On May 30-31, 1942, a force of one thousand British bombers hit this third largest city in Germany. Incendiaries were mixed with the explosives. The city center was burned to the ground. Only the Cathedral survived, burned and baked, but standing tall. When the 104th Infantry division entered, artillery fire was needlessly directed against the west entrance Rose Window. The superb medieval stained glass windows had been removed to safety in 1941 and the remaining pieces were of more modern craftsmanship. When I entered the Cathedral, only one-eighth of the residents remained on the western bank of the Rhine and white sheets hung from nearly every window.