32
The aerial bombardment lasted a little over two hours, but for everyone caught in it, it seemed to go on forever. At an altitude of three thousand meters, wave after wave of German Junkers and Heinkel bombers arrived and unleashed a hail of bombs, as well as rivers of incendiary fluid. The airfield and its surroundings were rocked incessantly by explosions. Fires raged, and this shortest night of the year glowed red-hot. Sometimes a pause came in the bombardment, like a fermata in a piece of music. A deafening silence then descended on the area, and one might think that the savage concert was over, that the survivors could now all make their way home. However, a new wave of bombers would then appear from over the horizon, fly unhindered over their targets, and relieve themselves of the
