JoeArthur
Elder Member
I wrote an article for Pete and his View From the Trenches. It was on military mueums that I had visited in 2018.
He edited it slightly (no big deal) and I would like to throw it out to the wisdom of crowds. Did I miss anything? Here is the section on Belgium:
Belgium:
I had not seen the Belgian tank museum located at Bastogne. There are four things to see in Bastogne:
The Mardasson Memorial
Which weirdly had this very large statue of a WWII nurse being kissed by a sailor. It is “Unconditional Surrender”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconditional_Surrender_(sculpture)#Bastogne,_Belgium
The Bastogne War Museum
Located close to the memorial and focusing on the Battle of the Bulge:
https://www.bastognewarmuseum.be/en/home-en/
My advice – don’t bother going. Nothing worth seeing or listening to. Bit of an American tourist trap?
It tried to track the battle through the eyes of a German soldier, a GI, a Belgian teacher in the resistance and a child. It did not work. It ended with an audio visual diorama (aargh!)
The Bastogne Airborne Museum:
http://www.101airbornemuseumbastogne.com/
Apparently this is one big diorama and after the experience of the Bastogne War Museum I did not bother going. Another US tourist trap?
Bastogne Barracks
Now this was an unexpected delight. The tanks kept in the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History in Brussels had been moved here in 2010. Which is why I paid the price of admission.
You have to wait at the gate for the tour to start. It is a military base so they do not let you wander around on your own – guided tours only.
You start with a Belgian army officer explaining the Battle of the Bulge. It was like a military briefing. You are all sitting down with him pointing at maps. I talked to him afterwards about why is it all about the Battle of the Bulge? He stated it was because that was all the American tourists were interested in. He was a great tour guide.
After that you go through rooms displaying military equipment. There is the room where Brigadier General McAuliffe made his famous reply to the German request that he surrender – ‘Nuts’. Recreated with dummies and all – yes it is a diorama. One of the GI’s present at the time had toured the museum and he had made these rooms look as he remembered them.
You were then taken to the tank shed. It had a surprisingly good collection. It even had a couple of Russian tanks - an ISU 152 and I-3. These had been given to Belgium in the 1960’s as a gift for their diplomatic help – more “panda diplomacy”.
On a certain day of the week the tour includes the tank restoration centre. Worth trying to time your visit to see that.
Get the tour before it goes – according to a Dec 2019 comment on Tripadvisor apparently it's going to be much harder to get a tour in the future due to the Belgian government deciding to do something with the barracks that's not focused on tourism. So, take a tour while you can before it's no longer available.
At the end of the tour there is a bar and not a gift shop!
He edited it slightly (no big deal) and I would like to throw it out to the wisdom of crowds. Did I miss anything? Here is the section on Belgium:
Belgium:
I had not seen the Belgian tank museum located at Bastogne. There are four things to see in Bastogne:
The Mardasson Memorial
Battle of the Bulge Monument - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Which weirdly had this very large statue of a WWII nurse being kissed by a sailor. It is “Unconditional Surrender”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconditional_Surrender_(sculpture)#Bastogne,_Belgium
The Bastogne War Museum
Located close to the memorial and focusing on the Battle of the Bulge:
https://www.bastognewarmuseum.be/en/home-en/
My advice – don’t bother going. Nothing worth seeing or listening to. Bit of an American tourist trap?
It tried to track the battle through the eyes of a German soldier, a GI, a Belgian teacher in the resistance and a child. It did not work. It ended with an audio visual diorama (aargh!)
The Bastogne Airborne Museum:
http://www.101airbornemuseumbastogne.com/
Apparently this is one big diorama and after the experience of the Bastogne War Museum I did not bother going. Another US tourist trap?
Bastogne Barracks
Now this was an unexpected delight. The tanks kept in the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History in Brussels had been moved here in 2010. Which is why I paid the price of admission.
You have to wait at the gate for the tour to start. It is a military base so they do not let you wander around on your own – guided tours only.
You start with a Belgian army officer explaining the Battle of the Bulge. It was like a military briefing. You are all sitting down with him pointing at maps. I talked to him afterwards about why is it all about the Battle of the Bulge? He stated it was because that was all the American tourists were interested in. He was a great tour guide.
After that you go through rooms displaying military equipment. There is the room where Brigadier General McAuliffe made his famous reply to the German request that he surrender – ‘Nuts’. Recreated with dummies and all – yes it is a diorama. One of the GI’s present at the time had toured the museum and he had made these rooms look as he remembered them.
You were then taken to the tank shed. It had a surprisingly good collection. It even had a couple of Russian tanks - an ISU 152 and I-3. These had been given to Belgium in the 1960’s as a gift for their diplomatic help – more “panda diplomacy”.
On a certain day of the week the tour includes the tank restoration centre. Worth trying to time your visit to see that.
Get the tour before it goes – according to a Dec 2019 comment on Tripadvisor apparently it's going to be much harder to get a tour in the future due to the Belgian government deciding to do something with the barracks that's not focused on tourism. So, take a tour while you can before it's no longer available.
At the end of the tour there is a bar and not a gift shop!