The National Museum of the Pacific War Pt. 2

 

My favorite part of last weekend’s trip to the Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas – and definitely the favorite part for my seven-year-old twin nephews, too – were the life-size artifacts from World War II. Planes, tanks, guns and bombs. It really provided a new angle to all the reading I’ve been doing over the past two years. Brought it more to life. Yeah, you can look at all the pictures of B-24 bombers in the world, but when you see one twenty feet away, it grants things a truer perspective.

Anyway, here are the highlights from the trip:

 

B-25 bomber

F4 Wildcat

M3 Stuart Tank

3-inch Japanese gun

Japanese triple barrel gun (25mm)

Garand M1 rifle

Japanese 35mm gun

American BOFORS gun - rapid fire 40mm cannon

Japanese "Rex" float plane

Japanese "Val" dive bomber. Reddish tint due to being behind a screen and seen only once the five-minute concluding film finishes.

Mock "Fat Man" bomb - Plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki. If I were to stand next to it the top of my head would be at the level of the black rectangle near the top center.

My only regret is that I did not think to get a picture of that midget Japanese sub, the first exhibit in the museum. I’ll get it then when we return in three years, when the boys are a little older and my girls go on the tour with us to escape the brutal south Texas heat.