A passing despatch rider reads a beachhead sign warning against butterfly bombs, Normandy, 1944

Photograph, World War Two, North West Europe (1944-1945), 1944.

The German butterfly bomb was a highly effective two-kilogram anti-personnel weapon dropped by aircraft. Containers holding between six and 108 bombs were released from an aircraft and would then burst open, scattering their contents over a wide area. The device was a precursor of modern cluster bombs.

British official photograph BNA 13474. From a collection of 33 official photographs relating to D-Day and the Battle of Normandy, 1944.