Day 5: A day in the Winston Churchill Bunker

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This post is for Jacob who is a 4 year old in love with risk. We took a tour of the Winston Churchill Bunker. Over 30,000 tons of bombs were dropped on London during WWII accounting for 40,000 deaths. Due to the fear of air raids, these bunkers were built, reinforced and expanded during the war to allow all war time functions to continue regardless of attack. It was INSANE how much space the facility covered (at its peak more than 600 people worked and many slept in the facility). Here the War Room, Map Room, communication between high ranking officials and a secure line to other ally leaders existed. The map room would be the highlight of the tour for Jacob. Here they document EVERYTHING (amounts and location of troops, important German infrastructure, amount of bombs made and used in attacks, amount of bombs dropped by Germans, amount of arms, tanks and ammunitions...LITERALLY EVERY). There was also an entire aspect of the museum documenting Winston Churchill's early life, career leading to becoming Prime Minister, his fall and re-insertion into politics until retirement in 1964. His political stance is fascinating as he started out very conservative, then had a stint of working to try to raise the living standards of the country, but at the same time was willing to use military force to break up strikes. During the war, he made incredibly difficult decisions, particularly after an Allied country would fall to the Axis forces. For example, he decided to explode a fleet of French ships (with the troops on board) after they fell into German hands so they could not be used against the British. After the war, he was adamantly opposed to freeing India from British rule believing it would end British status in the world, but went to all ends to defeat German fascism. If you have an opinion on Churchill, I'd love to hear it. His speeches, resolve and work rate make him a true leader of history, but his gruffness, inflexibility and hypocrisy in ruling/governing make him very human. Side note: we went to see Wicked today and two things were decided for me today. One, live performances are exponentially better than movies. Two, Wicked solidified how we report history. It is typically one sided and the second or third views fall to the wayside making only one version fact which is always dangerous.

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Comments

[Abby W]

This was our favorite museum in London. You are so correct that J would/will love it!