The Military Intelligence Museum at Chicksands

[Ovenpaa]

Today was the birthday of my son James, he has promised to be with us bright and early and Christel had booked a surprise visit to the The Military Intelligence Museum at Chicksands. Entry is open to the public and free of charge (A donation is gratefully received) Because it is on the Chicksands base you need to book in advance with names of the party, car registration and photo identity, a passport, FAC, driving licence or similar is acceptable. They like to know what time you are coming and we were booked in for 11:30 as there was a party due in at 09:30 so we wanted to give them time to get round. You can ask for a guide as well and if you can arrange a mutually convenient time it is well worth doing so. We did not know this at the time so we did not book one.

We set off bright and early and were within 5 minutes when James realised he had left his photo ID in his car, oops.. so back we went which meant we arrived slightly late, you also need to allow a good few minutes to book in at the gatehouse for passes etc. We actually walked into the museum at just before midday and it closes at 13:30, no matter still time to have a look. The display comprises of different sections including:

The Intelligence Corps museum
The Medmenham Collection of air photography
The USAF at Chicksands
Y service rooms

The Intelligence Corps was formed on 19 July 1940 but its antecedents stretch back to 16th century. The museum was set up in 1971 in Ashford, Kent and relocated along with the Intelligence Corps in 1997 to its present site.

Displays included:

A celebration of the lives of some fascinating individuals
Intelligence in the Cold War
The World War 2 story of ENIGMA
Practical activities relating to Photographic Interpretation
The drama of SOE Operations
Radio equipment relating to Y Service signals intelligence
US Air Force at Chicksands memorabilia from the post war years
Friends of the Intelligence Corps Museum

Concious of the party going round we moved to a quiet section which included information on the US Airforce at Chicksands and some of the antics the IRA got up to. Propped up in a corner was a 'liberated' head of a certain my S Hussain and in the opposite corner an Enigma machine, the museum has many exhibits and displays spread over five rooms and I quickly became enthralled by the whole thing, they have cold war surveillance film with commentary running, tank after tank after tank rolling past and being identified, some WWII items of course and a lot of information on the V1 and V2 plus operation Crossbow.

The other party had cleared now so we moved to the photo reconnaissance area where a very pleasant elderly lady followed us in and started explaining the exhibits, now this is where it really gets interesting as she knew her stuff, she walked us around the first part and then what turned out to be her husband joined us and took over. By now I was aware of just how little time we had left ourselves however they were great and showed us many wonderful exhibits including one room dedicated to photographic imaging including stereographic. The images were mind blowing, you really did feel like it was a 3 dimensional view and you can peer through numerous viewers showing all sorts of things in the minutest detail.

Sadly we had run out of time so we walked back to the small shop area and at that point I asked the woman how she had come to know so much about the display, she replied through her husband who had been a Senior Photographic Interpreter for Operation Crossbow... She added that she had done similar but had stopped 56 years ago. Now I realised why these two people had been treating us to such a passionate commentary of the photographic side of things. All of a sudden I felt incredibly humbled to be in the company of two people, think of the impact people like this had on our lives and the consequences of the work they did.

The display is very well worth the visit and we will go again and make sure we have more time. If you can get to it then you should go.

http://www.army.mod.uk/intelligence/museum.aspx

[20series]

outstanding :goodjob: It sounds like an excellent place to visit :cheers:

Alan

[Blu]

Ovenpaa: it sounds like you had a wonderful and worthwhile visit, it sounds like a fascinating place. So glad you all had a great time.

Blu

[JonC]

Thanks for posting this, sounds very interesting, and will look up more info on it. Its not far from my in-laws, wife's Dad was in communication during his national service, think he would enjoy a visit.

[Christel]

Best 1.5 hours spent all year. We have already agreed that we are going back. Despite it only being 5 rooms there was just so much we did not read and see and discuss. Amazing stuff there, IRA home made bombs, an engima machine, Himmler's shaving foam and razor. The shaving foam had "fremstillet i Danmark" printed on it. Made in Denmark :) Some out of this world Kodak photographs, taken from planes. They also had these awesome photographs, looking through the eyepiece with one eye they were flat, looking through with both eyes they were three dimensional. Spy cameras mounted on pigeons, so much info.

Go go go if you can!

:shakeshout:

[toffe wrapper]

Thanks for the heads up sounds worth a look.

TW

[murphwiz]

Superb, another hidden gem in our countryside, added to list of must do!
She's gonna hate it though.. ho hum...

[Watcher]

The Priory is also very interesting: http://www.chicksandspriory.co.uk/

Its now the Corps Officer's Mess but it looks like you can visit.

M

[Watcher]

Best 1.5 hours spent all year. We have already agreed that we are going back. Despite it only being 5 rooms there was just so much we did not read and see and discuss. Amazing stuff there, IRA home made bombs, an engima machine, Himmler's shaving foam and razor. The shaving foam had "fremstillet i Danmark" printed on it. Made in Denmark :) Some out of this world Kodak photographs, taken from planes. They also had these awesome photographs, looking through the eyepiece with one eye they were flat, looking through with both eyes they were three dimensional. Spy cameras mounted on pigeons, so much info.

Go go go if you can!

:shakeshout:

Christel,

If you liked the photo interpretation thing try and get a copy of this (at a sensible price - or through the library).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Evidence-Camera ... 0750936487

[Christel]

Watcher, that looks like a very interesting book indeed, on Amazon it has 5 stars reviews :)