Jules Xavier

Shilo Stag

There have been some interesting additions to the RCA Museum when doors closed to public during Manitoba’s Code Red COVID-19 restrictions.

The good news is the museum re-opened after restrictions were loosened for those wishing to explore military history and artifacts — including new acquisitions.

RCA Museum director Andrew Oakden said despite being closed for more than three months, museum staff kept busy creating new displays, completing renovations and building virtual tours.

There is a new virtual 360 Second World War gallery available online. Visit the museum’s website http://en.rcamuseum.com/virtual-360-ww2-gallery/ to view an impressive display, where seven locations are highlighted by pulsating circles.

“From the middle of the gallery, you see all five sections of the artillery during [Second World War]. We updated the gallery last fall and prepared a 360-degree virtual tour due to COVID,” he explained about the process of creating the virtual tour. “You need three parts to do a tour like this — photographing, joining and a program to run them.”

“You need photos from 360 degrees,” Oakden explained about taking photographs from all angles. “And you need a camera to shoot everything in RAW.”

A Canon Rebel T79 with a regular lens was his camera of choice, but Oakden said it would have been easier with a wide angle lens. Armed with a tripod, he shot the display at every 20 degrees. For the seven sections, he took 54 photos at 30 mega bites per photo. Then he used PT Goui to join it together.

“PT Goui is a great program. The camera is good,” he said. “I just looked online for the proper settings and shot in RAW, high resolution and white balance.”

He said the British Museum’s virtual tours were his inspiration for the project.

An interactive online tour the Base museum has provided for visitors is UBIQUE 150, which was a celebration commemorating 150 years of artillery in Canadian military history. The display was originally a touchscreen museum display.

Oakden said COVID-19 had other plans and now the display is available online as a “photo interactive based on time periods and sub-categories,” according to the website.

It has six different time periods and shows artifacts representative of those time periods.

“There are 11 categories with three to four images in each,” he noted. “We don’t cover much material on the web site but it goes along well as a regular interactive. The primary purpose was a museum interactive, but we’re using it as a web and online exhibit. The online interactive is not virtual.”

The photo gallery covers 150 years of history and artifacts and everything which makes up 1RCHA’s Regimental history. Collections manager Clive Prothero-Brooks co-ordinated the slides, including producing or photographing objects from the collection.

“We’re lucky to have most of the collection here. We can fill our cases,” said Oakden. “We have enough of our own. We don’t have any loans.”

While visitors to the website can take advantage of these virtual tours and interactive displays, there are two significant additions to the museum for visitors to peruse. They include a 23-inch by five-inch jagged metal fragment of a M777 barrel which exploded during an exercise in Eastern Canada plus an extensive collection of Second World War Great Gunner BGen P.A. Stanley Todd.

The 5th Regiment from Quebec contacted Oakden after a 155mm shell became stuck in the M777 Howitzer barrel during an artillery exercise and military technicians had to detonate it to rid the gun of the explosive.

According to the museum’s website, technicians attempted to remove the shell with a hydraulic press. After exhausting all options, the order came down to destroy the barrel.

“The 5th Regiment dismantled and transported the barrel to the Trois-Riverieres shooting range. There, they detonated the barrel with 36 blocks of C4 plastic explosive, neutralizing the shell and obliterating the barrel into jagged fragments.”

Another detailed collection from a First World War Gunner was donated by former sports commentator Don Cherry. A story on Cherry’s great-uncle Sgt Thomas William MacKenzie war memorabilia now has its own display case.

BGen Todd’s donated collection features more than 100 artifacts. Born in 1898, he was Commander of the 4th Canadian Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Canadian Division during the Normandy invasion at Juno Beach in France during the Second World War. As well, he was second-in-command on D-Day. He was the mastermind of the Canadian artillery plan for D-Day.

Of note, he opened the inaugural RCA Museum at Camp Shilo in 1962. His collection is extensive and detailed. It includes two shell casing fired from his ship on D-Day. He was 99 when he died in 1996.

Another change being worked on is a small section of the museum, where traffic does not spend time, noted Oakden. The space is not used effectively, especially around a Victoria Cross display which goes unnoticed based on its location. It’s a major project for senior curator Jonathan Ferguson.