The mixing of the elements of fire and air took place in the sublime bombing of World War II aerial warfare. War in the air was theorised in military texts and science fiction. It was also enacted in the aftermath of aerial bombing in the terror of the ruinous landscape below. WWII was fought over (in two senses) the city: it was fought on and over the ground; and in the air above the city. The theatre of operations was through the countryside to the cities and over the cities. WWI was fought in the country and over the country; it was also fought on, in and sometimes under, the ground. The landscape of trench warfare in WW 1 was a battlefield for land-based military combatants of artillery and infantry pitted against each other in the country, whereas the landscape of fire-bombed cites in WWII was a battlefield for airborne military operations of planes directed against civilians in the city, such as the fire-bombing of German cities, including HamburgHamburg, a city set in a swamp. A first-hand, eye-witness recount of Hamburg emphasised the uncanny. Both world wars had an effect on the four elements and the six sensessenses.