Morale by Murray Leinster — Read

". which panic was enhanced by the destruction of a / second flight of fighting planes. However, the / destruction of Bendsboro completed civilian / demoralization. A newscasting company re-broadcast / a private television contact with the town at the / moment the Wabbly entered it. Practically all the / inhabitants of the Atlantic Coast heard and saw the / annihilation of the town -- hearing the cries of '_Gas! _' / and the screams of the people, and hearing the / crashings as the Wabbly crushed its way inexorably / across the city, spreading terror everywhere. / Frenzied demands were made upon the Government for the / recall of troops from the front to offer battle to the / Wabbly. It is considered that at that time the one / Wabbly had a military effect equal to at least half a / million men. " (_Strategic Lessons of the War of / 1941-43._ -- U. S. War College. Pp. 83-84.)

They did not enter the town. There was just enough of starlight to show that the Wabbly had gone through it, and then crashed back and forth ruthlessly. There was a great gash through the center of the buildings nearest the edge, and there were other gashes visible here and there. Everything was crushed down utterly flat in two eight-foot paths; and there was a mass of crumbled debris four feet high at its highest in between the tread-marks.