Perhaps they were particularly unbearable for the Germans, who knew that they would lose Normandy, and suspected that their fight would be in vain. Oberfeldwebel Braun, the NCO of a German tank hunting unit recalls a moment under fire, in the battle to take le Quesnay, as he and his courier were trying to run a rescue mission to one of their destroyed tanks. No sooner had we gotten to the sunken road when we had to take cover in a trench, for the British began to lay a fire-roller on the southern outskirts of le Quesnay, and this rolling barrage was moving steadily towards us, rending the ground with prehistoric violence. At moments like these, when death seems close and certain, one is incapable of thought. So close to the earth do you lie, that you feel as thin as a pancake.
Every muscle is tensed, all breathing stops.
The heart beats madly, and the nerves are taut and vibrating. This is what happens under this hell thought out by humans. With an almost mathematical exactitude the fire-roller destroys the countryside yard by yard. Close in front, a shell screamed down and exploded, throwing earth and stones over us. Then another detonation sent a heavy body flying through the air, to thump down on the right of my trench.