Greetings all,
Sunday was Open Day at the Australian War Memorial annex/ archives/ storage hold & it was like walking into Guns Guns Guns, Guns'R'Us & Guns Galore.
They had WWI & WWII allied & enemy guns, guns from planes & anti air craft guns off ships.
Then it was Planes Planes Planes with Bombs Bombs Bombs, the odd torpedo & the G for George Lancaster Bomber mission board - i've seen a documentary on this RAAF plane & crew - incredible work against the odds (read: superior German Air Force.)
Then it was Tanks Tanks Tanks. Little boys were running around asking their fathers a million questions, except my little boy, who has grown up around tanks & armoured personnel carriers, so we focused on the history (my husband knows EVERYTHING) but considering we'd just spent 3 hours at the Australian Institute of Sport in the sun, running & jumping, nerves were frail.
If you listened, you could hear parents & grandparents telling their children who in the family would have used which equipment - tanks, planes, helicopters, trucks, cars, motorcycles & my favourite - the Light Horse. My great uncle Rupert was a Light Horseman at Gallipoli (he was a jockey) taking his own horse with him & heart breaking, had to leave him there.
It was fascinating to see the restorations, archaic equipment & how advanced warfare has come. There was amazing brass band music as we walked in & the Federation Guard Precision Drill Team spinning their weapons & doing tricks, fantastic entertainment while in the queue to get into the hangar. I think we'll go again next time (has taken us 5 years to get in there) & take the good camera. More free activities/ gold coin donation in Canberra. Love Posie
