By Bryan Dean | Staff Writer
Want to see the bathroom mirror Hitler looked in the day he killed himself in his Berlin bunker? How about the ornate silver service that was onboard the USS Oklahoma before it capsized on Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor?
No need to go to the Smithsonian.
Two museums in Oklahoma City offer a look at World War II history with a particular emphasis on the experience of Oklahomans who fought in the war.
The 45th Infantry museum
The 45th Infantry Division Museum at 2145 NE 36 traces the history of the U.S. Army Division that included Oklahoma’s National Guard during the war.
Museum curator Mike Gonzales said one of his most popular exhibits is a collection of items soldiers from the 45th collected from Hitler’s private residences.
“We have the largest collection of items that once belonged to Hitler on public display in the world,” Gonzales said. “The vast majority were donated by World War II veterans of the 45th.”
Members of the 45th were the first to reach Hitler’s Munich apartment, which they turned into a Division Headquarters. A cape that once belonged to Hitler is on prominent display at the museum, along with many other items removed from the apartment by members of the 45th.
The division later was stationed at Berchtesgaden, Hitler’s Austrian mountain retreat. The museum has a box removed from Berchtesgaden which once held copies of Hitler’s Mein Kampf translated into various languages.
Then there is the mirror. Lt. Colonel Horace Calvert of Oklahoma City visited Hitler’s Berlin bunker as a guest of the occupying Russian forces at the end of the war and noticed the mirror hanging in the bathroom in Hitler’s private residence within the bunker. It was one of few remaining items that hadn’t been removed from the bunker after Russian troops seized it.
“They must have thought it was attached to the wall,” Gonzales said. “If you think about it, this was the mirror Hitler looked in when he shaved the day he shot himself.”
A display at the museum includes the mirror along with a photo showing Calvert with the mirror outside the bunker on the day he salvaged it.
The museum also has a large collection of World War II weaponry. Some of the weapons, particularly some of the German arms on display, are on loan from the Smithsonian or the Center for Military History. But a large collection of weapons spanning U.S. military history from the Revolutionary War to Vietnam is on permanent display at the museum.
The collection was donated by Jordan Reaves, an Oklahoma collector who donated the items to the 45th Infantry Division Museum in 1980.
It includes an extensive collection of American arms from World War II.
The museum also has an exhibit dedicated to Bill Mauldin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist who drew the Willy and Joe cartoons during the war.
Mauldin created the cartoon as a member of the 45th before he was transferred and began drawing cartoons for Stars and Stripes.
“We have the largest collection of Willy and Joe cartoons in the world,” Gonzales said. “We have 226 of his original cartoons including some that were never published.”
The museum also has exhibits honoring the division’s Medal of Honor winners, several Sherman tanks and artillery pieces from World War II and many other items from the era.
Oklahoma History Center
The Oklahoma History Center, 2401 N Laird Ave., has a smaller collection of artifacts from World War II, but is home to a large collection of items from the USS Oklahoma.
Hit by as many as nine Japanese torpedoes on Dec. 7, 1941, the battleship capsized, killing 429 of her crew.
Matt Reed, the curator who put together the history center’s military collection, said members of the USS Oklahoma crew donated a large collection of items including uniforms and personal effects. A uniform on display in the museum’s USS Oklahoma case belonged to Herb Rommell, a turret officer who used the ship’s loudspeaker to warn shipmates of the attack as Japanese planes dropped torpedoes.
Rommel slid off the ship as it listed before capsizing. He swam through water filled with oil and dead bodies. Reed said Rommel’s uniform is still stained with the oil.
Another popular item on display at the history center is the ship’s silver service. An ornate punch bowl and cups adorned with the state seal were removed from the ship just before it went to Pearl Harbor.
Reed said a reproduction of the punch bowl is still used at some formal functions hosted by the governor.
“We have a lot of things down in our collection that are still waiting to be brought up,” Reed said. “We have the ship’s wheel and pieces of the decking. The silver service that is out now is probably a third or a quarter of the entire silver service. We have crewmen’s uniforms, photo albums, souvenirs they brought home.”
The history center displays items from the Army, Navy, Marines and Army Air Corps, along with a case devoted to the homefront, which displays ration stamps and items from those who stayed behind to build the weapons and supplies needed to win the war.
Those who already have seen the history center’s World War II collection have reason to come back regularly, Reed said.
“We have to rotate artifacts out so the light and conditions don’t damage them,” Reed said. “This is not like the old museum where I came when I was 6 and now I’m 35 and it’s the same stuff. We’ve had numerous exhibits that have been up and gone in the two years since we’ve been open. All of the World War II cases right now, we have artifacts prepped and ready to be changed out.”
