The Museum of World War II is not a museum in the traditional sense.  Most of the items are not behind cases and they don’t have many traditional displays, at least not yet.  In fact, it has only been open to all but a small circle of friends for a few years.  When it was opened to the public, the Globe covered it and provided background on the collection.

WBUR did this more recent piece in June of last year.

Here’s what one reviewer posted recently on Google:

The collection in this museum is Stunning! They Have EVERYTHING! Look at the virtual tour on the web site for detailed information. One thing is you can Handle a lot of this stuff. We were allowed to actually encode a message and then decode ON A WORLD WAR 2 ENIGMA MACHINE! Are you kidding? Hands on, Marvelous.

Most of the weapons (except handguns) can be picked right up and tried on for size, you can actually get an idea of what an Sturmgewehr 44, assault rifle 44 felt like. That is considered the first assault rifle made. Same goes for Thompson submachine gun, M1 Garrand, just about any long gun from the war. Although you cannot pick them up, the 50 caliber, 30 caliber machine guns are displayed in the open on tripods, you get an idea of how they actually felt…. And we have not even mentioned the sherman tank, private papers of FDR, Churchill, Hitler….

A collection that has to be seen!

A reviewer on Trip Advisor (29 5-star ratings and 2 4-star ratings) wrote:

Nothing else like it anywhere.  As a retired Air Force Lt. Col. I have visited many military museums across the world. The Museum of World War II located in Natick, Ma has done a better job then any other. Better because of the flow (from country to country that became involved) and because of the sheer volume of original documents and artifacts.

It is expected that the collection will be housed in a major museum to be built in the area. This is your opportunity to see the collection now.

Suggested donation: $15 – $25 paid to the museum.

Transportation: This is the one event that’s not near a T stop.  If you don’t have a car, please speak up.  If you do have a car and are willing to bring one or two people with you, please speak up.  Let’s make sure that everyone can take advantage of this special opportunity.

Note: Please download and complete this waiver and bring it with you.