In war’s dark shadow
“Up to 4,000 tons of ordnance exploded in a bunker in 1944 creating a crater 300 feet deep”
It’s not often I find myself unsettled while shooting. One time standing on a peg surrounded by curious cattle, another standing on top of a 55ft pigeon tower with a Force 6 gale trying to blow me away.
However, when I travelled to Castle Hayes Shoot in Staffordshire it wasn’t cattle or wind that was bothering me, but bombs. Lots of them. One of the shoot’s owners, Rupert Major, casually informed me that their biggest landmark is the Hanbury Crater. Between 3,500 and 4,000 tons of ordnance exploded in a bunker in 1944 creating a huge crater 300 feet deep and 250 yards across, killing around 70 people.
A nearby reservoir was obliterated in the incident, along with a complete farm, in what was one of the