the threat of radioactive fallout,

原子塵會從天而降、

of mutually assured destruction and of the end of the world.

相互保證毀滅，

But they don't have to be:

世界末日也將來臨。

any large enough explosion will cause a mushroom cloud.

蘑菇雲未必如是：

And it's happened in Britain: right here.

任何爆炸，只要夠大，

This crater was once RAF Fauld, an old mining operation

都能產生蘑菇雲 。

converted to an underground bomb storage depot for the Royal Air Force.

英國此處，就曾經有這樣的爆炸。

Underground storage was meant to be safer:

這坑洞本來是RAF Fauld，

one of the problems with munitions dumps is that the enemy

由舊礦場改裝而成，

just needs to hit them with one bomb and the whole lot goes up.

讓皇家空軍 將炸彈存在地底。

This site seemed perfect: but there was a problem.

地底倉庫理應更安全。

Because this was built in the 1930s for small bombs,

堆存火藥的麻煩處之一，

the sort that one person can carry,

就是敵人 只需投下一枚炸彈，

the sort that you can move on a conveyor belt,

就能一併炸掉所有火藥。

the sort that the Army can fire from a field gun across the trenches.

這裡看似完美。

That's why these old quarries with all their tunnels and caverns were perfect.

不過卻有一個問題：

But then the Second World War moved on,

這是在1930年建成的，

and bombing became a job for the Air Force,

專存放小型炸彈，

and the bombs got bigger and bigger and bigger, fast: half a ton, one ton, two tons.

小得可以隨身攜帶、

And the war effort needed many, many more bombs than had been predicted.

可以放在輸送帶上運載、

Rapid changes in supply and demand meant that the underground depots were filled

可以讓軍方在戰場上

far beyond anything like their original capacity.

射過戰壕。

By the end of 1944, the men here at RAF Fauld were storing stacks of high incendiary bombs

所以，這個舊礦場的

outside the mine until they could find space inside.

隧道和洞穴十分合適。

There was a war on.

不過二戰發展下去，

They had to make it work.

轟炸敵人由空軍負責，

Monday, 27th November, 1944.

炸彈也愈變愈大。

The commanding officer was on leave.

變大得很快：

The officer responsible for the underground stores was also on leave --

半噸、一噸、兩噸。

and it was his deputy's day off too.

戰事亦令炸彈需求

Everyone who was down in the depot and in charge was inexperienced and massively overworked.

遠遠超出預期。

According to the official inquiry,

供求波動急速，

someone tried to remove a detonator from a live bomb with a brass chisel.

地底倉庫也被填滿，

And brass chisels cause sparks.

嚴重超越了本來的容量。

In Morocco, 1500 miles away, seismographs recorded what felt like a distant earthquake.

1944年末，

A hundred miles away, people heard a rumble carried on the wind.

RAF Fauld的人員

Four miles away, a shock wave blasted out windows.

要將高度易燃的炸彈

And here: a mushroom cloud rose into the sky.

堆在礦坑外面，

4,000 tonnes of bombs had gone up in one terrible chain reaction,

直至坑內騰出空間。

the largest explosion ever in the British Isles.

當時正在交戰。

This crater was once a hill, with a farmhouse on top of it:

他們必須繼續運作。

no trace of that farmhouse, or the people who lived there, was ever found.

1944年11月27日，星期一，

The bombs that hadn't immediately exploded were thrown into the air

這裡的司令正在休假。

and rained down for miles around, along with millions of tons of debris.

負責地底倉庫的軍官

A nearby dam collapsed, sending floodwaters down into factories and houses in a nearby valley.

亦在休假。

The exact death toll will never be known; at least 60, perhaps 90.

他的副手也在休假。

It took months before all the bodies were recovered, and some were never found.

倉庫內的所有人，

And in the Air Force reports, held classified for years and years after the explosion,

包括負責人，

along with the names of the dead and page after page

既無經驗，

itemising every bit of the destruction, there is this phrase:

工作量亦沉重不堪。

"columns of black smoke and debris rose in gigantic mushroom form".

根據官方調查，有人

When you're rushed, when you're inexperienced, anyone can get complacent,

在移除炸彈上的引爆器時，

anyone can cut corners, anyone can make a mistake.

用了黃銅鑿。

Even working with high explosives.

而黃銅鑿

Now slowly, over years, the crater was cleared and reclaimed; decades later,

會產生火花。

what remains is an odd scar on the landscape.

1500里外的摩洛哥，

About half the bomb store actually managed to survive the explosion;

地震儀測出

and while the bombs were removed, there are still tunnels and storage rooms hidden under the crater.

像似遠方地震的震動。

But after careless explorers started damaging the site,

100里外，

all the known entrances were filled in.

人們聽到「轟隆」聲

And given the warnings about unexploded bombs still in the crater,

隔空傳過來。

I'm not about to climb this fence and go any further.

4里外，一股衝擊波震碎了窗戶。

There is one little interesting note, though,

而在此處，

right at the end of the story:

一朵蘑菇雲 緩緩地升上空中。

through the late 40s and the 50s,

4000噸炸彈，

the American military kept asking for records and details of the explosion.

在可怕的連鎖反應下，

How big was it, exactly?

造成英倫三島有史以來 最大的爆炸。

What was the damage to the nearby land, and was it by earthquake or by blast wave?

這坑洞本來是小山丘，

What happens if you, essentially,

上面還有一間農舍。

detonate something with the yield of a tactical nuclear bomb underground?

那間農舍 沒有留下一絲痕跡，

Britain never answered.

住在裡面的人也灰飛煙滅。

And America went on to make its own mushroom clouds.

沒有被馬上引爆的炸彈

[Translating these subtitles? Add your name here!]

被炸上空中，