Military history of Albania during World War II
Encyclopedia
The Albanian Resistance of World War II
was a movement of largely Communist persuasion directed against the occupying Italian (until 1943) and then German
forces in Albania
, which led to the successful liberation of the country in 1944.
The Center for Relief to Civilian Populations (Geneva) reported that Albania
was one of the most devastated countries in Europe. 60.000 houses were destroyed and about 10% of the population was left homeless.
society monitored by King Zog
's security police, Albania's Communist movement attracted few adherents in the interwar period. In fact, the country had no fully-fledged Communist Party before World War II
. After Fan Noli fled in 1924 to Italy and later the United States, several of his leftist protégés migrated to Moscow, where they affiliated themselves with the Balkan Confederation of Communist Parties and through it the Communist International (Comintern), the Soviet-sponsored association of international communist parties. In 1930, the Comintern dispatched Ali Kelmendi
to Albania to organize communist cells. However, Albania had no working class on which the communists could rely for support, and Marxism
appealed to only a minute number of quarrelsome, Western-educated, mostly Tosk
intellectuals and to landless peasants, miners, and other persons discontented with Albania's obsolete social and economic structures. Paris became the Albanian communists' hub until Nazi
deportations depleted their ranks after the fall of France in 1940.
, eventually rose to become the most powerful figures in Albania for decades after the war. The dominant figure in modern Albanian history, Enver Hoxha rose from obscurity to lead his people for a longer time than any other ruler. Born in 1908 to a Tosk landowner from Gjirokastër
who returned to Albania after working in the United States, Hoxha attended the country's best college-preparatory school, the National Lycée in Korçë
. In 1930 he attended the university in Montpellier
, France, but lost an Albanian state scholarship for neglecting his studies. Hoxha subsequently moved to Paris and Brussels
. After returning to Albania in 1936 without having earned a degree, he taught French for years at his former lycée and participated in a communist cell in Korçë. He later went to Tirana and when the Albanian Communist Party was formed in November 1941, he was appointed as the general secretary of the party, a post which he kept until his death in 1985.
Shehu, also a Tosk, studied at Tirana
's American Vocational School. He went on to a military college in Naples
but was expelled for left-wing political activity. In Spain Shehu fought in the Garibaldi International Brigade and became a commander of one of brigade's battalions. After the Spanish conflict was over, he was captured and interned in France. He returned to Albania in 1942 and soon became a prominent figure. During the conflict he won a reputation for his commanding abilities with the partisans.
who wanted to integrate Albania to Greater Italy
settled in the country. Initially the Albanian Fascist Party
received support from the population, mainly because of the unification of Kosovo
and other Albanian populated territories with Albania proper after the conquest of Yugoslavia
and Greece by the Axis
in Spring 1941. Benito Mussolini
boasted in May 1941 to a group of Albanian fascists that he had achieved the Greater Albania
long wanted by the Tirana nationalists. The Albanian Fascist Party
of Tefik Mborja had strong support in the country population after the Albania annexation of Kosovo.
In November 1941, the small Albanian Communist groups established an Albanian Communist Party in Tirana of 130 members under the leadership of Hoxha and an eleven-man Central Committee. The party at first had little mass appeal, and even its youth organization netted few recruits.
In mid-1942 however, party leaders increased their popularity by calling the young peoples to fight for the liberation of their country from Italy. This propaganda increased the number of new recruits by many young peoples eager for freedom. In September 1942, the party organized a popular front organization, the National Liberation Movement (NLM), from a number of resistance groups, including several that were strongly anticommunist. During the war, the NLM's communist-dominated partisans, in the form of the National Liberation Army, did not heed warnings from the Italian occupiers that there would be reprisals for guerrilla attacks. Partisan leaders, on the contrary, counted on using the desire for revenge such reprisals would elicit to win recruits.
and Mit’hat Frashëri formed the Western-oriented and anti-communist Balli Kombëtar
(National Front). Balli Kombëtar was a movement that recruited supporters from both the large landowners and peasantry. They supported the creation of Greater Albania
by Italians and called for the creation of a republic and the introduction of economic and social reforms, opposing King Zog's return. Their leaders acted conservatively, however, fearing that the occupiers would carry out reprisals against them or confiscate the landowners' estates. The nationalistic Geg chieftains and the Tosk landowners often came to terms with the Italians, and later the Germans, to prevent the loss of their wealth and power.
