A crashed German Heinkel He 111 bomber, 1942

Photograph, World War Two, Air Operations (1939-1945), 1942.

This twin-engined Heinkel is fitted with a device on the front to help reduce the effects of barrage balloon cables. This added weight and greatly reduced the aircraft's speed and bomb load capacity. It is possible that the bomber simply ran out of fuel rather than being shot down since there is little evidence of battle damage.

From a collection of 185 official photographs.