A German prisoner in Italy told his captors last week that his comrades had orders to hold their present positions for two months. In the retelling, the story got better and better: "many prisoners, captured documents, intercepted orders. . . ." Suddenly the air grew cold along Italy's shin and there were snow flurries on the hilltops. And so, what with the garrulous prisoner and the cold snap, a phrase was born. The Germans, it was said, had taken a stance along a "winter line."
The line was supposed to be defined by...
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