The Tug Of War Part 1 Of 2 Author:D. Graham, S. Bidwell Part One Of Two Parts When the Allies invaded mainland Italy in 1943, they thought it would be easy. But Hitler ordered the German army to defend every foot of the country, which they did until the war ended in May of 1945. We think of tug-of-war as a children's game, the authors use it to suggest that a conflict once entered, pulls partic... more »ipants into it far beyond their original expectations. Thus Italy, conceived of as a secondary effort, grew into a huge conflict and attracted vast numbers of men, tanks, guns and aircraft, which the Allies could ill afford, to reach objectives they had never intended in the first place.« less