Dutch National Military Museum

[Jeroen D]

For those interested in military kit:

During a recent home trip from Delhi to the Netherlands I visited the new Dutch National Military Museum.

The Dutch armed forces have three main branches, the army, the airforce and the navy. The Dutch navy still maintains its own museum in its main home port Den Helder. Haven't been there for many years, but it is excellent, Including a real Walrus Submarine that you can enter.

So for some reason they still decided to call it the Dutch National Military museum, even though very little navy stuff is on display. The museum collection comes from two museums I used to visit quite frequently. There was the so-called Arsenal, in essence an army museum in Delft. And there was an airforce museum at Soesterberg.

I knew both museums quite well. We lived only 20minute bicycle ride away from the one in Delft and all of my kids loved it. The airforce museum was located at what used to be an active Dutch Airforce base. I have been visiting since I was about 14 years of age. In those days I was very much interested in all aviation including military aviation.

Soesterberg was about 3-4 hours on the bicycle for me and my mates. So we often peddled over there to visit the museum or do a bit of plane spotting. In the seventies this was a very active Airforce base. It also hosted from 1954 to 1994 the American 32nd Tactical Fighter squadron. Lots of plane movement every single day of the week, a plane spotter paradise! In those days I took on two jobs outside school hours, a paper round six mornings a week and on Saturday I worked in a toy/hobby shop. All to pay for my hobbies, of which photography was one. Got myself my first SLR with TTL (Through the Lens Light metering), a Praktica LTL3. The rest is history as they say.

The original airforce museum was situated in two old hangars and was a very informal affair. You could just wander all over the place, underneath the airplanes. All planes had their cockpits open and stairs next to it, so you could peek into it. Couple of times per year they organised open cockpit days and you were allowed to actually climb into all the cockpits!

In those days Soesterberg was also the yearly host to the Dutch open Airforce days. Big happenings, hundreds of thousands of visitors. Me and my mates used to camp outside the base for the whole weekend and we would shoot roll after roll of film. No SD cards in those days. All black and white photography which I used to develop and print in my own little darkroom in the loft of my parents home.

From 1954 to 1994 Soesterberg was also host to the American 32nd Tactical Fighter Squadron, also known as the Wolfhounds. Soesterberg Airforce base was decommissioned several years later and is now turned into a nature park, including the new musuem. The old runway is still there, one meter thick concrete is a bit difficult to get rid of. Only flying done these days is by gliders.

When I read about this new military museum I was somewhat apprehensive. I really liked the old museums and new ones are not necessarily an improvement. For instance, Amsterdam used to have a magnificent Maritime museum. I used to visit it at least once a year. It took them something like five years to renovate and I visited about a year ago and it is utter rubbish. The famous Amsterdam Rijksmuseum went through a massive 15 year renovation and some parts I like, others I don't.

All in all, I must admit that the new Dutch Military Museum is actually very well put together. There are still a few things I miss, but that's progress for you, and of course I'm a bit of an old grumpy man these days as well, lets not forget.

Whereas the Dutch navy relied/relies heavily on home grown / designed / built products the army and the airforce use quite a variety of international weapon suppliers. As you will see there are some Dutch home grown bits of kit in here as well.


http://www.india.jeroendorrestein.com/india/More_trips/Pages/Nationaal_Militair_Museum.html