Military tourism is for those with an interest in current or historical military sites and facilities, including museums, battlefields, cemeteries and technology.
Almost any capital city will have some sort of monument for the fallen, and many museums include weapons or paintings of war. This article tries to cover the specifically military sites beyond that.
Understand
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Map of Military tourism| “ | War. War never changes. | ” |
—Fallout series | ||
Anyone interested in military history, especially in the 19th century, who does not already know them should consider looking at George Macdonald Fraser's Flashman novels.
The books are fine adventure stories, utterly hilarious, and bawdy without descending to pornography. Between the text itself, copious footnotes, and some appendices, the military history is accurate and detailed. The novels are written in the first person and, to a military history buff, are worth reading just for his amazingly snarky but quite likely accurate comments on some of the generals.
Flash Harry is a completely despicable British army officer — drunken, racist, lecherous, dishonest, and an utter coward — who through trickery and luck emerges as the famous hero General Sir Harry Flashman VC. He participates in most of Britain's wars during Victoria's reign and several outside the Empire.
Locations
World War I
- Gallipoli, Turkey, a defining place for the Australian and New Zealand nations.
- Vimy Ridge, near Arras, site a major battle fought mainly by Canadian troops, with a large memorial
- The village of Thiepval near Albert in Picardy has a memorial for over 70,000 British and Empire troops who have no known grave but fell dring the three Battles of the Somme, 1915-1918. There is a memorial service on July 1 every year.
- The In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres, Belgium
Between the World Wars
- The Long March, a retreat in 1934-35 that has been called "the founding myth of Communist China".
- The museum in Mongolia commemorating the Battle of Khalkhin Gol in 1939, in which a Russian/Mongolian force inflicted a severe defeat on the Japanese. This turned Japanese thought toward striking south instead of grabbing Siberia, so it greatly influenced the later war.
World War II
Pacific War
Memorial to the USS Arizona, sunk at Pearl Harbor
- Atomic museums and memorials of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, cities hit by the two atomic bombs which heralded the end of the war.
- The Kokoda Track, in Papua New Guinea, an important battle line between Australia and Japan.
- Okinawa Peace Park and Himeyuri Monument, in Naha, Japan
- Pearl Harbor, site of the bombing in Honolulu that caused the United States to enter the war.
Elsewhere in Asia
- Burma Road, bringing supplies to beleagured China
- Nanjing Massacre Memorial in Nanjing
- Karbala in Iraq was the site of a battle in 61 AH (680 AD) in which Hussein, grandson of the Prophet, was killed. There are shrines, tombs and mosques of great significance to Muslims, especially Shi'a.
World War II in Europe
- Babyn Yar Monument and German Military Graveyard, in Kyiv, Ukraine.
- Churchill War Rooms and the HMS Belfast, in London, England.
- D-Day beaches in Normandy, sites of the Allied invasion of western Europe.
- Bletchley Park, near Milton Keynes, was the headquarters for British codebreakers who were very successful against German ciphers, notably the Enigma machine. There is a museum.
- Dieppe, on the coast of France, has a monument for a 1942 raid by mainly Canadian forces
- Volgograd, actually renamed Stalingrad for a few days a year, was the scene of one of the largest battles in World War II. The memorial, Mamayev Kurgan (The Motherland Calls), is the world's largest non-religious statue.
- Brest fortress in Belarus
World War II in Africa
Holocaust remembrance
- Auschwitz-Birkenau, near Oświęcim, Poland. Perhaps the most infamous cluster of concentration/labor/extermination camps.
- Sachsenhausen concentration camp, in Oranienburg, Germany
Napoleonic wars
Reenactment of the Battle of Waterloo
- Austerlitz Battlefield, near Brno, Czech Republic, site of one of Napoleon's greatest victories, and one of the most important battles of 19th-century Europe.
- Waterloo Battlefield, at Waterloo, Belgium, where Napoleon lost his final battle.
- There is a truly bombastic (built for the first centennial) monument for the 1813 Battle of Leipzig
Other European wars
- Thirty Years' War: One of the most destructive wars to ravage Europe, especially its center. Certain aspects are still commemorated on an annual basis or for "round" anniversaries.
- Lützen is the site where Gustav Adolph of Sweden, head and biggest hope of the Protestant camp met an untimely death in battle
- Rothenburg ob der Tauber still holds the "Meistertrunk" in commemoration of an event when the mayor saved the town by downing a big mug of wine in one gulp
- Bannockburn Battlefield, in Stirling, Scotland, one of the most important battles in the history of Scottish independence
- Fortifications of Vauban fortifications around the French borders built during the reign of Louis XIV, 12 of which are listed as a world heritage site
American Revolution
- See also: Early United States history
Crossing the Delaware River
- The Freedom Trail is a 2.5-mile redbrick walking trail that makes its way to 17 of Boston’s most historic sites which together tell the story of the American Revolution.
