Military quote for the day

FromThe War, Ken Burns' splendid documentary of World War Two, about the attack through the Hurtgen Forest:

The generals kept wanting to go through the forest. They'd put a division in there and chew it up, then pull it out and put another division in and chew it up.
It was a nightmarish place to fight. One general remarked that "when you entered it, you wanted to drop things behind to mark your path, like Hansel and Gretel."
The commanders who planned the battle knew almost nothing about the terrain, and never came to see it for themselves.

Rico says this is why officers get shot (and deservedly so) by their own men...