Wednesday, November 19, 2014

New Orleans, LA - Museuming

Our goal today is to see the National WWII Museum here in New Orleans. It’s about 4 buildings with more coming and quite a few displays and exhibits in these 4 buildings. Oh, yeah, there are souvenir shops in each building. We parked where we had parked yesterday and began our walk across the French Quarter and the Warehouse District. Whew, good walk, I think we’re here. We bought our tickets and headed into the movie theater to watch the movie ‘Beyond all Boundaries’ which is, itself, beyond all movie boundaries. It is billed as a 4-D movie and you feel as if you are a part of the action. Your seat rumbles as a tank comes roaring over you across the deserts of Africa. Snow wafts down while scenes of the winter snows in the Battle of the Bulge play across the screen, bombs burst and anti-aircraft guns blast at planes soaring through the sky. A most moving scene comes at the beginning of the film when a line of young men streams across the stage and changes into soldiers marching across the stage with rifles in their hands. Education with Hollywood effects. Gripping for even the most jaded viewer.

After that we explored the Boeing building with actual WWII planes, tanks, jeeps and other equipment.
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Above is a plane called My Gal Sal which landed in Greenland where the men stayed for 10 days before being rescued.

Interesting display of parachuting equipment worn by Japanese and American soldiers. Japanese soldiers landed on their backs so had a much longer harder time getting ready to rush away with gun at the ready. American soldiers landed on their feet and were ready to move as they hit the ground. Their ammunition was much larger and heavier to carry and they carried elbow pads for their landings.
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Then we began in the actual museum across the street. There were large groups both school kids and tour groups but the museum is so large that I didn’t feel crowded or rushed. It was an emotional experienced but also educational.

The first display shows the American military (army, navy air force and reserve) at the beginning of the war compared to the Japanese and the German. Marvelous graphic with small toy men, 3 deep on each row, each representing 2,000 men. In 1939 the Japanese military had 4,600,000 while the German military had 4,500,000 and the American military had only 635,000 in service. Figures and numbers are one thing, this graphic makes it so much more obvious: our military was 17th in the world, after Romania. Obviously that country with the tiny army is a sleeping giant.
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They had a great example of a ‘cell’ phone during the war. Here is a picture of 2 men setting one up - look at all the wiring and the wooden wheels - obviously this is not a ‘cell’ phone, since it had to be wired.
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New Orleans had a special link to the war because it was here that the landing craft were built at the Higgins factory. Actually, the landing crafts used in D-Day were built upon the boats the factory made for the trappers and fishermen in the waters in this area: rugged, shallow-bottomed boats that could run aground and then retract themselves without damage. Just what is needed on the beaches of Normandy and the many islands in the Pacific.
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He changed the design a bit and began to manufacture them for the war effort.

Right before Normandy, the British and Americans wanted to make the Germans think that the invasion was coming form a different place and built lots of inflatable ‘tanks’ to put on the ground for the Germans to see from their reconnaissance planes. It did fool the Germans.
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One phrase from the rooms on the Pacific War said that the War in the Pacific had a new D-Day every time we invaded another Japanese-held island. Everyone always talks about the invasion in Normandy, France. But the soldiers in the Pacific had to invade every time they had another Japanese-held island between them and mainland Japan. Here’s a question: which invasion took more men, more ships and landing craft and more material: Normandy or the invasion of Okinawa? If you guessed Okinawa, go to the head of the class. Here’s a chart showing the difference.
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When the Germans surrendered and everyone shouted; ‘The War is Over’, ‘The War is Over’, ‘The War is Over’, the soldiers still fighting gallantly in the Pacific must have said, ‘Hey, what about us? The war is not over, we’re still fighting and dying.’ And, let’s face it, the War in the Pacific was, in many ways worse, since the Japanese fought to the death, they thought it cowardly and disgraceful to be captured and a prisoner. Their emperor once challenged them to take 10 with them when they died.

I’ve seen many of the racist American posters used to demonize the Japanese but haven’t see the racist posters that the Japanese used to demonize America. There was a whole wall of both here. Great comparison.
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Before we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we were fire-bombing the Japanese almost nightly, Their cities filled upon wooden houses were being destroyed - and still they did not surrender. On the wall was a chart listing cities that had been fire-bombed and compared it to an equal-sized American city. I just happened to see Des Moines, IA compared to one of the cities we bombed since both cities had were comparable in population. Here’s the statistic:
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What they are trying to convey with this graph is that 69.8% of Gifu was destroyed by our fire bombing and it would be the same as if 69.8% of Des Moines were destroyed. Now, I lived in Des Moines and that’s a heck of a lot. This graphic makes it so much more real.

The Museum was marvelous. It covered the war in Europe, in the Pacific, the War at Home, it covered the beginning and the end, it covered the why and the results. It had hundreds of quotes and stories from the participants, even the Germans. It even has 3 restaurants (one with ice cream) and 3 gift shops. This museum is marvelous and well worth the cost - but leave a day for it.

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