National WWII Museum, New Orleans, USA

There are some museums that are simply stunning and you can lose hours wandering around, immersed in the experience. And then there are others that you walk into, take a few photos and leave feeling disappointed. For me, the National WWII Museum in New Orleans falls into the latter category.

The meagre display of vehicles and landing craft.

Wherever we went in New Orleans (in 2016) there were billboard advertisements advertising the museum and its new 4D media presentation, "Beyond All Boundaries", narrated by Tom Hanks. As a consequence, we visited the museum with high expectations. Maybe too high.

Part of the impressive US aircraft collection. A Boeing Flying Fortress and Vought Corsair.

Probably one of the best fighters of WWII, the P38 Mustang.

A Douglas Dauntless dive bomber starts its run, with the Corsair escorting.

A good view of the Dauntless from the underside.

North American B-25 Mitchell was a versatile mid-range bomber, serving on all fronts.

The Avenger diving in

The US entered the war with the obsolete Douglas Devastator. Being slow and underpowered compared to the Mitsubishi Zero, American torpedo bomber squadrons were terribly mauled during the early campaigns of 1942. At the Battle of Midway virtually the entire Devastator squadrons from the three US aircraft carriers were shot down without achieving a single hit. In 1943 however the Devastator was replaced by the TBD Avenger. Manned by a crew of three, the Avenger was much faster, better armed and carried its torpedo in an internal bomb bay.

The Mitchell bomber was also used as a ground attack aircraft. This version has a gunpack in its nose as well as the four pack of machine guns below the cockpit.

So, after reviewing the aircraft and landing craft and walking through the museum display we watched the movie. Certainly there were aspects of the film which were good. The death toll statistics at the beginning were an eye opener. However, the hype about the film may have made the experience a bit of a let down, which ultimately coloured our impression of the whole museum.

At the end of the day the National WWII museum is a fair museum worth a visit if you have the time and inclination, but not something I'd go out of my way to see. There are a lot more things to do in New Orleans. Here is their website: https://www.nationalww2museum.org/

The museum is at 945 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130