War And The Mind: A New Exhibition At Imperial War Museum london

The Imperial War Museum London in Southwark put on incredible, regular and large-scale, free exhibitions.

From the 27th September 2024 until the 27th April 2025 you can visit their new exhibition called War and the Mind, all about the psychological aspects of warfare: why we go to war, how leader’s justify it, how those that go to war deal with it psychologically and how we remember or think about war. 

Here are ten items that particularly stood out to me. 

1. The Loyalty dagger

The exhibition looked at how regimes or leaders reinforce their citizen’s psychological commitment to their cause. For example, this ‘loyalty’ dagger and scabbard was issued to members of the SS, the Nazi paramilitary unit.

The words etched into it translate as ‘My honour is my loyalty’. The SS also underwent ritualistic ceremonies to further embed loyalty to Nazism in the minds of their soldiers. 

2. German Crimes Calendar

Hatred of the enemy plays a big role in the motivation behind war and propaganda historically has sought to whip this up. 

This is 1918 calendar features one act of German aggression during the First World War for every month.

May’s entry, for example, describes the deaths of nearly 1200 civilians that died when the ocean liner, RMS Lusitania, was hit by a German torpedo. 

3. The Gloves That Were Never Opened

There is a screen that shows clips/audio from the speeches of former Prime Ministers such as Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, justifying their wars in the Falklands (1982) and Iraq (2003). 

These protective gloves were issued to David Hughes, who was part of the team who went to Iraq to search for Weapons of Mass Destruction. They were, however, never opened as no such weapons were ever found. 

4. Recruitment Propaganda 

They display many propaganda posters used by governments to encourage people to sign up to fight. 

This American poster from 1917, for example, plays on the idea of masculinity or manliness.

Th poster below plays on the idea of camaraderie, friendship and adventure. It is a photograph of a group of smiling Irish infantryman from 1916.

It is heartbreaking when you think about the devastating death toll of those that were sent to the front, or those that suffered the trauma of seeing many of their friends die. 

5. Gallows Humour And Reminders of Home

Humour, often dark, has often played a big role in warzones to self-deprecate, mock, let off steam and lift spirits. 

This is definitely more on the dark side, but is a sign from the World War One trenches.

‘Suicide Corner’ is warning fellow soldiers of a particularly dangerous section of trench. 

The two wooden signs below were part of an elaborate system of signposts erected at the Main Operating Base at Lashkar Gah, Helmand, Afghanistan between 2006 and 2013.

These two reference Derby’s Pride Park football ground and The Old Poet’s Corner pub in Ashover, Derbyshire, reminders of home in a hostile, unfamiliar environment. 

6. British Troops Take LSD

There is a video of British troops during the Cold War trying to obey orders after taking LSD, as part of a 1964 experiment to test non-lethal forms of defence. 

After ten minutes the ‘attacking section has lost all sense of urgency’. After fifty minutes ‘radio communication became difficult, if not impossible’. One man nearly succeeded in chopping down a tree with only a spade.

After an hour and ten minutes of taking the drug, with ‘one man climbing a tree to feed the birds’, the troop commander gave up. 

It obviously raises, as well, some ethical questions around the treatment of soldiers in that period.

7. ‘Half the job is done’

An example of psychological warfare during World War Two, this is a leaflet dropped by the Germans from the air targeting American soldiers fighting in North-West Europe in 1945. 

As you can see, it shows troops replaced by skeletons and tomb markers spreading across the continent. The idea being to demoralise and get inside the heads of those soldiers.

8. The Child’s Mitten

This tiny knitted mitten belonged to the baby son of RAF flying officer George Shrimpton. George would carry it with him, in is flying suit, on bombing raids, when his chances of survival of a thirty-mission bombing raid was around fifty percent. 

Lucky charms and tokens can be morale boosting, sooth superstitious nerves, as well as reminders of home. 

9. Odette Sansom’s doll

This is a rag doll that was made by Odette Samson, an undercover agent in World War Two.

Codename ‘Lise’, Odette was part of the Special Operations Executive, a department I have written about before here. They were highly trained agents who carried out sabotage missions and reconnaissance in occupied countries. The SOE was also the first time women were given frontline roles.

Odette Sansom was captured in Nazi-occupied France, interrogated and tortured. Despite what she was put through, she replied to every question with ‘I have nothing to say’, saving her fellow agents. She made this doll whilst in Fresnes Prison in Paris in 1943 and gave it to the German padre there, one of the few officials who had shown her compassion.

Remarkably, Odette survived Nazi imprisonment and died at 82 years old in 1995. She was the first woman to be given the George Cross for her bravery and service in the war. 

10. London Can Take It

On a screen you can watch some of the short film, London Can Take It.

It shows the resilience of Londoners during the Blitz, people going about their business surrounded by the rubble and destruction of the previous night’s bombing raids. The focus is the ‘stiff upper lip’ image of Londoners and how the bombs could never break their morale. 

It was made in 1940 by the Ministry of Information for an American audience, distributed in the States by Warner Bros. The US was still neutral at that time and it was part of an effort to bring them into the war.  

How To Visit 

Hopefully this blog post has encouraged you to visit the exhibition if you are able to. It was really fascinating and very in-depth, taking around an hour to an hour and a half in total.

The exhibition, as mentioned above, is on until the 27th April. The museum is open from 10am-6pm daily and it is located on the third floor. Step free access via the lift is available. 

Find out more about visiting here.

Thank you for reading, more of London’s museums and historical sights below…