One of the things to remember is the unusual construction of the support columns in the building. Orginally the building was only going to house the military for the duration of WW2 then be turned into a records repository afterwards.

As such the building was constructed to take the enormous weight of thousands of full filling cabinets.

The other thing to remember when looking at photos. There are no actual images of the hole. When the impact occured the area was obscured by fire smoke etc. A little later a section of the second floor collapsed into the breach. So what you see after the event is nothing like the orginal damage.

And just to reflect on some of the earlier posters. I see myself as very much a liberal when it comes to my politics. Having said that, I find it very refreshing to be able to spend time here talking about my true passions, rather than endless, unresolveable debate on political ideals