Monday 29 October 2012

Airborne Assault at Duxford

Its the kids Autumn half term and I have a long weekend off to spend a bit of time with the family. So on Saturday we braved the driving rain and single digit temperatures to revisit the IWM Duxford probably for the last time this year. As Friends of Duxford we had free entry so it was a cheep day out for us and because its such a massive site there are plenty of new things to see. Indeed I found an area that I hadn't been into before, the British Army regimental museum of the Parachute Regiment (named Airborne Assault). This dedicated display area is inside the AirSpace hanger and here are a few pictures from inside.

An amazing painting of the D-Day Landing Zones for the Parachute Regiment
An impressive collection of weapons used by the Regiment
One of many training posters for the new parachute troops
Life sized model of the Pilot and Co-Pilot of a Horsa Glider
'The Airborne Soldier' sculpted by Gilbert Ledward in 1946-47
Regimental Drum with Battle Honours 
The VC of Lance Sergeant John Daniel Baskeyfield for his bravery at Arnhem in 1944
Regimental flag with Battle Honours
Another training poster
A modern Parachute soldier
This was a really interesting little museum with several models and some incredible 3D maps of key battles in the regiments history. These maps were really difficult to photograph (behind glass and lit by spotlights) so I don't have any good pictures pictures to share. But I'll be coming back to Duxford again eventually and I'll definitely get another opportunity to get a good picture. If your interesting in the British Parachute Regiment this is a really interesting little museum and well worth a visit. 

5 comments:

  1. Hi Lee,

    The burst flash suppressor from an SLR seen in the Radfan section happened to a chap three blokes along from SWMBO's brother who served out there. His command of Arabic is very impressive - at least the colourful parts of it is!

    It is a geat little museum.

    All the best,

    DC

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  2. Seems very interesting.
    Any specific souvenir related to the Falklands ?
    Benoit

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  3. Thanks for the pics! It's been a while since I've been to Duxford but I used to go fairly regularly. This certianly looks like an interesting exhibit - the IWM in London has a great 'modern war' area on Afghanistan, including quite a few bits from their tour in 2010/11

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  4. That 'modern' para looks the spitting image of my father-in-law. Who is 85!

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