The bodies lay strewn, dismembered and burnt. Some of the faces expressed the horrors of the last moments, others lay peaceful, in repose. Around them were the remains of the tanks and artillery of Muammar Gaddafi's army, destroyed in an hour of pulverising and relentless air strikes.
A terrible scene of desolation unfolded on a field edged with pretty wild flowers.
The regime's offensive against the rebels had not survived the first contact with the military might of the West. It remains to be seen whether these were the first shots of the "long war" vowed by the enraged dictator in Tripoli. But for now plans to reconquer land in the east lost to the revolution were in ashes.
In less than 24 hours the loyalist forces have been driven from forward positions in Benghazi to the outskirts of Ajdabiya, the town whose capture was viewed as making it a near certainty that the capital of "Free Libya" would fall. Instead, they were now in chaotic retreat, offering the rebels the unexpected chance to take the war to their enemy's heartland.
Colonel Gaddafi's troops appeared to have taken no action to protect themselves from what was about to befall. Perhaps they were unaware of the ultimatum given by the international community.
In their panic, many of the soldiers had left engines running in their tanks and trucks as they fled across fields. Some raided farmhouses on the way to swap their uniforms for civilian clothes. But others did not make it, their corpses burning with their vehicles or torn apart by spraying shrapnel as they ran to get away.
The rebels, the Shabaab, seemed initially yesterday to be too surprised by the enormity of what had taken place to take advantage of the enemy's rout. Their fighters lingered for long periods, having their photographs taken with the armour, now shredded metal, which had inspired so much trepidation in recent battles. Some fetched their families to join them.
The next stops for the revolutionary forces, maintained Captain Fayyad Bakri, would be Brega, Ras Lanuf and Bin Jawad, towns recently lost to the regime, and then Sirte, the birthplace of Gaddafi and a loyalist stronghold.
"After that we shall be going to Tripoli," he declared. "Although there may already be a revolt there by then. People will rise up against this evil man now they see he cannot get away with terrorising people. We accept we could not have done this without foreign help, especially from the French, and we are very grateful. But... there must be a Libyan end to this."
Walla, in Benghazi, renamed the "Martyr's Clinic", had been one of the front line hospitals dealing with casualties since the uprising began on 17 February. The latest emergency had come on Saturday when regime forces launched their attack on Benghazi.
The 32nd death from that took place yesterday: 27-year-old Amer Qassim, who had suffered chest wounds when a rocket smashed into a house in the Gar Yunis area. "He was from Brega. If the Gaddafi men keep falling back he could have been back home in a few days," said Dr Selim al-Ghani. "He came to Benghazi to be safe and he died here. Most of the fatalities we had this time were civilians. A lot of the shooting and firing of shells were at random. It was vicious."
Dr al-Ghani received an urgent call: a patient had been brought in with gunshot wounds. "It is a man who they say was infiltrated into the city by the government to carry out attacks," he said. "He was shot when he was being arrested. I do not know if this is accurate," the doctor shrugged. "There is a lot of bitterness in Benghazi which results in cases like this. And soon we shall start receiving casualties when the rebels go forward. This war is not over."
