When the Enola Gay flew over Japan and dropped the first atomic bomb, the blast was not an accidental one like the largest blast during World War II that accidentally took place in England.
Satellite imagery shows a huge crater filled by a forest in England that was caused by an underground munitions explosion known as the RAF Fauld explosion that was caused by a military accident.
The exact number of people killed in the explosion is not known, but a National Arboretum Memorial has been placed near the crater that lists the number of victims at 70.
Between 3,900 and 4,400 tons of ordinance and weapons, mostly high explosives were ignited by what authorities believe was an Italian prisoner of war who was working in the underground munitions depot with a brass mallet that caused a spark that ignited the first of two explosions.
Witness accounts of the blast heard two deafening explosions and reported seeing a mushroom cloud and two columns of black smoke that rose thousands of feet.
The blast left a crater the length of a football field across and 100 feet deep over a 12 acre area. The crater is known as the Hanbury Crater near Hanbury, Staffordshire.
There were rules in place that brass tools were prohibited, and wooden battens were provided for the workers who had been working without a manager of the facility due to the shortage of workers in Nov. of 1944 when the blast took place.
The explosion destroyed a nearby reservoir, flooding the area, and the blast resulted in damage to structures three quarters of a mile in each direction from where the crater marks the spot of the explosion.
Considering the literally thousands of bombs that Hitler’s air force dropped on London, none of the bombs equaled the explosion that was kept secret for many years.
Tourists can visit the crater today by taking the path from the Cock Inn Pub in Hanbury, a structure that was damaged by the largest explosion in England’s history, to the crater that features 150 species of trees.