The War to End All Wars (and the one after that)

Beth and I called the babysitter and had a rare "day-date" in London.  Our first stop was the Tower of London to see the poppy display.  When the final poppy is planted today, Armistice Day, there will be 888,246 poppies, one for every British soldier who died in the First World War.  The memorial, officially called the Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, marks 100 years since the first full day of Britain's involvement in WWI in 1914.



 

 Thousands of poppies.  Thousands of tourists.

"That's 888,242, 888,243, 888,244....wait, did I already count that one? Drat!  1, 2, 3, 4..."

 Traitor's Gate

An aerial shot from the Daily News

 

How do we cheer ourselves up after such a remarkable, but somber, memorial?  A Tower of London Bridge selfie, of course.

My beautiful wife

 

 Showing my support.

Walking to our next destination we came across a parade. There always seems to be a parade when we are in the city.

 

All that walking worked up a thirst so we tucked into the Black Friar, a pub on the site of a thirteenth century Dominican Priory.

Obligatory Big Ben pics. It never gets old.

 

Our next stop was the Churchill War Rooms, the secret underground headquarters that sheltered Winston Churchill and the core of British government throughout the Second World War.  The museum comprises the war  rooms and the Churchill Museum, a biographical museum exploring the life of Winston Churchill.

The War Cabinet Room is where Churchill, his ministers and military command met.

Interchangeable boards gave news of the weather to those working underground. During air raids the indicator was changed to ‘windy’ as a joke.

 

 Churchill's office

 The Transatlantic Telephone Room contained a confidential hotline between Churchill and Roosevelt

  Chiefs of Staff conference room

 

The kitchen

 

 An example of one of the Officer's living quarters.

In the Map Room, the informational hub of the entire site, everything has remained exactly as it was when the lights were finally switched off on 16 August 1945. The so-called ‘beauty chorus’ of colour-coded telephones; the books and documents piled on desks; the rationed sugar cubes found in an envelope belonging to Wing Commander John Heagarty; the wartime maps covering the walls, and the thousands of tiny pinholes dotting the progress of Allied ships across the Convoy Map. 

 Churchill's office-bedroom boasting the most comfortable living conditions within the bunker (complete with his own bed pan).

When we climbed out the bunker it was chucking down with rain and we decided to call it a night (but not before one last picture in front of Big Ben).