The National WWII Museum - New Orleans, LA
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Metro2
N 29° 56.590 W 090° 04.264
15R E 782711 N 3316096
Focuses on the contribution made by the United States to victory by the Allies in World War II, and the Battle of Normandy in particular.
Waymark Code: WMPJEZ
Location: Louisiana, United States
Date Posted: 09/07/2015
Views: 2
Wikiepdia (
visit link) informs us:
"The National WWII Museum, formerly known as the National D-Day Museum, is a museum located in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana, at the corner of Andrew Higgins Boulevard and Magazine Street. It focuses on the contribution made by the United States to victory by the Allies in World War II, and the Battle of Normandy in particular. It was designated by the U.S. Congress as "America's National World War II Museum" in 2003, and the Museum maintains an affiliation with the Smithsonian Institution. The mission statement of the Museum emphasizes the American experience in World War II...
The Museum opened on June 6, 2000, the 56th anniversary of D-Day. The Museum has a large atrium where aircraft including a Supermarine Spitfire, Messerschmitt Bf 109, Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber, and Douglas C-47 Skytrain are suspended from the ceiling. The building is several stories high and consists of two multi-level sections that are connected only by the main floor atrium. The Museum does not solely discuss the invasion of Normandy, but also represents the Allied strategy of island hopping, culminating with nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.
The Museum has several permanent galleries, including the Home Front, Planning for D-Day, The D-Day Beaches, and Pacific D-Days galleries. The third floor of the Louisiana Memorial Pavilion includes an observation deck for viewing the hanging aircraft. The second floor has reserved space for visiting exhibits and for special exhibits that change every few months. In January 2013, the museum opened its newest exhibit, The US Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center, which is the largest building on the museum campus. The collection in the US Freedom Pavilion includes a B-17E Flying Fortress bomber, a B-25J Mitchell bomber, an SBD-3 Dauntless, a TBF Avenger, a P-51C razorback Mustang, Corsair F4U-4 and an interactive submarine experience based on the final mission of the USS Tang. The B-17E is the airplane dubbed My Gal Sal, famous for having been lost in a mission over Greenland and recovered 53 years later.[5] The US Freedom Pavilion was paid for with a $15 million donation from the Boeing Company and with a $20 million grant from the US Department of Defense with Congressional approval.[6] Two other pavilions are under construction or planning as of 2013.
Visitors to the Museum are encouraged to allocate roughly 2½ to 3 hours to tour the Museum. An award-winning 4-D film, Beyond All Boundaries, gives the visitor an overview of the war on every front. A variety of other multimedia displays are part of the Museum's exhibits, notably dozens of video oral histories conducted with veterans by museum staff. The Museum currently includes two restaurants, the American Sector and the Soda Shop, both operated by noted chef John Besh until August 2014. The Museum sponsors a wargaming club and holds a wargame convention each year called "Heat of Battle."