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What is an exercise in futility

if not the stubborn strategy

the relentless sacrifice of men

in the havoc of a lost war

The 10th of June

a bad omen

the appearance of the fog

On the barren rock of Ortigara

the first died of miscalculation

a friendly fire and some unsettled bombs

The rest succumbed in countless charges

as the spirits of the ever stoutly soldiers

nonetheless crumbled

Relentless sacrifice of men

on Ortigara

Relentless sacrifice of men

on Ortigara

We hardly conquered

just to lose thereafter

weak strongholds

of a courageous army

led by a baffled brain

The dry soil bathed in the blood

of twenty-five thousand men

fruitlessly massacred

Your enemies long gone

the mountain remains, rid of clamour

a cropped column to

remind of thine deaths