Kurt Vonnegut's experience as a soldier and prisoner of war (POW) had a deep and powerful effect on his writing. During the war, he was a soldier with a low rank. He was a private with the 423rd Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division. Vonnegut was captured during the Battle of the Bulge on December 19, 1944. He was in prison in the German city of Dresden. He became a leader among the prisoners because he could speak German a little bit. But, he told German guards "...just what I was going to do to them when the Russians came…". The guards beat Vonnegut and stopped him from being a leader. He experienced the fire bombing of Dresden in February 1945 which destroyed most of the city.