Fredericksburg TX

A short ride away is a town founded by German settlers. It still presents as German in its main street buildings, and many businesses are German themed, bierkellers and restaurants particularly. Here are some examples.

Underneath is the charming courtyard of the old hospital. Closed in 1971, it’s now a German restaurant and bierkeller. They should have kept the hospital A & E going to deal with any overindulgence.

Fredericksburg has a famous son, Admiral Chester W Nimitz, who ran the naval campaign in the Pacific during the last war and was the USA’s signatory to the Japanese surrender in 1945. There is, of course, a larger-than-lifesize statue of the great man who looks like he is ready to sort out any bother in the street. Yobs and drunks beware.

The family hotel, the Nimitz, dominates the High Street with its steamboat frontage. Did this inspire Chester to join the navy? The hotel was built by his grandfather and now serves as a museum to Admiral Nimitz’ career.

 But the big museum here is the National Museum of the Pacific War. For such a small town to house a major museum is quite a tribute to Nimitz’ standing as a military commander. It’s a wet day, as the previous photos show, so we’re glad to get inside.

At the ticket desk the receptionist asked how much time we had. Couple of hours, we said. Ah: the information boards in the museum take about 28 hours to read. Ok, we’ll skip some. In we go.

The displays are beautifully laid out, and the information clearly described in minute detail. Every action in the Pacific War is covered, with exhibits and film coverage.

After half an hour we are overwhelmed by information, drowning under a waterfall of data. This happens in some museums, so wouldn’t it be better to have summary boards as well as the detail so you could at least emerge with a general idea of the museum’s purpose.

Moan over, and there were some interesting exhibits, like this Japanese miniature submarine, one of six used in the Pearl Harbour attack, December 1941. If this was a miniature, how big were the standard subs?

The surprise Pearl Harbour attack brought the USA into WW2. The Japanese believed and acted as if they were invincible: America wanted to prove otherwise and thereby dent their morale. They decided to bomb Tokyo, but no aircraft had nearly enough range, so the bombers selected were launched from aircraft carriers and told to fly on to China after the raid and land as best they could. All pilots and crew were volunteers, led by Major James Doolittle. None were expected to survive, but a few did including Doolittle. This is one of the bombers, a B25 Mitchell. 

This cannot fail to overawe; a replica of the atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Not so huge, given its devastating power, Jane is standing by the nose for size comparison. At the time, the two A bombs brought the war to a swift end, so saving thousands of American lives, and thus an understandable decision, though not one we are so comfortable with today given that we know more about the doomsday effect of these weapons.

Now we come to a full size patrol torpedo craft (PT). President J F Kennedy was commander of one such vessel that was sunk by collision with a Japanese destroyer. Kennedy helped save all his crew by swimming to a nearby island from where they were eventually rescued. He was decorated but made light of his heroism.

Lastly is a recreated typical Pacific island combat Zone where re-enactments take place, but not during our visit. It’s always good to scale back violence even in re-enactments, so I suggest they lob coke cans (Americans) and Sushi (Japanese) at each other.

Overwhelmed by the weather and the museum, but we came out on top. That’s what winning wars is all about.