View from No. 460 Squadron's Sergeants' Mess at RAF Binbrook, Lincolnshire, England, 3 July 1943. The huge column of smoke is from the explosion of a full bomb load from Lancaster 'T for Tommy' DV 172, which was being prepared for an operation that evening. The bomber had been parked in a dispersal bay away from the station buildings and the bomb bay doors were accidentally opened, causing the bomb load to fall out and eventually explode. Two Lancasters were blown to pieces, five more wrecked and written off, four others holed but repairable, and one slightly damaged. Much other damage was caused but astonishingly nobody was injured, and as the squadron history proudly asserts: 'In spite of damaged runways and shrapnel torn bombers, 17 aircraft took off and bombed Cologne'. [Peter Firkins, Strike and return, p. 87; AWM P05155.013, photographer Harry Tickle
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