East Point Military Museum, Darwin

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...The Imperial War Museum is an enjoyable and thought provoking museum which in recent years has added several excellent new permanent exhibitions. Several displays in the basement break away from dull historical narrative and take a thematic look at the horrors of the two World Wars. They bring home what it actually felt like to live through a war from many different points of view. You can tramp through the misery and discomforts of a trench from World War I. You can relive the Blitz of 1940-41 among a street scene littered with the rubble of collapsed and burnt out buildings, complete with the acrid smells of charred wood and the sound of air-raid sirens. The displays also cover war as experienced by concentration camp victims living under Nazi tyranny, RAF pilots and members of the armed services fighting on various fronts, in Europe... Read review

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Advantages: Very informative
Disadvantages: A bit confusing and no air conditioning!

...and rooms on different levels however. The museum was opened in 1962, in a different location to its current position, and moved to the Haus am Checkpoint Charlie in 1963, nearby to one of the most famous border crossings on the Wall. From the house the escape helpers could view all movements at the border crossing, make escape plans and welcome recent escapees from the East. While the Wall was still standing the museum was a central point of the fight against the oppressive regime in East Germany. The museum has exhibitions on the history of life on both sides of the Wall, the building of the Wall, the fall of the Wall and the attempted escapes from West to East Berlin. A large section of the museum is devoted to an art display of Cold War related art exhibits. Some specific artefacts include some of the weird and wonderful methods used... Read review

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Advantages: Well documented, easy to follow, understated, let the exhibits talk for themselves
Disadvantages: Remote town, not for younger children

...a winding road besides which are images of the stages of the walk to the cross, is a great charnel house, which Mussolini had built in the 1930s. In it, were burnt the remains of over 7,000 known and unknown soldiers who fell on the Soča front. This is currently being renovated, but you can walk round and see the great granite slabs listing the names of the fallen. The other part we saw was the Napoleon Bridge at the entry into the town. Built in the 1750s, it spans the river at its narrowest point, some 20 metres above. A head carved by Partisans in the Second World War is at one end, and provides continuity between the different military campaigns to have been fought in this frontier region. One other noticeable feature of our brief visit to Kobarid was the number of Italians who had come to the town, presumably to visit the museum... Read review

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