DW Museum Room 8 - World War II

[Darren]

What a splendid evening I have had. The rest of the family decided they were going to watch Ant and Dec which left me with a couple of spare hours knowing I wouldn’t be disturbed. I knew immediately what I was going to do – a treat that I had been saving for such an occasion.

I opened a bottle of scotch, put my headphones on and made myself comfortable. I then entered into Room 8 of the DW Museum and went back in time to World War II.

It starts in 1939 with DW’s wide range of activities – he’s still writing novels, his early war papers, newspaper articles – as he tries different roles before finding his true purpose. Then as the war progresses and his involvement gets deeper into the secret deception planning Room 8 draws you into the excitement and importance of the art of deception and how DW contributed. It’s riveting.

Congratulations and thank you to all involved in bringing this together.
Cheers.

[Charles]

Darren,

I'm truly delighted you had an enjoyable evening in 'World War II'.

Enabling like minded people to explore - and as far as possible to re-live - some of DW's experiences is what this website is all about, and nothing could give me and our fellow contributors greater pleasure than to know it is indeed giving pleasure to others.

Very many thanks for your encouraging email, and I hope you'll find plenty in future updates to keep you absorbed as well.

I shall raise a glass of my own to you and our fellow enthusiasts this evening ...

Very best wishes as always,

[ericmocata]

I just took a look at the WWII area of the museum. It's so difficult for those of us who didn't live through that time to put ourselves into the frame of mind of those who were living through it and the rather uncertain and gloomy path the world was on at the time. A perfect example is the photo of Wheatley and Joan trying on their gas masks, which of course, nobody ended up needing, but the fear of that kind of warfare during that time must have been horrendous. Especially for somebody who had gone through it before. I actually find that photo creepy and amusing at the same time. On one hand, it represents a time in which there was a lot of fear of what the enemies of your own country would do to win a war and on the other hand, Wheatley still looks like Wheatley, standing there with his hands in his pockets. I am pretty sure he's trying to figure out how to smoke a cigarette through that thing.

Looks like a lot of time and work going into this museum, but keep it up Charles, as it seems we all quite enjoy it.