A delicate, almost whimsical depiction of a land mine explosion in the Great War from this official War Artist and long-lived illustrator. Two other versions of this subject are in the Imperial War Museum.

As a captain in the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, Henderson served on the Western front 1916-17, all the while sending letters home to his future wife, Helen Knox-Shaw. Their correspondence and the artist's accompanying illustrations were published in 1917 as 'Letters to Helen', detailing all of the danger and drudgery of Henderson's deployment to France. When describing an explosion of an ammuntion dump in December 1916, which he also illustrates, Henderson noted how 'The smoke from a large explosion usually assumes a queer tree-like form and disperses slowly.'