National World War I Museum

The National World War One Memorial Tower

Today, Will and I set out for the World War 1 museum in Kansas City Missouri. As we were driving, it began to drizzle slightly. When we arrived, we had slight difficulties finding the entrance to the museum, but, after five minutes, the entrance was found, and we made our way into the underground cavern that was the museum.

We walked in and, after having purchased our tickets, quickly realized our luck at avoiding the waves of water, which now fell incessantly from the sky. After watching a short video on the multiple political causes for World War 1, we entered the main body of the museum to the view of three massive Howitzer barrels.

Howitzers

After looking at some old outfits, guns and other such things, we soon enough came to the cool, light-activated tables which told you all about the different guns, tanks and planes of the war. If there had been more of us, we could have played a very interesting-looking game on the tables in which you controlled the armies of a selected nation and have to, pretty basically, get through World War 1, but alas, our ranks were too thin, so Will and I marched on, disappointed but unfazed.

Ben at the light-activated tables

As well as all of the very cool and very informative tables, this museum also had a real French World War 1 tank, with real battle damage dealt by a real 77-mm. German artillery piece. Along with this, there were multiple videos of some miscellaneous people driving one of the tanks which Will and I were currently staring down the barrel of, as well as it firing a blank shot.

French Renault Tank (Also the tank used by American troops in WWI. Apparently there are only four of these tanks still surviving in the USA.)

French Renault Tank showing the shell damage at the rear that knocked it out

Fragments of the shell that disabled the tank

All in all, this was a really interesting museum for one of the least interesting wars. This war was not interesting because of the fact that it was all pretty basically just trench warfare all the way through (and tanks were still not at large). But this museum did a good job making it very interesting, including the elevator ride to the top of the amazingly tall memorial, which gives a great view of the city. Overall, in my opinion, it was well worth the money.

Ben near the top of the Memorial Tower