's fascist regime and Italy's surrender in 1943, the Italian military and police establishment in Albania buckled. Albanian fighters overwhelmed five Italian divisions, and Italian recruits flocked to the guerrilla forces. The communists took control of most of Albania's southern cities, except Vlorë
, which was a Balli Kombëtar stronghold, and nationalists attached to the NLM gained control over much of the north.
British agents working in Albania during the war fed the Albanian resistance fighters with information that the Allies were planning a major invasion of the Balkans
and urged the disparate Albanian groups to unite their efforts. In August 1943, the Allies convinced communist and Balli Kombëtar leaders to sign the Mukje Agreement
that would coordinate their guerrilla operations. The two groups eventually ended all collaboration, however, over a disagreement on the postwar status of Kosovo
. The communists supported returning the region to Yugoslavia
after the war with the hope that Tito would cede Kosovo back to Albania peacefully, while the nationalist Balli Kombëtar advocated keeping the province. The delegates at Mukja agreed that a plebiscite should be held in Kosovo to decide the matter; but the communists soon reneged on the accord declaring that the communist delegates had not followed the orders they were given by the party leaders. Later, the communists were attacked by Balli Kombëtar forces, igniting a war that was fought for the next year, throughout Albania.
before the Albanian guerrillas could take the capital, and the German army soon drove the guerrillas into the hills and to the south. Berlin subsequently announced it would recognize the independence of a neutral Albania and organized an Albanian government, police, and military. Many Balli Kombëtar
units collaborated with the Germans against the communists, and several Balli Kombëtar
leaders held positions in the German-sponsored regime.
The capital Tirana was liberated by the partisans on 17 November 1944 after a 20 day battle. The partisans entirely liberated Albania from German occupation on 29 November 1944. The National Liberation Army, which in October 1944 consisted of 70,000 regulars, also took part in the war alongside the antifascist coalition. The Albanian partisans also liberated Kosovo
, and assisted Tito
's communist forces in liberating part of Montenegro
and southern Bosnia and Herzegovina
. By that time, the Soviet Army
was also entering neighboring Yugoslavia, and the German Army was retreating from Greece into Yugoslavia.
, which chose an Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation to act as Albania's administration and legislature. Hoxha became the chairman of the council's executive committee and the National Liberation Army's supreme commander. The communist partisans defeated the last Balli Kombëtar forces in southern Albania by mid-summer 1944 and encountered only scattered resistance from the Balli Kombëtar when they entered central and northern Albania by the end of July. The British military mission urged the remnants of the nationalists not to oppose the communists' advance, and the Allies recalled their representatives with them to Italy. They did not evacuate nationalist leaders, although many fled. Before the end of November, the main German troops had withdrawn from Tirana, and the communists took control by attacking it. A provisional government, which the communists had formed at Berat
in October, administered Albania with Enver Hoxha as prime minister.
would play a key role in Albania's postwar order. The Allies never recognized an Albanian government in exile or King Zog, nor did they ever raise the question of Albania or its borders at any of the major wartime conferences. No reliable statistics on Albania's wartime losses exist, but the United Nations
Relief and Rehabilitation Administration reported about 30,000 Albanian war dead, 200 destroyed villages, 18,000 destroyed houses, and about 100,000 people left homeless. Albanian official statistics claim somewhat higher losses.
Furthermore, thousands of Chams (Tsams, Albanians living in Northern Greece) were driven out of Greece with the justification that they had collaborated with the Nazis.
During the Nazi occupation most Jews in Albania proper were saved, although others in the Kosovo region were deported and killed.
. Its general, Ernesto Chiminello, together with 150 officers, were executed in Saranda. Some other 32 officers were also killed in Kuç area three days later. Some took refuge in the mountains of Albania, while about 15.000 Italian soldiers surrendered to Albanian partisans. Some Italian troops led by Arnaldo Azzi, ex-commander of Firenze Division, created CITM, Comando Italiano Truppe alla Montagna (Italian Command of the Troops in Mountains). It's objective was to resist German troops with help from the Albanian Partisans. They managed to create some units of Italian soldiers under their command, but these troops were dispersed in the months of October–November 1943, by the German Winter Offensive. The officers of this command were attached to British missions in Albania and were repatriated in Italy in August 1944.
