Almost half of them.

But the Germans couldn't make any headway....

Then, on learning that the marines had been no more than six thousand, the generals tore their hair.

So great was their wrath! They had supposed that they were confronted by dozens of thousands....

It was just great to hear the lads relate what they did there." Among these "lads" wounded in the war, who had passed to the naval reserve and were manning the _Mare Nostrum_, one was especially distinguished by the old man's partiality.