Military history exhibitions, events, and festivals – March listings

Festivals

IWM Duxford flying season: 50th anniversary

April-October 2023
IWM Duxford, Cambridgeshire, CB22 4QR, UK
www.iwm.org.uk/duxford-air-shows-50
+44 (0)20 7416 5000

In the summer of 1973, ‘Duxford Air Day’ was first staged at the historic aerodrome in Cambridgeshire to celebrate the area’s aviation heritage. The event quickly became a permanent fixture, and it has grown in stature ever since the aerodrome was acquired by the Imperial War Museum three years later. To mark the 50th anniversary of that first air show, Duxford is presenting a ‘flying season’ over the course of this summer, with a series of air shows, including regular favourites the ‘Battle of Britain’ and ‘Duxford Flying Evening’ events. A special ‘Flying Finale’ will also take place on the exact day of the anniversary. Advance booking is recommended.

Tankfest 2023

23-25 June 2023
Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset, BH20 6JG, UK
https://tankmuseum.org/events/tankfest/
+44 (0)1929 405096

Like an air show but for military vehicles, the Tank Museum’s annual summer festival offers the unique spectacle of historic tanks from a range of conflicts in action. The event has been refreshed for this year, with the same programme now, for the first time, running each day from Friday to Sunday – so there is no excuse for visitors to miss any of the explosive set pieces. Visitors will be able to enjoy live tank displays, talks from experts (including museum curator David Willey), demonstrations, and living history, as well as getting full access to the museum itself.

Exhibitions

The Walt Disney Studios and World War II

Until 24 September 2023
National WWII Museum, 945 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130, USA
www.nationalww2museum.org/events-programs/events/walt-disney-studios-and-world-war-ii
+1 504 528 1944

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the subsequent entry of the US into World War II, Walt Disney’s studio lot in Burbank, California, was requisitioned as an army anti-aircraft base. In response, Disney and his staff pledged support to the war effort. The studio devoted more than 90 per cent of its wartime output to producing training, entertainment, and propaganda films, for no profit. Through more than 500 historical objects and film clips, this fascinating travelling exhibition, in New Orleans through spring and summer, charts Disney’s unique contribution to the war.

King and Country

Until 10 May 2023
Green Howards Museum, Trinity Church Square, Richmond, North Yorkshire, DL10 4QN, UK https://greenhowards.org.uk/event/king-and-country/
Admission free

Marking this coronation year and the 50th anniversary of the current home of the Green Howards Museum, which was opened in the centre of Richmond by King Olav V of Norway in July 1973, this special exhibition looks at the regiment’s many royal connections.

Online exhibition

The Volunteers: Americans join World War I, 1914-1919

Ongoing
National WWI Museum and Memorial, 2 Memorial Drive, Kansas City, MO 64108, USA
www.theworldwar.org/exhibitions/volunteers
Admission free

Prompted by altruism, ambition, a thirst for adventure, or a commitment to the Allied cause in Western Europe, many Americans volunteered for service during World War I before the United States officially became involved in 1917. This digital exhibition looks at their experiences.

Event

Still-life Course: Victorian Army

29-30 April 2023
National Army Museum, Royal Hospital Road, London, SW3 4HT, UK
www.nam.ac.uk/whats-on/still-life-course-victorian-army
£85

In the NAM’s collections is a series of Victorian artworks depicting not just military action, but also the objects and equipment that soldiers often carried. In this two-day course, experts from the London Fine Arts Studio will guide participants as they recreate these images in pastel and oil, light and shade.