The Australian War Memorial's new exhibition

[Alan Scheckenbach]

Hello everyone, a little news for some of you:

The AWM is currently building a new exhibition in the western half of its new gallery building, ANZAC Hall.

The new exhibition is about RAF Bomber Command, the work they did and how the Germans coped with and fought against them. It will feature the conserved and restored Lancaster G for George, as the centre piece, as well as German aircraft and weapons that were used agains the RAF.

The AWM's Me109, the last in its original war time paint work will be reassembled for the first time since the early 1970s and displayed for the first time by the AWM. It'll be on a pole and quite visible from the upper gallery.

The Me262 will also be there but on the ground. This will be first time it will be on display since the early 1970s. As far as I know, it will not be resprayed so its naturally scabby paintwork and build quality will be evident to all. This is great news, for me anyway.

The recently repainted Me163 will also make a reappearance. It was on display until recently when that side of ANZAC hall was cleared to make ready for this display.

The AWMs 88 Flak 36 or 37 will also be there in a diorama, depicting a semi permanent emplacement, showing what it would have been like in the emplacement after a raid on Berlin, probably with empty shell cases littered around and bits of shrapnel and stuff lying about.

My Dad was an RAD Flak gunner and has been helping the AWM with their research by providing personal recollections and photos for display and to help them get their diorama right while other friends of mine have been helping with translations of gunners manuals and stuff like that. They also want to let people know that women also manned Flak guns, so that side will feature.

An ex-109 pilot friend who flew early Helle-nachtjagd missions has also been helping with recollections and photos for display and research. A different friend, who flew in JG53, donated his orginal flying jacket and Iron Cross amongst other things, and it looks like they might be used on the pilot figure that will be sitting in the 109.

There will be a number of other things on display there, including recollections of people who endured the bombing as well as some from the people who did the bombing.

The AWM are trying hard to show both sides of the picture, Allied and German. I think that the message will be that both sides did their best for their countries and these aircraft and guns are what they used, have a look around (which I think is a good thing).

All in all, I think it will be a good exhibition with lots of very interesting things to come and look at. The exhibition opens on December 6. See you there.

Now I hope that the next thing on the fix-it program is the V2 and Meillerwagen!

Cheers

Alan