There were also some 2150 Italians who expressed their desire to continue the fight dispersed among Albanian partisans units. Some 472 Italian fighters were dispersed among Partisan Shock Brigades. Here, there was a group of 137 men who created the Antonio Gramsci Battalion
attached to First Shock Brigade and the Matteotti unit was attached to Third Shock Brigade. Some 401 were engaged in logistic and another 1,277 were attached to local commands. During the period 1943-1945 there were other units of Italian fighters among Albanian partisans, such as the 6th Battalion of the Fifth Shock Brigade composed of some 200 Italians.
and Turkmen
). Some other 70 Armenians created their own unit attached to First Shock Brigade in September 1944. There were also other small groups of Wehrmacht deserters dispersed among Albanian partisan forces, composed of Germans, Austrians, Frenchmen, Czechs and Poles.
. These attempts were quickly abandoned after the Germans and Italians overran Yugoslavia. Thereafter, no attempt was made to contact Albanian resistance groups until 17 April 1943. The first liaison party from M.O.4, a branch of the liaison organisation SOE
, was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel "Billy MacLean
, with Major David Smiley
as his second-in-command. Rather than drop "blind" into Albania, the mission was dropped into North-West Greece, where British parties were already operating with Greek guerrillas. From there, they made their way into Albania on foot or on mules.
After several false starts, the mission made contact with the NLM. The first supply drop of arms and equipment was received on 27 June. The bulk of the stores received in this and subsequent drops were donated to the NLM, who were the dominant group in Southern Albania, and were used to equip the "First Partisan Brigade".
Later in 1943, SOE increased the size of the mission to Albania. The new commander was Brigadier Edmund Frank Davies (who was nicknamed "Trotsky"), with Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Nicholls
as Chief of Staff. MacLean and Smiley were withdrawn to SOE's new base at Bari
in Southern Italy to report. Although they noted that the Communist-led NLM appeared to be more interested in securing political power after the war than fighting the Germans, they recommended that SOE continue to supply them, while attempting to achieve agreement between the NLM and the other resistance movements.
In January 1944, the Germans attacked and overran the British mission HQ. Brigadier Davies was captured, while Lieutenant Colonel Nicholls died of exposure and post-operative shock after leading the survivors to safety.
During the remainder of 1944, SOE continued to supply the NLM, despite complaints from MacLean and Smiley, now running liaison parties with Abaz Kupi
's group and the Balli Kombëtar in Northern Albania, that the NLM were using these arms against their political opponents rather than the Germans. Smiley, MacLean and Julian Amery were evacuated to Italy at the end of October. SOE refused to evacuate Abaz Kupi on the same boat, and he made his own escape from the country, being picked up by a Royal Naval vessel in the Adriatic.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
was a movement of largely Communist persuasion directed against the occupying Italian (until 1943) and then German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
forces in Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
, which led to the successful liberation of the country in 1944.
The Center for Relief to Civilian Populations (Geneva) reported that Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
was one of the most devastated countries in Europe. 60.000 houses were destroyed and about 10% of the population was left homeless.
Beginnings of the Communist movement
Faced with an illiterate, agrarian, and mostly MuslimMuslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
society monitored by King Zog
Zog of Albania
Zog I, Skanderbeg III of the Albanians , born Ahmet Muhtar Bey Zogolli, was King of the Albanians from 1928 to 1939. He was previously Prime Minister of Albania and President of Albania .-Background and early political career:...
's security police, Albania's Communist movement attracted few adherents in the interwar period. In fact, the country had no fully-fledged Communist Party before World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. After Fan Noli fled in 1924 to Italy and later the United States, several of his leftist protégés migrated to Moscow, where they affiliated themselves with the Balkan Confederation of Communist Parties and through it the Communist International (Comintern), the Soviet-sponsored association of international communist parties. In 1930, the Comintern dispatched Ali Kelmendi
Ali Kelmendi
Ali Kelmendi , Hero of Albania under the communist regime, was a Kosovar Albanian communist, an organizer of the communist movement in Albania....
to Albania to organize communist cells. However, Albania had no working class on which the communists could rely for support, and Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
appealed to only a minute number of quarrelsome, Western-educated, mostly Tosk
Tosk Albanian
Tosk is the southern dialect of the Albanian language. The line of demarcation between Tosk and Gheg is the Shkumbin River. Tosk is the basis of the standard Albanian language.- Tosks :...
intellectuals and to landless peasants, miners, and other persons discontented with Albania's obsolete social and economic structures. Paris became the Albanian communists' hub until Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
deportations depleted their ranks after the fall of France in 1940.
Enver Hoxha's and Mehmet Shehu's early years
Enver Hoxha and another veteran of the Spanish Civil War, Mehmet ShehuMehmet Shehu
Mehmet Ismail Shehu was an Albanian communist politician who served as premier of Albania from 1954 to 1981...
