Warfare is one of those things many people, especially men, like finding out about – although not usually at first hand. Most bookshops have large military sections and there is always a programme about the second world war somewhere on the outer reaches of satellite TV.
Despite this, it’s fair to say that military museums do not always spring to mind as a family day out. The Imperial War Museum (IWM) has been a leader in broadening its approach – and its northern branch has played a key role in this. Its displays and projections are the result of a philosophy of personalising and explaining the reality of warfare.
The IWM wants to become the Antony Beevor of war museums, gaining crossover appeal and telling its stories without macho glorification and with a human face.
All Aboard: Stories of War at Sea is the IWM’s first major exhibition about the sea in wartime from the early 20th century until today. It takes a chronological and thematic approach to what is a very broad subject and has clearly been designed to appeal to a family audience.
There are a range of simple interactives, dressing-up places and features on animals at sea. Personal stories are central to the interpretation.
Visitors enter the show to face a large film clip of rough seas from the deck of the HMS Norfolk in 1943. They are faced with the question: “Why fight at sea? It’s wet, cold and dangerous. The answer is clear – to control trade, deny your enemy resources and move troops around.”
This section, painted in bright yellow, sets the scene, explaining nautical terms, the types of ships and what sailors do onboard. It’s just a shame that the outlines of the merchant and navy ships are in such similar colours that you cannot differentiate between them.
Exploring history
This is a large exhibition with many themes. It starts with the consequences of colonial imperialism: the first world war and the stalemate of Jutland, and follows through to battles of the Atlantic, Dunkirk, the Arctic, the Pacific, D-day, the end of the empire, Korea and the cold war. It ends with the fallout of imperialism: the Falklands war and the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
These themes are supported by a timeline that provides details of smaller engagements and operations. The chronological displays are punctuated with thematic displays on areas such as camouflage, mines, submarines, the Wrens and the merchant navy.
To add a regional element, there is a section on the role of the Manchester Ship Canal during the second world war.
To the point
The storyline is clear and concise, with all the main pieces of text fewer than 150 words. This is amplified by “bombs” of text that split into “did you know?” facts and jargon busting. There are also short sections on animals at sea.
Although these sound a bit like the more earnest sections of The Eagle (note for younger readers: The Eagle was a popular comic for boys in the 1950s and 1960s), they do deliver some interesting facts, such as why Malta was so badly bombed, and the destructive power of Polaris missiles.
Cased displays are kept simple, featuring carefully chosen items such as models, uniforms, equipment and ship fragments. Wherever possible, these displays contain personal items and documents linked to the experience of one individual.
These provide the heart of the exhibition and include people from all ranks. Original diaries and letters are displayed and these really do repay reading.
For example, a 1943 letter from Wren Stephanie Batstone to a friend describes the problem of wearing standard-issue, bell-bottom trousers, complete with a drawing.
Personal experience is also provided through listening posts with excerpts from the IWM’s extensive oral history archive. These have been well chosen and edited. The interactives are mainly simple games that convey information.
The museum has avoided the temptation to produce shoot ’em ups (or should that be “sink ’em downs?”), which would promote war as an activity with no consequences. To the museum’s credit, casualty figures appear throughout the exhibition.
Another strength is the use of original drawings and paintings from the museum’s marvellous art collection produced by commissioned war artists.
These provide a different dimension, although I would have liked to have seen some of Eric Ravilious’s magical watercolours of ships and submarines. In fact, it would have been good to have had a section on the role of war artists at sea.
The design of the exhibition is clear and restrained. It uses simple blocks of colour, while the partitions that house the cases and graphics have an angular quality that works well with the angle of the roof, echoing the geometry of metal ships. One wall is decorated with the dazzle camouflage employed during the second world war.
So far, so good. This successful exhibition was clearly engaging its audiences. Children were trying on duffle coats and playing games, as well as looking at potent objects such as missiles. Adults were looking and reading, with many recalling their families’ own histories during the second world war.
Nevertheless, there were some things missing. I wanted to know more about who the wartime sailors and Wrens were before they ended up in the navy.
There could have been much more on the social make-up of crews, their living conditions and the type of food that they ate. There is also hardly any mention of the Fleet Air Arm or the Royal Marines.
Unanswered questions
I was not the only one who felt this way. The exhibition ends with a response wall for visitors to place their comments. These included: “What food did they eat?”; “What about the Marines/Fleet Air Arm?”; and “What was it like going back to normal life?”. One said: “Scrap Trident.”
I am sure that the IWM will learn from these comments and, in the spirit of the Big Society, may pass on the cost-saving ideas to the government.
The concluding section is a missed opportunity. The exhibition clearly tells stories of success, suffering and loss, but could have discussed and stimulated a debate on why successive governments of such a small country as ours still choose to spend billions on cold war-style weapons.
Mark Suggitt is a cultural consultant
- Cost £168,000 (design and build)
- Main funders IWM, Sir John Fisher Foundation
- Exhibition team Rachel Knight (head of exhibitions), Amanda Mason (researcher), Claire Wilson (exhibitions manager), Nick Hewitt (historian)
- Exhibition design Urban Salon Architects
- Exhibition build Qwerk Creative Construction
- Lighting in-house
- Audiovisuals in-house, Cascade Productions, Urban Salon Architects
- Graphics Wood McGrath, Displayways
- Exhibition ends 25 April 2011
