Historical Military Destination's Where Have You Been and Where Do You Want To Go

[flyboyEB]

If you're in Perth, Western Australia, I'd suggest a visit to the Army Museum of Western Australia and the Western Australia Maritime Museum, particularly the Oberon Class submarine HMAS Ovens tour at the Maritime Museum. The RAAF Museum at RAAF Base Point Cook is also a good idea if you're in Melbourne, lots of vintage aircraft in the hangers there. And Fighter World at RAAF Williamtown in Newcastle.

I'll just add that there's no Imperial War Museum in Australia, the Australian War Memorial in Canberra is where you'd want to go

 

[RubiconNZ]

Hey All,
I thought of this a little while back and got the OK from Webs.

I love to travel and have lived in NZ for 15 years, Australia for 8 and the United Kingdom for 1. I have had the opportunity to visit quite a few fantastic places of Military significance.

I thought it would we great on this international forum to hear of places people have been or would like to go to and why. Google is great but why not first hand experiences from familiar faces on the Forum

Looking forward to hearing from you all
Rob

A question hopefully to get things rolling,
In July I am going to Vietnam, anything anyone strongly recommends? I plan to visit some Viet Cong tunnels when I go any recommendations which ones?

 

[flyboyEB]

I'll go with what I said on the other thread and recomend the Army Museum of Western Australia and the Western Australian Maritime Museum, with the Oberon Class submarine, if you're ever in Perth, Western Australia, and the RAAF Museum at RAAF Point Cook in Victoria. Also the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, which I've never been fortunate enough to visit, but have heard only good things about.
In Singapore, the museum on the grounds of the former Changi Prison is another good place to see.

 

[merocaine]

Well I guess I live in Clontarf, a coastal area of Dublin, where the Battle of Clontarf was fought, on Good Friday, 1014.
This was the last in a string of defeats for the Vikings in Ireland and resulted in their slow decline in political influence in Ireland, and arguably the British Isles as a whole.
It was much more than a simple battle of Celts vs Vikings, with Irish and and Vikings involved on both sides. The significance of the battle was it ended the Vikings as a independent political force, no more would they be able to summon their brothers from England, Orkney, the Isle of Man and Denmark.
For the next 100 years the Irish Kings were free to fight among themselves as they saw fit, that is until the Normans arrived.....

 

[merocaine]

Actually, one place I've always want to visit is Istanbul, specifically the Land Walls, probably some of the oldest fortifications still standing. I've read alot about the Byzantium empire, it always fascinated me. To see the Land Walls with modern Istanbul around them (the proof of there ultimate failure) would, I think be pretty incredible.

 

[Salty Dog]

USA Aviation Museums

When in Pensacola, Florida, USA, a must see for aviation buffs is the National Naval Aviation Museum. One of the coolest places in the museum is the Cubi Bar and Café which features over 1,000 original squadron and unit plaques from the legendary Officer's Club at Cubi Point in the Philippines.

If you are near Dayton Ohio, home to the Wright Brothers, you will also need to spend the day at the National Museum of the USAF. There is no fancy bar, but you can have a snack underneath a real B-70.

The grandest Aviation Museum in the USA is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Always a different special exhibition that rotates periodically.

 

[sierrahotel]

If you visit Greece you can find too many places that significant battles took place.Marathon,Thermopyles,Salamis,Plataea(Greek-Persian wars),Aktion (Marc Antony vs Octavian),Naupaktos (Europe vs Othoman Empire),Navarinon (The defeat of the Othoman Fleet 1827),Rupel Fortress Museum (The resistance of few men against 4 Wermacht Divisions for 4 days 1941),Maleme airstrip (Battle of Crete 1941) and many more.

 

[swerve]

Actually, one place I've always want to visit is Istanbul, specifically the Land Walls, probably some of the oldest fortifications still standing. I've read alot about the Byzantium empire, it always fascinated me. To see the Land Walls with modern Istanbul around them (the proof of there ultimate failure) would, I think be pretty incredible.

They're pretty impressive.

Turkey has a lot of castles and city walls in relatively good shape. Diyarbakir, for example, has nearly complete walls, & they're very old. Late Roman, IIRC, though often patched up later. Ankara (to my surprise) has a pretty good set of walls. The old town was a quiet country town where nothing much had happened since Tamerlane came through, until the new capital was built - but they built it next to the old town, leaving it sitting on its hilltop pretty much untouched. Back in the 1980s, there were sizable chunks of the city walls of Trabzon still standing, with access completely uncontrolled. There were houses & gardens built up to them, but local kids would happily show you ways up onto the walls (just look lost & say "Hisar" in an enquiring tone), & nobody seemed to mind a foreigner strolling along the edge of their house. Turkey's like that.

Urfa castle is very ruinous, but Selcuk is in reasonable shape. There are a few castles on the Bosporus, & there's a ferry which runs from Istanbul up to where the strait opens into the Black Sea, giving you a look at Rumeli Hisar and its partner across the strait on the way: lots of locals take it, & walk up to the towers overlooking the strait, for a weekend excursion. The little town where the ferry stops has some rather nice fish restaurants.

So many, many, more. And that's just Turkey. I have a bit of a thing about castles & city walls.

 

[AegisFC]

Actually, one place I've always want to visit is Istanbul, specifically the Land Walls, probably some of the oldest fortifications still standing. I've read alot about the Byzantium empire, it always fascinated me. To see the Land Walls with modern Istanbul around them (the proof of there ultimate failure) would, I think be pretty incredible.

I've been through Istanbul (through the Straights of Bosporus), and it was a good looking city. We ended up transiting the Straights 4 times so I got plenty of great pictures.

 

[kato]

Historical destinations... well, i'll detail my area a bit? Every spot of the area has been a battleground at some point in the last 400 years.