, eventually rose to become the most powerful figures in Albania for decades after the war. The dominant figure in modern Albanian history, Enver Hoxha rose from obscurity to lead his people for a longer time than any other ruler. Born in 1908 to a Tosk landowner from Gjirokastër
Gjirokastër
Gjirokastër is a city in southern Albania with a population of 43,000. Lying in the historical region of Epirus, it is the capital of both the Gjirokastër District and the larger Gjirokastër County...
who returned to Albania after working in the United States, Hoxha attended the country's best college-preparatory school, the National Lycée in Korçë
Korçë
Korçë is a city in southeastern Albania and the capital of the Korçë District. It has a population of around 105,000 people , making it the sixth largest city in Albania...
. In 1930 he attended the university in Montpellier
Montpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....
, France, but lost an Albanian state scholarship for neglecting his studies. Hoxha subsequently moved to Paris and Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
. After returning to Albania in 1936 without having earned a degree, he taught French for years at his former lycée and participated in a communist cell in Korçë. He later went to Tirana and when the Albanian Communist Party was formed in November 1941, he was appointed as the general secretary of the party, a post which he kept until his death in 1985.
Shehu, also a Tosk, studied at Tirana
Tirana
Tirana is the capital and the largest city of Albania. Modern Tirana was founded as an Ottoman town in 1614 by Sulejman Bargjini, a local ruler from Mullet, although the area has been continuously inhabited since antiquity. Tirana became Albania's capital city in 1920 and has a population of over...
's American Vocational School. He went on to a military college in Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
but was expelled for left-wing political activity. In Spain Shehu fought in the Garibaldi International Brigade and became a commander of one of brigade's battalions. After the Spanish conflict was over, he was captured and interned in France. He returned to Albania in 1942 and soon became a prominent figure. During the conflict he won a reputation for his commanding abilities with the partisans.
Beginning of the Albanian Communist and Fascist parties and the National Liberation Movement
After the invasion of Albania by Italy in April 1939, 100,000 Italian soldiers and 11,000 Italian colonistsItalian colonists in Albania
The Italian colonists in Albania were Italians who, between the two world wars, moved to Albania to colonize the Balkan country for the Kingdom of Italy.-History:...
who wanted to integrate Albania to Greater Italy
Greater Italy
Greater Italy , or Imperial Italy , was an ambitious project envisioned by fascist Italy in which the objective was to create an Italian empire which would expand, in addition to the irredentist claimed territories , to additional Mediterranean basin territories...
settled in the country. Initially the Albanian Fascist Party
Albanian Fascist Party
The Albanian Fascist Party was a fascist movement which held nominal power in Albania from 1939, when the country was conquered by Italy, until 1943, when Italy capitulated to the Allies...
received support from the population, mainly because of the unification of Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
and other Albanian populated territories with Albania proper after the conquest of Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
and Greece by the Axis
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
in Spring 1941. Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
boasted in May 1941 to a group of Albanian fascists that he had achieved the Greater Albania
Greater Albania
Greater Albania or Ethnic Albania is an irredentist concept of lands outside the borders of the Republic of Albania that are considered part of a greater national homeland by most Albanians, based on the present-day or historical presence of Albanian populations in those areas...
long wanted by the Tirana nationalists. The Albanian Fascist Party
Albanian Fascist Party
The Albanian Fascist Party was a fascist movement which held nominal power in Albania from 1939, when the country was conquered by Italy, until 1943, when Italy capitulated to the Allies...
of Tefik Mborja had strong support in the country population after the Albania annexation of Kosovo.
In November 1941, the small Albanian Communist groups established an Albanian Communist Party in Tirana of 130 members under the leadership of Hoxha and an eleven-man Central Committee. The party at first had little mass appeal, and even its youth organization netted few recruits.
In mid-1942 however, party leaders increased their popularity by calling the young peoples to fight for the liberation of their country from Italy. This propaganda increased the number of new recruits by many young peoples eager for freedom. In September 1942, the party organized a popular front organization, the National Liberation Movement (NLM), from a number of resistance groups, including several that were strongly anticommunist. During the war, the NLM's communist-dominated partisans, in the form of the National Liberation Army, did not heed warnings from the Italian occupiers that there would be reprisals for guerrilla attacks. Partisan leaders, on the contrary, counted on using the desire for revenge such reprisals would elicit to win recruits.
