The whole spectacle seemed like the end of the world, pure apocalypse. Fighting broke out over Berlin, fighter planes swept from horizon to horizon and the sky lit up with fire. Bombs burst across the entire city, their explosions shaking the earth with a deafening sound, and houses collapsed. After each explosion, clumps of smoke and thick dust were thrown up over the roofs of buildings, windows shook, and black clouds covered the city. A shower of stones, splintered wood, metal shards, and dust and ash came down like rain on the streets of Berlin.
After the attack, those Germans who had survived were unable to recognize their own city. It was a wasteland of ruins, stone fragments, and craters. All Berlin was strewn with broken brick, twisted metal, piles of debris over which soot and sh
