Marumong

With winter setting in the Germans were able to consolidate their “Gustav Line” defences, which ran across the peninsula south of Rome. By now several thousand Batswana were at the front.

The winter itself was especially bad, with floods along the Adriatic adding to the misery of constant sleet and snow. In the forward areas the Batswana, along with other frontline troops, were often forced to abandon their relatively comfortable billets (metal prefab shelters) for tents dug into the mud.