Quote Originally Posted by The Glyphstone View Post
Was that even his intent (the burning of shelters)? The sense I had was that he found 'shelter in our bunkers till it gets warm' unacceptably cowardly - by burning his own side's shelters, he made the enemy's shelters the only viable place to go if they wanted to live.
The classic depiction was "he attacked everyone on his own side he came across" - not just their bunkers:

3e:

On Skalathrax the World Eaters drove the Emperor's Children back from city after city with their bloody assaults. At the last and greatest city the World Eaters sensed that victory was near: they needed only to gain one more victory to claim the planet as their own. The battle needed to be won soon, for in the long, dark night of Skalathrax, anyone not in shelter would freeze.

The World Eaters hurled themselves at the foe with the strength of madmen until only a few pockets of resistance survived. There the attack was halted as darkness fell. But Kharn cursed his fellow warriors for seeking shelter while their enemies still lived. He burned the city and slaughtered anyone that he found, friend or foe.