RAF Fauld, an ammunition depot where a great tragedy occurred during World War II

@ElentirENG ES 8·25·2023 · 23:12 0

During World War II, the British Royal Air Force (RAF) stored enormous amounts of munitions in various depots.

A gigantic WWII ammunition depot in which an accident buried 14,000 tons of bombs
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In 1941, munitions stored by the RAF totaled 158,000 tons. One of the repositories for this material was at RAF Fauld, located underground near Tutbury, in Staffordshire, England. This warehouse was built in 1939, and its history was marked by a terrible event that occurred there on the morning of November 27, 1944, when between 3,500 and 4,000 tons of explosives exploded. The colossal explosion created a crater 307 meters in diameter and 30 meters deep that still exists.

As they say, misfortunes never come alone. The enormous explosion destroyed a reservoir that was near the powder magazine, as well as several buildings. Between the effects of the explosion and the floods caused by the destruction of the reservoir, 70 people died. The RAF Fauld explosion is on record as one of the largest explosions on record in the British Isles.

Despite the disaster, the RAF recovered this powder magazine, which remained in use until 1966. The magazine was later transferred to the US Army, which continued to use it until 1973. Today the depot is abandoned and sealed and is still a dangerous place, as it is believed that ammunition is still buried there , due to the explosion of 1944. The explorer group IKS Exploration was able to enter these facilities, although he has indicated that they were again sealed after his visit:

You can see here some video captures, in which we see the very long network of tunnels of this old powder magazine, some of them already collapsed, as we see in the last image.