The RAF’s Secret Weapon That Terrified the Nazis

The British aircraft dart over Nazi-occupied France. Below, German tanks are already on the move, aiming to wipe out the gains of D-Day. The railway leading to Normandy has to be destroyed.

The Mosquito pathfinders give the signal. A group of Avro Lancasters releases a wave of general-purpose bombs, but none strike.

It is time to go bigger.

One of the pilots drives his Lancasters forward and releases a payload twice the weight of anything the RAF has ever unleashed. But as it falls, it lands on a hillside, far from any visible rail line. There’s no explosion.

“Was it a dud?” one of the commanders asks over the radio.

Then the trees begin to move. A roar rises from the point of impact, and an earthquake shakes the entire region.

Britain’s newest weapon didn’t miss; it found its mark 60 feet deep.

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