- The First Presbyterian Church in Morristown NJ was a hospital for soldiers; Washington crossed the Delaware River at Titusville (New Jersey) to enter Pennsylvania.
- Plattsburgh NY was the site of the Revolutionary War's Battle of Valcour Island and the War of 1812's Battle of Plattsburgh. Fort Ticonderoga NY was captured by Ethan Allen’s Patriots under cover of darkness in 1776 as part of a siege during the Revolution.
- Various historic sites in the United States National Park System commemorate portions of the war. George Rogers Clark National Historical Park in Indiana commemorates the capture of Fort Sackville from British forces in 1779, this allowed George Rogers Clark to march to the Mississippi River.
- Colonial Williamsburg re-creates 18th-century Williamsburg as it appeared preceding and during the American Revolution.
- Annapolis Royal NS has faced a total of thirteen attacks during its long history, including a raid during the American Revolution. After the war, it became home to United Empire Loyalist settlers.
War of 1812
With the Napoleonic Wars raging in Europe, perhaps colonial powers of the era could be kept distracted at this point in early United States history for long enough for the US to attempt an invasion of Canada?
- Ireland Island, established in 1809 as a British naval base in Bermuda, supplied British ships in the War of 1812 and the American Civil War.
- Various installations directly on the Canada-US international boundary date to this era, or were constructed in the immediate aftermath of this conflict. The Niagara Peninsula was a key battleground; Fort York in Toronto and Fort Wellington in Prescott (Ontario) also defended Upper Canada. Much of the Windsor-Quebec corridor was dangerously exposed, given its southern geographic location. Lewiston (New York) was burned to the ground; Champlain and Rouses Point were used as a staging area for attacks on Canada from Plattsburgh NY.
- Sackets Harbor NY on Lake Ontario successfully fended off two British-Canadian attacks, only to knock itself out of much of the war - burning their own supplies for fear of them falling into British hands. Fort Ontario in Oswego was a US stronghold on the lake; Essex (New York) was an important ship building yard.
- Fort McHenry is immortalised in the "Star Spangled Banner" anthem for defending Baltimore Harbor and Chesapeake Bay from a British naval attack on September 13–14, 1814.
- Remains of Fort Madison's War of 1812 and Civil War fortifications are visible in Castine ME.
- The war ended on December 24, 1814. Word travelled slowly in this era, leaving one last battle (the 1815 Battle of New Orleans) to be fought near Chalmette. Andrew Jackson won this battle for the US, but the War of 1812 was already over.
- The Rideau Canal was constructed after the war to divert Canadian domestic shipping through Ottawa. While the 1813 Battle of Crysler's Farm (near Morrisburg) was a British-Canadian victory which kept the river open for British ships, the St. Lawrence River (a key transport corridor which is part of the Ontario-NY border) continued to be perceived as vulnerable in the aftermath of the war.
American Civil War
- Antietam National Battlefield and Cemetery, in Sharpsburg, Maryland, site of the battle which became the bloodiest day in American military history.
- Batteries F and Robinett and the Beauregard Line, in Corinth, Mississippi
- Fort Donelson National Battlefield and Cemetery, in Dover, Tennessee, site of an early battle which pushed the Confederates out of central Tennessee.
- Gettysburg National Military Park, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the site of North America's biggest battle and a turning point in the American Civil War.
- Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, in Kennesaw, Georgia, a preserved battleground featuring 11 miles of Union and Confederate earthworks.
- Manassas National Battlefield Park, in Manassas, Virginia, site of the First and Second Battles of Manassas, also known as the First and Second Battles of Bull Run.
- Mansfield State Historic Site, in Mansfield, Louisiana, is a preserved battleground and site of one of the largest Civil War battles west of the Mississippi River.
- Monocacy National Battlefield, in Frederick, Maryland, site of a summer 1864 battle between General Jubal Early of the Confederacy and General Lew Wallace of the Union.
- Pamplin Park and the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier, in Petersburg, Virginia, commemorating the siege and fall of Petersburg which led to the Lee's final surrender at Appomattox Courthouse.
- Richmond, Virginia, capital city of the Confederacy, is home to Richmond National Battlefield, the White House of the Confederacy, the Museum of the Confederacy, and other historic points.
