Polish Army Museum

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications.
Primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of the article are generally not sufficient for a Wikipedia article. Please include more appropriate citations from reliable sources, or discuss the issue on the talk page.
This article has been tagged since November 2007.

Coordinates: 52°13′55″N, 21°1′33″E

M-3 Halftrack in front of the museum

Polish Army Museum (Polish: Muzeum Wojska Polskiego) is a museum in Warsaw documenting the military aspects of the history of Poland. Created in 1920, it occupies a wing of the building of the Polish National Museum as well as several branches in Poland.

The forecourt of the museum houses several dozen armoured vehicles, artillery pieces and aircraft, being an eclectic mix of Soviet, western and Polish equipment, mostly from the World War II era.

The indoor galleries concentrate on the military history of Poland since the 10th century, and are particularly strong on Poland's era of military greatness in the 1600s, through the decline into anarchy in the 1700s. Several rooms are devoted to Poland's part in the Napoleonic Wars, and the national uprisings of 1830-31 and 1863. By far the largest part of exhibition space is devoted to the 20th century, especially World War II.

Additionally there is a permanent exhibition of oriental arms and armour from the museum's own extensive collection, which includes many world-class items from Ottoman Turkey, the Crimean Tatar Khanate, Mongolia and Japan.

The museum is run as a department of the Polish armed forces, an arrangement which brings advantages - such as limitless access to military surplus stock - but also disadvantages (not least the lack of a proper giftshop/bookshop, since by law Polish military facilities cannot sell goods to the public on a commercial basis).