Nancy and I have been Deep in the Heart of Texas this week visiting family, hiking, and concert-going. While our base camp was in Round Rock, we did make a foray into Austin for a concert. No, we were not there to see Willie and the Boys.
One day we made the two-hour drive through Texas Hill Country to Fredericksburg to visit the National Museum of the Pacific War and the Admiral Nimitz Gallery. Fredericksburg was settled by German immigrants of which Nimitz' family was one. There is even a Freitag's Backyard Cafe in nearby Stonewall. Including a lunch break, we spent a little over six hours in the two museums with most of that time consumed by the Pacific War museum. So much to see and read. With travel time, it was a long ten-hour day.
The museum accomplishes the difficult task of actually educating the visitor about the history of the Pacific War including the causes leading up to the campaign and its aftermath. The War in the Pacific is told through numerous displays with videos, interactive media, battle narratives, firsthand accounts,static displays, and more. I walked away with a much better understanding of the war from both political and military viewpoints. Fascinating. For me, definitely worthy of a return visit for more focused study. Nancy even enjoyed it and came away with a broad understanding of this theater of the war.
Highly recommended.
Below is a selection of photos from some of the static equipment displays. The lead photo to this post shows an eerie display of a downed, Japanese Val airplane.
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| Japanese Type I Dual-mounted MG. |
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| Bofors 40mm gun. |
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| Japanese 37mm gun. |
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| Browning Automatic Rifle. |
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Willy's Jeep
My dad still has one of these! |
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| Japanese triple-barrelled AA Gun |
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| Japanese gun. |
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| Bren gun. |
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Knocked out Stuart tank
commanded by Australians. |
Does this visit motivate me to ponder a new wargaming period? Well, that is a silly question. We all know the answer to that!While I may not dive into gaming this period in miniature, tackling these campaigns and battles via hex and counter boardgames certainly sees a renewed interest.
If this looks interesting, the website for the National Museum of the Pacific War is
Home | National Museum of the Pacific War (pacificwarmuseum.org)
As a reminder, keep those Haikus coming if you want an entry in the 10-year anniversary contest. Many great poems so far. I hope to see more.
I cannot get that damned song out of my head Jon!!! Anyway, that aside, it sounds like a great trip but to me at least, a rather bizarre place to have the museum. I would have expected it to be on the West Coast somewhere or other.
ReplyDeleteIt is a campaign that we hear or see little about this side of the pond, or at least that is my impression. Maybe some 15 years or so ago there was a superb and terribly sobering series on the Pacific War on UK tv, that really brought home the horrors of the conflict, but to the combatants themselves but also the civilians caught up in it.
Maybe this is one reason that I have been reluctant to game it, despite being drawn to the wonderful but useless Japanese tanks and their camo schemes. I did read a good book by Max Hastings on the campaign pre-Covid that helped me understand it more, but still nothing really grabbed me to make me want to collect some armies etc.
I think the closest I've come so far is the Battle for Khalkin Gol/Nomonhan in 1939, but then that is in Manchuria and against Russia. Again the Burma campaign might tempt me one day and a good history of it might tip me towards more serious planning...
Sorry for the ear worm, Steve!
DeleteYou ask a logical question about the location of the museum. Why a National Pacific War museum in Texas? Well, Admiral Nimitz was CiC of the US Pacific Fleet and CiC Pacific Ocean Areas for the allies during WWII.
Fredericksburg, Texas was Nimitz' boyhood home. My understanding is that after the war, donations were gathered to build a war memorial and museum to honor Nimitz in Fredericksburg. Donors wanted to name the facility after the admiral, himself. Nimitz stipulated that the war memorial and museum could only carry his name if the facility was built to honor and commemorate the individual soldier's efforts, the battles they fought, and to tell their stories.
A visit to this museum would definitely move you to consider refighting these campaigns.
That looks like an interesting museum Jonathan and well worth the visit. That's a nasty big hole in the Stuart tank.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting and well worth a visit. Maybe two?
DeleteThe destroyed tank was crewed by Aussies. The museum showed a video interview with the tank commander explaining the situation.
If I inflicted six hours of war related museums on my wife, I doubt I would live to tell the tale! The location of the museum makes sense but possibly limits the number of visitors. Great commanders of history were sometimes born in small, remote places, so putting a significant museum in (relatively) the "middle of nowhere" to honour them, can mean less people visit than might otherwise be expected.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter and a girlfriend are off to Hawaii in the next few weeks. They have booked the obligatory Pearl Harbour tour which cost $100 each... she was slightly perturbed to discover it lasts five hours! You or I might think that's a great day out, I am not so sure about two 23 year old girls who really have virtually no idea what Pearl Harbour was all about...I recommended she try and watch something on YouTube before she goes!
