A German battalion entered Matera in its march north ahead of the Allied onslaught. The Materani did not resist the initial occupation, but there was no longer any secret about Badoglio"s surrender and the Italian cooperation with the American and British forces. So the occupation was tense, and produced some very predictable conflicts in the streets of Matera.
Outside the small town at the base of the Murge, and in the area surrounding nearby Altamura, the conflicts sometimes took the form of armed combat. The villagers used small arms to resist the Germans, who had more sophisticated weapons. With trained soldiers living among the residents of Matera and Altamura, these fights seldom went beyond guerrilla warfare, but both sides suffered casualties.
There was a lot of movement with the
