Canadian War Museum

 I followed up my trip to the Canadian Tank Museum with a trip to the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, so it was a bit of doubling down. Accompanying me was Alain, who was a former director of the Museum. His primary interest was in what has changed since he ran the place and what had stayed the same. And I kind of had the same interest because it had been a while since I went, and I wanted to see new stuff.

One of the new exhibits was Canada and the American Civil War, which I found very interesting. I also found it cool that they have a video featuring Rob of British Muzzle Loaders, which is an excellent history Youtube channel. It's great that they take advantage of a Canadian with an extensive and practical knowledge of the weapons of this time period.

My one criticism of this exhibit, and of the museum in general, is that the museum loves text. There's a lot of words, which I like to read, but it got a bit tiresome. Really, when I go to a museum, I want to see stuff. I can read books and watch videos anywhere, so I want to see things in real life. I get a proper idea of textures, colours, and so on, which books and videos just won't give you.

Another benefit of going with Alain is that we went to the Museum's used book shop. If I had more funds and my knee wasn't putting up a fuss, I would have picked quite a few books. It's well worth a detour and poke around what they have.

Anyway, here are some pics I took. It's well worth checking out yourself if you are in Ottawa.

Just in case I get the itch to do Korean War CoC...

With terrain model for a battle featuring Canadians

Tanks a Lot!

 I had no idea that we have a tank museum in the Toronto area! To be fair, Canadian Tank Museum wasn't always known by this name; it is also the Ontario Regiment Museum. Given that it was sort of on our way to Ottawa, I added this as a stop on our trip (it is in Oshawa, right beside the airport).

The date of our visit (August 8th) was the day they were holding their Korean War observation. This meant that they highlighted 6 vehicles in particular, where the Priest SPG is confirmed to have been in that war, and the other vehicles were possible. 

They had laagered these vehicles in a separate area and we had a good look at them before the start of the main show. The vehicles are a jeep, a truck, the Priest mentioned above, a Sherman Easy 8, a Centurion 5, and a T34-85.

After that, we went over to the main building where they put a bunch of vehicles out into the open to make room so that you can move around to see the vehicles inside. 

There's a video where you can see how they park all of those vehicles in what seems like an all too compact space. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0laT02Ar_pU 

The highlight for me was the US-made version of the Renault FT-17 tank that they are restoring. 

Finally, they put on a show featuring the Korean war vehicles parading around, although the T34 had to cut its parade short due to mechanical problems. 

The Sherman popped off a couple of rounds, which rattled my ribs. 

The finale was a simulated tank battle between a Leopard 1 and an M60.

The museum is well worth a visit, especially on an event day.