trip.

I might add that there is a tank driving school in Winchester which allows participants to drive a 55 ton main battle tank, an armored personnel carrier, and a self propelled gun. Winchester has at least two regimental museums one of which is for the Gurkha's.

Geor,
Wow, thank you so much for all the wonderful options. You saved me a ton of research. Appreciate your time and suggestions!

At Dover, in addition to the cliffs and castle are some tunnels used during the WWII, and from where the evacuation of Dunkirk was directed. The Portsmouth dockyards with Nelson's flagship HMS Victory was very nice, although not WWII. It is pricey, but worth it and the ticket is valid for 1 year. Bletchley Park was also interesting as long as you're into code breaking. There is a reproduction bombe there; the machine used to break Enigma codes. The tickets are also valid for 1 year. There is also the Imperial War Museum at Duxford north of London where the are static aircraft displays as well as still flying Spitfires. I also visited the old airfield at Spanhoe, near Uppingham, but that's because it's the airfield my father used to fly C-47 transport aircraft out of during the war.

I see all but Bletchley are on the southern coast of England. Did you rent a car? Do have a recommendation on where to spend the night? We are definitely interested in Bovington Tank Museum, Winchester tank driving school and Dover. The rest we will fit in as time allows. I was going to plan 2 days. Thoughts?

Kelly:

For what it's worth here is the link to the blog of my 2014 trip to London:

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/georgelondon/2/tpod.html

If you look at the entry named The Next Several Days you can see coverage of: Bletchley Park, RAF Museum, Imperial War Museum (just the newly opened WWI wing since I have been to the museum on previous trips), Portsmouth navy ship yard, tank driving school, and the Gurkha Regimental Museum.

My 2012 trip covers my visit to the Tower of London. My 2016 trip covers my visit to the submarine museum in Portsmouth as well as a very short visit to the Royal Marines museum.

All of these were day trips from London. A visit to see all of what Portsmouth has to offer will take two days so I would focus on the ship yard, harbor tour, and the historical war ships if you only have one day. Tank driving school, which is pricy, is a half day.

If you're visiting Portsmouth, the D-Day Museum on the seafront (right by Henry VIII's Southsea Castle) is very interesting.
http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/d-day/the-museum
And while you're in the area - especially if you have a car - you can visit Southwick House in a pretty village just outside Portsmouth, where the D-Day Landings were planned. However you MUST prebook a visit as it's not generally open to the public. http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/d-dayonyourdoorstep/details/allied-naval-headquarters-southwick-house

Also worth a visit the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton.

Hi,

My suggestions are already given above. In London the RAF Museum is at Tube station Colindale, it has planes of various countries other than British, German ME-262 is also along with a close up of engines. The plane is also featured at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. If you have seen the plane in both places, the London one is not "sanitised"...more authentic. Your husband and son will immediately detect the missing detail. In London there is also near St James Park the "Guards Museum." Both Bovington and Duxford can be done a day trips from London.

While taking a day out tour with Original London Walks (www.walks.com) to Cambridge we stopped at the American Cemetery which is beautiful and very moving. Cambridge is a wonderful day out but the Cemetery was an unexpected surprise along with old hill which was the original mote and bailey back in 1066's times.

Great tips! Thank you, everyone

I will add a vote for visiting Bletchley Park and Duxford.

My wife, who is not particularly interested in military history, really enjoyed Bletchley. The re-creation of some of the decoding equipment is a big help in visualizing how the code was broken - even if it is still mind boggling that they were able to do it.

Duxford, in addition to having Spitfires and Hurricanes flying around from time to time also allow you (for a princely sum) to fly in a two-seat Spitfire!

I found the HMS Belfast to be very interesting, especially if you have never been on a warship before. There are very many good YouTube videos on the sites mentioned in the other posts. You might want to do a search on YouTube and check them out.

Kelly,

If you only have two days for touring WW-II sites, you're going to have to be very selective in terms of which sights you visit. I've been to many of the sights mentioned in this thread and having a car will certainly be useful for some of them.

A few thoughts.....

• You might want to skip the Tank driving attraction as that will likely take the better part of a full day, including travel times there and back.
• A visit to Bletchley Park will also take the better part of a day if you include the National Museum of Computing which is at the same location. It's only a short distance from London (about a 1 hour train trip each way as I recall) but it's a fairly large site and there's a lot to see, so it's worthwhile to allocate time for that.
• The Tank Museum at Bovington is well worth a visit, but again that's going to take some time if you're visiting on a day trip from London. The Museum is huge with an enormous amount of vehicles so it's not something you'll be able to see in an hour. Note that the Tiger displays may not be open until 1 April, if that's a concern for you (Tiger 131 was used in the filming of the movie "Fury"). If you'll be there on 29 April, this may interest you - http://www.tankmuseum.org/whats-on/events/bovevt53168
• Even if only spending the minimum time in each one, It will likely take more than a day to visit the Imperial War Museum, Churchill War Rooms and HMS Belfast.
• In London there's also the National Army Museum which I found exceptionally interesting. It will be re-opening on 30 March 2017 after a three year and £23.75 million renovation.
• As mentioned above, there's also the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton and Regimental Museums in various parts of the U.K. There were three a Peninsula Barracks last time I visited Winchester (Rifles / Green Jackets, Gurkhas and one other). In the town of Richmond (North Yorkshire) the Green Howards have a Museum that occupies five floors of an old Church.
• There's also the Imperial War Museum North if you'll be in the Manchester area

There's no shortage of WW-II sites you can visit in England. The main problem is deciding which ones to see.

I may have missed it in the responses, but what about Winston Churchill's home - Chartwell, near Westerham. It is 30 or 40 miles south of London but, if you plan to rent a car it may fit into your other plans.

We spent a full day at the Bovington Tank Museum. It is really big.