Julian and I did lots of Pacific War scenarios about five or six years ago, using 15mm figures. I had the IJ forces and he had both Commonwealth and US troops. Mostly we used CrossFire rules but also did some board games using figures instead of counters...the game was called Conflict of Heroes. If you type "Japanese" into the search engine on my Bydand blog, you will find some AAR's etc.
Well, Keith, I survived the mission. Nancy actually enjoyed the museum and spent quite a bit of time at the Hiroshima/Nagaski displays. She visited Hiroshima when she was last in Japan so this was a refresher.
Delete$100 for a Pearl Harbour tour? Is this a commercial tour? Last time I visited, I do not recall tickets for the boat to the Arizona memorial to be very expensive. Did the boat tours to the Arizona stop?
I hope your daughter and friend enjoy their trip to Hawaii. It is a great place to visit. Hiking up to the top of diamond Head is a fun excursion too. The views from the top are spectacular.
I will go back and browse some of your Pacific War BatReps.
Hi Jon, I guess the girls just booked what they found online....if you were onsite, you might just choose to do the boat trip for $15 or whatever. I just mentioned Diamond Head to Amy...they are planning to do that too...$5 each to take the walk to the top
DeleteGood that they are tackling Diamond Head. It is a good hike. Remind them to hike all the way to the observation bunkers at the peak. Views are AMAZING!
DeleteThanks Jon, will do! Seems I have exaggerated the number of posts you might find of our Pacific War games....they must have pre dated the start of my blogging in August 2016... Shame, as we really did do quite a few battles with those 15mm figures!
DeleteA good day trip and some wargaming inspiration. What could be better.
ReplyDeleteNot much!
DeleteWhat a revelation that such a place (Museum of the Pacific War) exists, let alone in an out of the way locale in TX, although the Nimitz connection makes perfect sense. Reading the topic of this post, I thought you had made your way to to Peru or Bolivia ("The War of the Pacific").
ReplyDeleteI heard of this museum before but really had no idea where it was. Two hours driving time from Austin is a bit off of the beaten path. It truly is a fantastic museum in which one can come away with a very thorough overview of the Pacific War.
DeleteMy trip to Peru had a focus on the Inca rather than the 19th Century conflict.
A very interesting exhibition.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your impressions!
You are welcome!
DeleteAlways good to visit a well stocked museum, sadly most of ours are now skewed in their presentations.
ReplyDeleteA good museum is a joy to see and an educational experience too. Too bad about the push to rewrite history.
DeleteObviously worth a visit!
ReplyDeleteIt sure is especially if you have an interest in the Pacific War.
DeleteA good looking museum Jon would definitely be on my list but as other have said location a bit challenging. Steve has been building Japanese for a while but currently we don’t have any Americans to fight them ! A tricky genre to game and a little like Vietnam I guess with one enemy dug in much of the time ?
ReplyDeleteWell, Fredericksburg is only one hour driving time from the Alamo in San Antonio. That would be a worthwhile side trip if you are visiting the Alamo,
DeleteYou make a great observation about gaming the battles in the island-hopping Pacific War. Like I have done with Vietnam games, all active players could play the Americans in a cooperative game against the static and umpire run Japanese.
Some excellent exhibits, thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome! While the equipment displays are useful visuals, the real value in the museum is the history told as you wander through the museum in chronological order.
DeleteSome nice pics of gear there. Thanks for sharing. I’m glad you’re enjoying the vacation. 😀
ReplyDeleteStew, lots of interesting artifacts and historical accounts in this museum. If your primary focus was War in the Pacific, this would be sublime. Having not traveled much over the last two years, getting away was a treat.
DeleteFascinating looking museum Jon. Thanks for sharing your pictures. Would I be right in thinking that there is more of interest than the Alamo in you're in that part of Texas?
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed the quick sampling of the museum. Texas is HUGE with much to offer. There is definitely more of interest than just the Alamo in San Antonio.
DeleteTiming is excellent as I’ll be over in Austin for a few days and have a free Saturday, so I’ll tootle over to the Pacific War museum.
DeleteChris
Excellent, Chris! Worth a visit, for sure. What brings you to the States? F1 racing in October?
DeleteHah, no. Work. Over to the west coast after Austin.
DeleteSome fine exhibits there, the hole in the Stuart puts things in perspective when gamers rattle on about "realistic" rules.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that is quite a gaping wound on the Stuart. In the accompanying video, the commander describes how time stood still have the blast. Then, he worked to get the crew out of the destroyed hulk by pushing and pulling them through the hull.
DeleteGreat looking exhibition, Pacific was one of my dads campaign ribbons, have to say Willie Nelson was pretty good when I saw him!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
This was a terrific museum and one in which my knowledge and undserstanding of this theater of the war was enhanced by my time there. My grandfather served in the Pacific. While it has been many, many years ago since seeing Willie in concert, it was excellent.
DeleteVery interesting; thanks. The pictures have come out well too as it looks like a typical modern museum set up with tricky lighting.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
David.
You are welcome! Yes, tricky lighting but a fascinating exhibit.
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