- Stones River National Battlefield, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
- Tupelo National Battlefield, in Tupelo, Mississippi
- Vicksburg National Military Park, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, site of a 47-day siege in mid-1863.
Other American wars
Entrance to the Alamo in Texas
- See also: Old West, Postwar United States
- The Alamo in San Antonio, site of the most memorable battle of the war for Texas independence.
- Custer Battlefield Museum, in and around Billings, Montana, including all of the locations associated with the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, also known as Custer's Last Stand.
- Wounded Knee, site of an 1890 massacre of several hundred Sioux by Custer's old regiment, the Seventh Cavalry.
Cemeteries
Arlington National Cemetery
- Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia is the most important military cemetery in the United States
- The world's only United Nations cemetery in Busan, South Korea. The resting place for many soldiers who fought under the UN in the Korean War
- Around 100,000 men died in Normandy in the summer of 1944, and most are buried there.
Museums of military vessels, aircraft and vehicles
- The British National Maritime Museum (Greenwich) and Imperial War Museum (Southwark) in London, England
- The SeattleMuseum of Flight has a range of military aircraft including a Lockhead SR-71 'Blackbird', the fastest manned aircraft in the world
- USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear powered submarine, on display in Groton, Connecticut
- Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, in Portsmouth, England, home to historic British military naval vessels such as the Mary Rose and HMS Victory. The HMS Victory was the flagship of Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson during the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), where he was killed in action, and the oldest naval ship still in commission.
- The aircraft carrier USS Intrepid has been converted into a museum in Manhattan, New York
- The Vasa Museum, Stockholm/Djurgården, with the world's only preserved 17th century warship
- The deutsches Museum in Munich displays an original V2 rocket.
- The Maritime Museum in Quanzhou has many relics from Chinese trading and naval vessels up to the early 1400s when the Emperor shut down the expeditions. Kublai Khan's unsuccessful invasion of Japan was launched from this port.
- Ottawa has the Canadian Aeronautical Museum.
- The USS Constitution is the world's oldest commissioned naval vessel still afloat. It is usually docked in the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston, but may sometimes sail for special occasions.
- 1 German Tank Museum (Munster near Soltau, Lower Saxony, Germany). Headquartered in an old military town (which was basically a village before the army set up shop here) this museum tries to show the history of four German armies (Imperial, Nazi, East German, postwar West German and reunified) but of course most visitors come for the roughly 1/3 of the exhibition that shows Wehrmacht tanks.
- 2 Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Vienna, Austria). A museum on wars involving the Habsburg monarchy, including exhibits like the car in which Franz Ferdinand was shot in Sarajevo 1914 or the blood stained order of Thirty Years War general Wallenstein to Pappenheim to intervene in the Battle of Lützen which led to the latter's death.
- 3 Musée des Blindés (Saumur Tank Museum) (in Saumur, France).
- 4 Kubinka Tank Museum.
Cold War and post-war history
Conference rooms sitting on top of the DMZ, dividing North and South Korea
- Several destinations in Cold War Europe
- The Korean War, still seen today at the Korean Demilitarized Zone, a narrow strip of land dividing the Korean Peninsula. Contains the 'Peace' village of Panmunjeom.
- Indochina Wars in Southeast Asia from 1946 to 1989
- The Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone was the border area between North and South Vietnam before the country's reunification in the Vietnam War
- Area 51, in Nevada. Visit the area near a military base where top secret aircraft are tested (likely) and extraterrestrial aliens are apparently kept (somewhat less likely)
- Kinmen (Quemoy) and Matsu, islands just off the Chinese coast that are still controlled by Taiwan. Kinmen is within artillery range of the mainland city of Xiamen and has a museum commemorating a 1958 artillery battle. Cleavers allegedly made from shell fragments are sold as souvenirs.
- The Diefenbunker, named for Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, was a nuclear-hardened emergency headquarters for the Canadian government, built deep underground near the small town of Carp outside the capital, Ottawa. Today it is a museum.
- The National Cryptologic Museum is run by the NSA and located next to their headquarters near Washington, D.C.
- 5 Titan Missile Museum, 1580 W Duval Mine Rd, Sahuarita, Green Valley (30 minutes south of Tucson), ☏ 1 520-625-7736. daily 8:45AM-5PM. Site south of Tucson preserves a Cold-War-era underground silo housing an unarmed Titan-II ICBM, the only remaining Titan Missile silo in the US. Part of a larger field of such silos, this was one of the places from which nuclear war on the Soviet Union would have been waged. Visitors can take a tour of the underground facilities where USAF crews spent decades living underground waiting for the launch order which never came. $9.50 (adults).