I had a chance to venture down to New Orleans and visit the D-Day Museum recently. It was a rather well designed and presented Museum. Although its official title is "National D-Day Museum" it is apparently a privately run operation not under the US Park Service. It's location is in the old warehouse district of the city. Not too hard to find. A word of warning, driving in the city is a bit of a pain. Lots of one-way streets and the street name signs are poorly marked or the sign post are so beat up that they occasionally actually point the wrong way. The museum is truely spacious on the inside. There are a few static vehicles and aircraft on display at the entrance, this is probibly its current down side as the room could hold 3 times as many. However, the actual remainder of the museum is very well done. A number of the weapons that are displayed are from an old French Museum that closed. The weapons were picked up out on the battlefields and in the hedgerows. I really liked the first part of the museum that shows lots of old newsreel footage about the mobilization of America when we finally declared war and the effect on the home front. A fabulous part of the museum is that it is staffed with old veterans who are all very friendly, will offer insight on any of the displays and might be coaxed to tell a few stories if things aren't too busy. A true treasure that will slowly dissappear. In addition, many of the displays have short, recorded personal recollections from participants that pertain to that part of the museum. The museum also has a display that pertains to the Higgins Boat Company, the inventor and maker of most of the types of American landing craft used in the war. A delightful area that includes an audio/visual presentation. The museum plans to open a new section on December 7th that will speak to the Pacific War. Of course, there is the expected Gift Shop. It was full of some wonderous wargaming items. Of note were the cheap, large (1/35 scale?) LVTs, LCI's and Sherman Tanks. Those looked like you should be able to find them at Dollar General. Great for the sand box. Also lots of small die-cast aircraft of 1/144 and 1/72 scale. The 1/72 scale range was impressive, over 2 dozen different WWII aircraft all nicely cast and painted for about $6 a pop. Some of the types I remember were FW-190, P-51, Sturmovick, Corsair, Zero. The box for every plane have the full list of aircraft offered. They also had GI Joes and other similar Large soldiers, but sadly, no lead. I The do have a web site for the museum, just go to neworleans.citysearch.com and you should be able to link you way to the museum site. A museum that is well worth the visit if you're in the vicinity. The city, well, that's another story entirely. Stephen Ambose the historian is (I believe) a director of this museum, is a frequent commentator on WWII subjects on the History Channel, which has even had sections of the museum on air. It is a private venture but apparently well worth the visit, The building itself apparently was part of Higgins Industries which made the LCVP among other boats during WWII. M.B. Back to Dispatch March 2001 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com