The general seeking to break an enemy defense line and destroy his forces must decide just when and how to strike and precisely to what extent he dare weaken one sector of his front in order to mass overpowering strength at the main point of attack. He, too, must take a chance, although, in the stilted phraseology of military communiques, he calls it a "calculated risk".
Here was our only conquest: all we asked of Italy was enough of her soil in which to bury our gallant dead.
They are men who paid heavily for their page in history.