[[File:HerdenkingVuurgrensRotterdam1940 2007 edit1.jpg|right|thumb|Lights along the fire line memorialize the bombing of Rotterdam, 14 May 2007]]
{{blockquote|When the invasion of The NetherlandsHolland took place I was recalled from leave and went on my first operation on 15 May 1940 against mainland Germany. Our target was Dortmund and on the way back we were routed via Rotterdam. The German Air Force had bombed Rotterdam the day before and it was still in flames. I realised then only too well that the phoney war was over and that this was for real. By that time the fire services had extinguished a number of fires, but they were still dotted around the whole city. This was the first time I'd ever seen devastation by fires on this scale. We went right over the southern outskirts of Rotterdam at about 6,000 or 7,000 feet, and you could actually smell the smoke from the fires burning on the ground. I was shocked seeing a city in flames like that. Devastation on a scale I had never experienced.|Air Commodore Wilf Burnett.{{sfn|Burnett|2008}} }}
