hi everyone welcome to mauritius in world war 1 and 2 at the natural history museum
okay i did not know that the national history museum has an upstairs with a whole war memorial
let's go check it out there's a lot a lot a lot a lot of stairs to get up here and all
the way along the stairs there's interesting information and then finally like that oh wow
it's the pyramids of plains de miljeu plains de mayans oh there's oh it's me reflected
but it's only just been opened well yeah relatively speaking they start with the
story of world war one which is here archduke ferdinand and onwards but have a look here
this is what a mauritian soldier would have worn during world war one
yeah and in case you didn't know a lot of Mauritians were actually in world war one and two
so there you go like 1500 mauritians served in mesopotamia and even more
joined the french and british armies and 200 in the merchant navy
this is the world war ii uniform that the mauritians would have worn i wonder if this
is the guns that they would have been using probably with the bayonets and everything
and the women also had uniforms the woman's auxiliary something or other wow so in world war
ii 35 000 Mauritians enlisted themselves and most of them oh they got paid 89 cents a day
but the majority of them worked in supporting units like cooks and everything
but quite a few were actually soldiers fascinating oh they got some awesome stuff about spies
and things that they hid in baseballs and shaving cream and watches
look at this boat
tlamber talamba steamboat and even in mauritius itself they built buildings and fortifications for
world war ii which a lot of them are still standing that's a suitcase already packed for him
little baton and some other bits and bobs and there are sent letters home
there's a test your knowledge section
planes and if you guys remember they used to land seaplanes in Bay de Tombeau
during world war ii these are really fantastic models such detail on them
they've got this great big painting and those sort of look like caricatures here of the guys
oh is our headline mauritians serving in the british army
have a look at this the mauritian squadron 1942 he's actually got mauritius x on the side of his plane
awesome there's some fascinating stories here the german prisoners in mauritius all because of the
sinking of the bismarck german battleship and then they were eventually taken away to um on
another ship heading from Mombasa but they were prisoners so they tried to mount a coup to over throw
the ship and stuff and wow what a fascinating story oh and then a place where he's left to
go which is the jewish detention camp that was actually in mauritius yeah in near rose hill yeah
virtual reality platform let's see what happens
i don't think they've installed it yet they actually have a uniform
and a helmet right out here we actually probably touch it
oh here are the big models oh wow and an aircraft carrier
and some other ships and a submarine
man and what's called a wellington bomber
and a Riki with a map of italy this is really classic it's
a public warning so that you shouldn't be scared if you see the british ships
but know what the german ones look like so that you can take cover ships and planes airships
this is the trophy won by the mauritian young soldiers and some medals that were earned
i like those field rations did you show them
whiskey flavored fudge well yes there's a beautiful work of art depicting the
mauritian soldiers in mauritania there are some bits that would
dug up red army soldier buttons oh this is uh russian stuff
this is actual servicemen's register you can see when they enlisted what their number was
there's were all the mauritians yes look at their names there they look all like very recognizable
mauritians surnames they do there he has his address Curepipe he's from Curepipe a lot of them came
from Curepipe almost all of them on this page came from Curepipe yeah there's some Vacoas
wow that's fascinating
so down the spiral staircase is it's like a tower and there are a lot a lot
of stairs but luckily the building upstairs is air-conditioned so you have to look forward
it and there's a toilet pretty decent awesome to know upstairs from the natural
history museum you have to come check it out world war one and two mauritius in
it well anyway everyone thanks for watching see you again next time