Yes, it was like the scene in The Abyss...

Well, what I would dearly like to see is this: A completely faithful rendition of the original War of the Worlds story just as H.G. Wells did it, complete with the 1898 setting. That would be marvelous. It would also be very expensive to do, I would expect.

And I doubt that anyone will do it. Too bad.

One thing that was more realistic about Spielberg's film than the original story was this: the Martians invaded all over the World, not just in England. It is highly unlikely that an alien invasion would choose to confine itself to the British Isles, after all. ;-)

(but maybe it shows just how egocentric the British were about themselves back then...)