Victory In Europe: Housekeeping in Hell

A flaming stake had been driven through Germany's heart, and by the laws of sorcery this should quiet the beast. In outward appearance Germany, once the most highly integrated nation of the Old World, was a quartered corpse. Perhaps 50% of Germany's proud cities were wrecked.

Moreover, the machine shop of Europe was shut down. The Ruhr had received 150 tons of bombs per square mile. (Battered London averaged only twelve.)

But it was not easy to estimate the degree of Germany's physical destruction. The long arm of Allied bombing and the progress of the...