I've often had questions and done a little searching about just was it like to be on the ground in Germany under those massive bomber streams with all the AA and machine gun fire. Not found much.
It was unpleasant as hell. You spend time alternately terrified that you're going to die in a flash and then incredible relief that the bombing is either moving away from you or has ended. At least that raid has.
Then fatigue sets in after you're subjected to days, weeks, or months of bombing attacks. The terror slowly becomes a sense of resignation, but the resignation never fully replaces the terror. Eventually you're not afraid you're going to die, you become sure of it.
During the attacks you're either hiding in basements or shelters, but nothing keeps out the sounds or vibrations, either of the bombing or the response from the ground.
And you'll never forget seeing the city in which you're growing up go from a medieval showpiece to a cratered landscape littered with rubble and even, sometimes, bodies.
Even years, decades, after the war ends you cringe when you hear airplanes or loud noises. A car backfiring can cause you to jump out of your skin. Fireworks shows aren't special at all. The dreams you had regularly for years after the war finally begin to fade, but can come back unbidden.
And for the rest of your life you get a queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach when you see pictures of Hitler or his inner circle.
All of that is paraphrased from conversations I had over many years with the parents of one of my best friends, John. John's first generation American. Both of his parents were born in the Germany and grew up there through the rise of the Nazis and the devastation of World War II.
Willy grew up in a smaller town outside of major population centers, but Barbara grew up in Nuremberg. Both witnessed many raids, and both were still clearly affected by their experiences even when I was talking to them in the 1970s and 1980s. They were kind enough to talk to me at length about their experiences for some of my history classes in college.