The Firebombing of Dresden, 1945

What the Munchkin Wrangler said. Go read it.

Then, if you want, go read The Fall of Berlin, 1945. Find the account where a German soldier is sitting on a tram in Berlin and he tells everyone that based on the horrors that the Germans inflicted on the Russians, that what was going to happen to Berlin would be both unspeakably horrible and wholly deserved.