It is really a line straight out of history. So many leaders have said more or less the same thing. "...with the purpose to recommend this commander to surrender with his forces, as it would be quite useless to resist anymore in view of the present conditions." That is part of a letter urging the surviving members of the so-called Lost Battalion in October of 1918. Quite an amazing bit of an even more amazing story. The letter was delivered by an American who had been taken prisoner by the Germans. Who was then tasked with bringing the letter to the American commander. The American response was to utterly ignore it. Unlike General McAuliffe during the Battle of the Bulge (the guy who responded with "Nuts" when the Germans demanded their surrender). In 1918, they didn't even respond.