This Cold War gallery has some interesting surprises for visitors as they make their way around, and it is a major new contributor to the Royal Artillery Museum.
Entrance to the Cold War Gallery can be found opposite the main reception area. Here visitors will find themselves on a guided path that takes them around a series of ‘bays'; each bay having a theme, and these themes take the visitor chronologically through the period from 1945 to the present day. There are some very big guns in this gallery and they are introduced both in the display material and by audio handsets. The display boards provide photographs and historical information, together with a timeline that develops as the visitor progresses around the gallery, ending with the events of the recent campaign in Iraq.
Visitors will meet guns like ‘Green Mace', a huge experimental anti-aircraft gun that could fire at high speed from a pair of revolving drums at the breech. It was eventually dropped in favour of the anti aircraft missile system, Thunderbird, but it is a fascinating glimpse of the technology of the period. The Garrington field gun is another experimental piece that never went into service, but it shows how the Army was developing ideas to cope with the prospect of the battlefield in a potentially nuclear environment. Long range guns like the 155mm M40 and the 175mm M107 are on display, the latter capable of hitting targets at a range of over 30 kilometres. The 155mm guns on display include not only the M109, which was a major contributor to the Army's firepower in the Gulf War, but also SP70, the international development that was eventually dropped in favour of the AS90, which is now in service and which has just done sterling work in Iraq and completes the tour of the gallery.
During 2005, the gallery was further enhanced by the opening of the Ammunition room where projectiles from Roman catapult ammunition to AS90 rounds can be found on display.
The Trophy Gallery or East Wing Gallery is home to the two most famous guns in the collection, if not the world the guns from which the Victoria Cross is made. These two iconic guns can be seen whenever the museum is open or by special appointment.
