He was talking about Dresden, but it could well have been Manila.
Similar carpet-bombing tactics were used in the "Liberation" of the Philippine capital in 1945, with disastrous consequences on the city's civilian population --to say nothing of the centuries-old architecture and historical heritage of the city.
In fact, according to Time magazine, Dresden and Manila were the two most bombed-out cities in World War II --far more so than Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Vonnegut's remembrances of Dresden echo quite closely those of Filipinos who survived the Japanese Occupation: the rumbling of the giants' passing would haunt them for the rest of their lives.
