Westworld Alberta
Issue link: http://westworldmagazine.ama.ab.ca/i/245179
History Buff The remains of a temporary Second World War harbour at Arromanches Beach near Normandy, France. The World War Tour Make your landing in London, a city that endured bombings in two World Wars – by German zeppelins in the First and Luftwaffe in the Second. Signs marking bomb shelters still appear on brick walls around the city. Keeping calm and carrying on: London is home to three of Britain's 20th-century Imperial War Museums (IWMs). The Churchill War Rooms are located inside the original bunker, below Whitehall, where gritty prime minister Winston HMS Belfast, a floating war museum on the Thames. Churchill directed the "blood, toil, tears and sweat" of Allied troops during the Second World War. Head over to Morgan's Lane and HMS Belfast, a 614-footlong cruiser from the Second World War – today a floating war experience. Chow down on the mess deck, lie down in the sick bay or even simulate a firefight in the gun turret. IWM London, on Lambeth Street, displays hundreds of weapons, war vehicles and aircraft – such as a 1938 Spitfire fighter plane. Head south to the D-Day Museum, in Southsea, to learn the story of Operation Overlord, the Allied Invasion of France in the Second World War. The centrepiece is the Overlord Embroidery, an 83-metre-long textile tribute to the defeat of Nazi Germany (ddaymuseum.co.uk). [Side Trip] WWII from the Other Side Munich, Germany, was the birthplace of the Nazi party. Take a Third Reich Walking Tour of the city to see onceinfamous spots such as the Hofbräuhaus beer hall, where Hitler delivered the party's first manifesto, and Königsplatz square, the spot where the regime held many of its early rallies (munichwalktours.de/en). (normandy beach) l. belither, (hofbräuhaus) bbmc tobias ranzinger England 18 W e s t w o r l d a l b e r ta | S p r i n g 2 0 14 p16_25_TravellerTypes.indd 18 14-01-10 3:41 PM (utah beach museum) e. valere crt, (flanders fields) eka/maxx images, (vimy memorial) j moreno/maxx images There are two World War anniversaries on the horizon: the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, in August 2014, and the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, France, on June 6, 2014. So it's a great year for war-history buffs to head for Europe and visit some of the 20th century's most poignant places.