Messerschmitt Bf 109 | Better than the Spitfire?
Imperial
IWM was founded on 5 March 1917 when the War Cabinet approved a proposal by Sir Alfred Mond MP for the creation of a national war museum to record the events still taking place during the Great War. The intention was to collect and display material as a record of everyone’s experiences during that war - civilian and military - and to commemorate the sacrifices of all sections of society. The interest taken by the Dominion governments led to the renaming of the National War Museum to Imperial War Museum later in 1917. It was formally established by Act of Parliament in 1920 and a governing Board of Trustees appointed. The museum was opened in the Crystal Palace by King George V on 9 June 1920. From 1924 to 1935 it was housed in two galleries adjoining the former Imperial Institute, South Kensington. On 7 July 1936, the Duke of York, shortly to become King George VI, reopened the museum in its present home on Lambeth Road, South London, formerly the central portion of Bethlem Royal Hospital, or ‘Bedlam’. With the onset of war in 1939 IWM’s remit was extended to include the Second World War. While a programme of collecting got underway, vulnerable collections were evacuated to stores outside London, and the museum was closed to the public from September 1940 to November 1946. Most of the exhibits survived the war, but a Short Seaplane which had flown at the Battle of Jutland was shattered when a German bomb fell on the Naval Gallery on 31 January 1941. This was just one of more than 40 incendiary hits on the building throughout the war. The Korean War led to a further redefinition of the IWM’s terms of reference to include all conflicts in which British or Commonwealth forces had been involved since 1914. IWM has therefore continued to collect every type of evidence documenting its very broad remit. Its collections are vast and rich, and in addition to its role as a museum, IWM is also a major national art gallery, a national archive of written and audio visual recourse, and a centre for research. During the 1970s and 1980s IWM underwent a period of unprecedented expansion, with the establishment of three new branches – IWM Duxford in 1976, HMS Belfast in 1978 and Churchill War Rooms in 1984. The fifth member of the IWM family, IWM North, opened in Trafford, Greater Manchester, on 5 July 2002.
24-04-2024
23-04-2024
The reason Japan attacked Pearl Harbor
23-02-2024
Historys deadliest bomber | B-29 Superfortress
23-02-2024
Why did Spitfires change their guns? Ft. Jonathan Ferguson
23-02-2024
How RAF Tornados destroyed Saddams Air Force
23-02-2024
The Spitfires most feared opponent
23-02-2024
Hiding in plain sight: Photo-mapping Nazi Germany
23-02-2024
How the 8th Air Force defeated the Luftwaffe
30-11-2023
A PICTURE COMPILATION OF SOME OF THE ACTION THAT TOOK PLACE FROM D-DAY TO D+3 III
30-11-2023
A PICTURE COMPILATION OF SOME OF THE ACTION THAT TOOK PLACE FROM D-DAY TO D+3 II
30-11-2023
Title: A PICTURE COMPILATION OF SOME OF THE ACTION THAT TOOK PLACE FROM D-DAY TO D+3
28-07-2023
DEPARTURE FROM UK FOR NORMANDY INVASION (PART 2)
28-07-2023
THE 3RD DIVISION REHEARSES ITS D-DAY INVASION ROLE DURING OPERATION "FABIUS IV" (PART 2)
28-07-2023
THE 3RD DIVISION REHEARSES ITS D-DAY INVASION ROLE DURING OPERATION "FABIUS IV" (PART 3)
28-07-2023
LANDINGS ON SWORD BEACH, 6 JUNE 1944 (PART 3)
28-07-2023
Amazing Colour Footage Of London During The Blitz
28-07-2023
Britain at War by Rosie Newman/ Footage from the home front by Rosie Newman
28-07-2023
D-Day Landings on Sword Beach
28-07-2023
Vera Lynn visits troops, 1944
28-07-2023
A video call from Burma during the Second World War
28-07-2023
The Battle of the Bulge | Hitler’s failed Ardennes Offensive
28-07-2023
Why Operation Market Garden failed
28-07-2023
Why the Merlin engine was essential to the war
28-07-2023
The First World War soldiers who were deliberately forgotten
28-07-2023
Why the dreadnoughts barely fought in WW1
28-07-2023
Further coberage of the ceremony at the british military cementery at Bayeux, France, on the seventh aniversary of Day-D, 6 june 1951
28-07-2023
Batlle of the Somme V (British forces, chiefly 7th and 29th Divisions, on the first day of the Somme offensive, Western Front, 1 July 1916)
28-07-2023
Batlle of the Somme IV (British forces, chiefly 7th and 29th Divisions, on the first day of the Somme offensive, Western Front, 1 July 1916)
28-07-2023
Batlle of the Somme III (British forces, chiefly 7th and 29th Divisions, on the first day of the Somme offensive, Western Front, 1 July 1916
28-07-2023
Batlle of the Somme II (British forces, chiefly 7th and 29th Divisions, on the first day of the Somme offensive, Western Front, 1 July 1916)
28-07-2023
Battle of the Somme (British forces, chiefly 7th and 29th Divisions, on the first day of the Somme offensive, Western Front, 1 July 1916)
28-07-2023
The RAFs first jet fighter | As good as the Me 262
28-07-2023
Blitzkrieg tactics explained | How Hitler invaded France WW2
28-07-2023
Germany planned for a short war | What went wrong?
28-07-2023
The US fighter that destroyed over 7000 enemy aircraft
28-07-2023
Battle of North Cape: HMS Belfast and the sinking of the Scharnhorst
28-07-2023
The Second Battle of El Alamein | Turning point in North Africa
28-07-2023
The Battle of Stalingrad | Doomed from the start?
28-07-2023
Germany planned for a short war. What went wrong?
28-07-2023
The Ardennes Offensive Part 2 - Hold at All Cost
28-07-2023
The Ardennes Offensive Part 1 - A Calculated Risk