At 11.11am on Monday, 28 November, 1944, 4,000 tonnes of bombs and ammunition exploded at the RAF base at Fauld in Hanbury.

 At 11.11am on Monday, 28 November, 1944, 4,000 tonnes of bombs and ammunition exploded at the RAF base at Fauld in Hanbury.

The blast occurred in 180,000 sq ft of underground corridors - 12ft high and 20ft wide - which were used to store RAF munitions during the Second World War. In these concrete passages, bombs and ammunition were tightly packed. During wartime, corners had been cut in the way the base was run due to the shortage of manpower and greater demand on resources.

The blast created a 400ft deep by three quarters of a mile crater, which has now become a poignant landmark in the British countryside due to its morbid history.

Bodies were strewn everywhere, while others were left entombed in the warren of concrete corridors, and even the civilian population were caught up in the devastation. The original death toll announced by the then Minister of War was 80, of whom 25 were actually working in the mine at the time. Other estimates range from 70 to 80 - the exact number will probably never be known.

Although the exact cause of the explosion remains unknown, it is believed a site worker used a brass chisel rather than a wooden batten to remove a detonator from a live bomb, causing it to explode and ignite other bombs on the site.