The Destruction of Dresden

Vonnegut finally describes to us the long-awaited destruction of Dresden. Right before he does so, however, he reminds us of the horrible feeling Billy Pilgrim gets every time he remembers or encounters something to do with Dresden. This indicates the same pain and suffering that Vonnegut himself feels at the memory of such destruction.
"When the Americans and their guards did come out, the sky was black with smoke. The sun was an angry little pinhead. Dresden was like the moon now, nothing but minerals. The stones were hot. Everybody else in the neighborhood was dead. So it goes." (Vonnegut 178) "Billy told her(Montana Wildhack) what had happened to the buildings that used to form cliffs around the stockyards. They had collapsed. Their wood had been consumed, and their stones had crashed down, had tumbled against one another until they locked at last in low and graceful curves." (Vonnegut 179) "American fighter planes came in under the smoke to see if anything was moving. They saw Billy and the rest moving down there. The planes sprayed them with machine-gun bullets, but the bullets missed. Then they saw some other people moving down by the riverside and they shot at them. They hit some of them. So it goes. The idea was to hasten the end of the war." (Vonnegut 180)
This is really the first time I've read about what actually happenned in Dresden. It's horrible. It's clear to me now why Billy, and Vonnegut, for that matter are forever haunted by the experience.