There's ugh... about 150 castles within 50 km of here. The interesting (military) part with those lays in how some of these were destroyed.
For example, a number of them still show signs of 18th century cannon shelling, some were partly destroyed in WW2, some - like Heidelberg castle - had to be mined (as in: dig tunnel, plant explosives, boom).
Heidelberg itself sports a (not very well known) huge ancient Celtic settlement on a mountain, protected with double ring walls; with a good eye, you can still make out parts of those.
Too lazy to tell about fortified middle-age cities, because every single damn town in the area still has signs of those.
About 50 km northeast of here runs the old Roman Limes line. There's a number of museums with reconstructed parts, although the part that's more fun in my opinion is actually going out into the woods, and walk on the dams that are left from the original fortifications.
For the ones with a pitch for drama, the Nibelungen saga played in the area 40 km northwest.
About 80 km southwest - Maginot line. Don't need to say anything about that really.

 

[IrishHitman]

Normandy beaches, Dublin (1916 Rising, War of Independence), Caen, St.Mere Eglise, Paris.

 

[Salty Dog]

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

I had the priveledge to serve in Pearl Harbor in the early 90's. The USS Arizona Memorial and USS Arizona Memorial Visitor's Center tell the story of the Pearl Harbor attack. Also lots of WW II history and items.

The Battleship USS Missouri Memorial is just a few hundred yards away on Ford Island as well as the Pacific Aviation Museum. Both focus on WW II.

The USS Bowfin Submarine Museum rounds out the WW II experience in Pearl Harbor.

Some of the shore batteries built in WW II to defend the island still remain around the island of Oahu. One of these at Fort DeRussy houses the US Army Museum of Hawaii. Right on the beach at Waikiki.

 

[old faithful]

salty, i spent a weeks leave at fort de russi in 1986. we did a 5 week ex with the US (25th) inf div, and a Marine unit at Schofield brks. I also visited those sights, very moving. Interesting to see so many japanese tourists at the pearl harbour sites.

im off to Indonesia in June, does anyone know of interesting sites in the Jakarta/Bandung areas?

 

[merocaine]

Wow this has turned into a pretty interesting thread!

Cheers for the pics AegisFC, there pretty amazing
@ Swerve, thanks for the advice, thats it I'm going to try for Turkey next year.

I'm in NY for a week, does anyone know anything of military interest I should be visiting? any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Generalissimo]

Wow this has turned into a pretty interesting thread!

Cheers for the pics AegisFC, there pretty amazing
@ Swerve, thanks for the advice, thats it I'm going to try for Turkey next year.

I'm in NY for a week, does anyone know anything of military interest I should be visiting? any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

In Washington DC there is a little known Ticonderoga-style fort called Fort Washington right on the Potomac River. It's very large, with the original cannon and all. Pre-Civil War. And the best part is when I went there my family and I were literally the only people there other than the Park Ranger.

I've been to Gettysburg, which is pretty interesting. Also been to Hawaii, but I didn't go to Pearl. Going to Hawaii is interesting anyway because there is som much military stuff around Honolulu. Saw some F/A-18s doing a nice breaking manuver over the airport, some F-15s.

 

[Ozzy Blizzard]

Looks like i'll be laying a wreath at Poziers on the 15th of July or there abouts. Its a place of military significance for Australians. I'll hope to be out to Bullecourt and some of the other Somme battlefields while i'm there. My girlfried has only allowed me one day out of the Europe trip to do battlefields, so I'll see as much as I can while i'm there. Any suggestions would be more than welcome.

 

[Cooch]

Looks like i'll be laying a wreath at Poziers on the 15th of July or there abouts. Its a place of military significance for Australians. I'll hope to be out to Bullecourt and some of the other Somme battlefields while i'm there.....

OB.

I've told myself that Villers Brett would be one of the places to see. Likewise Mont St Quentin.

Me, it looks like it'll be a while before i can get that far offshore. When I do go, I'll be checking Grandad's war diary as he commanded a howitzer battery in the area.
However Kokoda is looking a possibility next year........ if the drought breaks and I have the $.:unknown

Peter

 

[flyboyEB]

Looks like i'll be laying a wreath at Poziers on the 15th of July or there abouts. Its a place of military significance for Australians. I'll hope to be out to Bullecourt and some of the other Somme battlefields while i'm there. My girlfried has only allowed me one day out of the Europe trip to do battlefields, so I'll see as much as I can while i'm there. Any suggestions would be more than welcome.

Villers-Bretonneux is a good place for Australians I hear, although I have no idea of the distances between all these places.

 

[Ozzy Blizzard]

OB.

I've told myself that Villers Brett would be one of the places to see. Likewise Mont St Quentin.

I've only got half a day, so it all depend on time, not that matters i think, the somme is a pretty compact place AFAIK.

Me, it looks like it'll be a while before i can get that far offshore. When I do go, I'll be checking Grandad's war diary as he commanded a howitzer battery in the area.
However Kokoda is looking a possibility next year........ if the drought breaks and I have the $.:unknown

Peter

My brother did it last year, i couldn't go because of an injury (&cash). Hopefully be right to go next year or the year after. I'll see if i can dig up the details of the company he went with, apparently they're one of the only outfits to do it from kokoda to charters towers (fly to kokoda from moresby), so you actually follow the path of the "retreat" of the 39th.

 

[nightfeatherz]

Pearl Harbor

[Ive been to Pearl 4 times on research and once as a port visit on the USS John C. Stennis in 1998. I'm a Pearl Harbor historian and a Navy veteran. I love it there. I'ts my mecca! I have a big, beautiful model of the Arizona in my livingroom that was heavily modified to reflect its 7 Dec. 1941 configuration. I've also been to Hiroshima, Japan