Roberta Writes – Thursday Doors, South African Military Museum: Airplanes

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Welcome to Thursday Doors, a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time).

Terence and I visited the South African Military Museum earlier this year. It was an interesting museum to visit and I learned some new information about South Africa’s involvement in WW1 and WW2.

The South African National War Museum in Johannesburg was officially opened by Prime Minister Jan Smuts on 29 August 1947 to preserve the history of South Africa’s involvement in the Second World War. In 1975, the museum was renamed the South African National Museum of Military History and its function changed to include all conflicts that South Africa has been involved in. In 1999 it was amalgamated with the Pretoria-based Transvaal Museum and National Cultural History Museum to form the NFI. In April 2010 Ditsong was officially renamed Ditsong Museums of South Africa and the SANMMH was renamed the Ditsong National Museum of Military History. From Wikipedia

Entrance to the museum

A selection of the airplanes on display in the museum:

  • Messerschmitt Bf 109E3 Germany (1939 – 1945)
  • Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-6/R6 Germany Fighter-bomber 1941 – 1945
  • Messerschmitt Me 262B-1a/U1 Two seater night fighter Germany 1944-1945
  • Messerschmitt Me 262B-1a/U1 Two seater night fighter Germany 1944-1945

All of these planes had cockpit doors although the door in the first picture is missing. That Messerschmitt Bf 109E3 was part of the fighter escort from Luftwaffe Fighter Squadron JG26 commanded by one of Germany’s most famous fighter aces – Oberstleutnant Adolf Galland. This squadron was escorting a bomber raid on Britian on the afternoon of 28 November 1940 and was intercepted over Kent by the Hurricanes of 249 Fighter Squadron RAF. In the ensuing dog-fight, this plane ran out of fuel and made a forced landing on a farm at Udimore in Sussex.

You can join in Thursday Doors here: https://nofacilities.com/2021/10/28/more-train-doors/

Published by robertawrites235681907

I am a writer of young adult fiction and poetry

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39 thoughts on “Roberta Writes – Thursday Doors, South African Military Museum: Airplanes”

  5. Next to railroad museums, airplane and military museums are high on my list. It s important to preserve the artifacts of our history if for no other reason than to stand in the way of people who would deny it. We are struggling with that issue here in the states. Some states are changing the way we teach history and the amount of history that can be taught. I hope that museums stand into the future as a way for curious people to learn the truth, or at least begin their journey.

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    1. Hi Dan, I like all history and all museums. It is strange that some states are reducing the history syllabus, that sounds like a very bad idea. You can’t change history, it is factual, and anyway, if you don’t know about the mistakes from the past, you can’t learn from them. It sounds a bit like banning books to me, but maybe I don’t understand the reasoning.

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      1. It’s the same reasoning as banning books, Robbie. They want to hide the past so people can’t look at their actions today and point out that they really haven’t changed.

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  12. Thanks for the information and the great photos, Robbie. I loved the doors for this prompt. Very creative! Since I have a small fear of flying, I couldn’t ride in any two-seater. 🙂

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  13. So interesting that the Luftwaffe plane is there – that is what happens when you run out of fuel
    And not sure if you know that this year i have been brushing up on WW2 and just last week read about when the Luftwaffe were thwarted because of radar ! Yeah baby
    And good doors and history post!

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    1. Hi Yvette, I am pleased to know that. My mother was a small girl during WWII and, as she is one of the youngest of my aunts and uncles, I’ve learned quite a bit about life during the war from the all. I thought the radar information was brilliant and I especially liked the fact that the British government tried to pass their accuracy off as being because of carrots giving the pilots good eyesight. So many people still believe this.

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      1. Oh no – so the carrots don’t help eyesight! I thought the vitamin A helped – ha! And so interesting to hear about the myth with this !
        I watched a documentary called the ghost army in the summer and it was filled with find strategies used to trick the spikes and divert efforts (you might already know but the ghost army was a group of talented stagers who set up those blow ups and staged fake war plans and it helped the Allie’s so much)
        This year has involved some fun Ww2 research for me and how nice of you to have first hand stories from family!!

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