<i>Royal Air Force Maintenance Command, 1939-1945.</i><br>
Oblique aerial view of the crater caused by the detonation of 3,500 tons of high explosive in the New High Explosive Bomb Area at No. 21 Maintenance Unit at Fauld, near Hanbury, Staffordshire, at 11.11 am on 27 November 1944.  RAF Fauld, situated in a former gypsum mine, was the main repository of HE ordnance in the country.  The explosion, calculated at some 4 kilotonnes, constitutes the world's largest non-nuclear explosion.  23 workers at the site, both RAF personnel and Italian prisoners of war, were killed, as were 41 workers at a nearby plaster works, and a number of local inhabitants.  The view is from the west, with Stonepit Hills and the RAF camp visible at the top.
Royal Air Force official photographer, Devon  S A (Flt Lt)
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<td>This photograph <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205023032">CH 20852</a> comes from the collections of the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.iwm.org.uk/">Imperial War Museums</a>.
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