Nationalist resistance
A nationalist resistance to the Italian occupiers emerged in October 1942. Ali KëlcyraAli Këlcyra
Ali Këlcyra was an Albanian lord , a member of the Albanian parliament in the '20s co-founder with Mit’hat Frashëri of the Balli Kombëtar organization in 1942, and the cosigner of the Dalmazzo-Këlcyra agreement.-Early life:...
and Mit’hat Frashëri formed the Western-oriented and anti-communist Balli Kombëtar
Balli Kombëtar
Balli Kombëtar was an Albanian nationalist, anti-communist and anti-monarchy organization established in October 1939. It was led by Ali Këlcyra and Mit’hat Frashëri...
(National Front). Balli Kombëtar was a movement that recruited supporters from both the large landowners and peasantry. They supported the creation of Greater Albania
Greater Albania
Greater Albania or Ethnic Albania is an irredentist concept of lands outside the borders of the Republic of Albania that are considered part of a greater national homeland by most Albanians, based on the present-day or historical presence of Albanian populations in those areas...
by Italians and called for the creation of a republic and the introduction of economic and social reforms, opposing King Zog's return. Their leaders acted conservatively, however, fearing that the occupiers would carry out reprisals against them or confiscate the landowners' estates. The nationalistic Geg chieftains and the Tosk landowners often came to terms with the Italians, and later the Germans, to prevent the loss of their wealth and power.
Between Italy's surrender and German occupation
With the overthrow of Benito MussoliniBenito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
's fascist regime and Italy's surrender in 1943, the Italian military and police establishment in Albania buckled. Albanian fighters overwhelmed five Italian divisions, and Italian recruits flocked to the guerrilla forces. The communists took control of most of Albania's southern cities, except Vlorë
Vlorë
Vlorë is one of the biggest towns and the second largest port city of Albania, after Durrës, with a population of about 94,000 . It is the city where the Albanian Declaration of Independence was proclaimed on November 28, 1912...
, which was a Balli Kombëtar stronghold, and nationalists attached to the NLM gained control over much of the north.
British agents working in Albania during the war fed the Albanian resistance fighters with information that the Allies were planning a major invasion of the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
and urged the disparate Albanian groups to unite their efforts. In August 1943, the Allies convinced communist and Balli Kombëtar leaders to sign the Mukje Agreement
Mukje Agreement
The Mukje Agreement was a treaty signed on August 2, 1943 in the Albanian village of Mukje between the nationalist Balli Kombëtar and the communist National Liberation Movement on how to regulate the Albanian resistance in World War II and how to prepare for the future of Ethnic Albania.The...
that would coordinate their guerrilla operations. The two groups eventually ended all collaboration, however, over a disagreement on the postwar status of Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
. The communists supported returning the region to Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
after the war with the hope that Tito would cede Kosovo back to Albania peacefully, while the nationalist Balli Kombëtar advocated keeping the province. The delegates at Mukja agreed that a plebiscite should be held in Kosovo to decide the matter; but the communists soon reneged on the accord declaring that the communist delegates had not followed the orders they were given by the party leaders. Later, the communists were attacked by Balli Kombëtar forces, igniting a war that was fought for the next year, throughout Albania.
German occupation
Germany occupied Albania in September 1943, dropping paratroopers into TiranaTirana
Tirana is the capital and the largest city of Albania. Modern Tirana was founded as an Ottoman town in 1614 by Sulejman Bargjini, a local ruler from Mullet, although the area has been continuously inhabited since antiquity. Tirana became Albania's capital city in 1920 and has a population of over...
before the Albanian guerrillas could take the capital, and the German army soon drove the guerrillas into the hills and to the south. Berlin subsequently announced it would recognize the independence of a neutral Albania and organized an Albanian government, police, and military. Many Balli Kombëtar
Balli Kombëtar
Balli Kombëtar was an Albanian nationalist, anti-communist and anti-monarchy organization established in October 1939. It was led by Ali Këlcyra and Mit’hat Frashëri...
units collaborated with the Germans against the communists, and several Balli Kombëtar
Balli Kombëtar
Balli Kombëtar was an Albanian nationalist, anti-communist and anti-monarchy organization established in October 1939. It was led by Ali Këlcyra and Mit’hat Frashëri...
leaders held positions in the German-sponsored regime.
The capital Tirana was liberated by the partisans on 17 November 1944 after a 20 day battle. The partisans entirely liberated Albania from German occupation on 29 November 1944. The National Liberation Army, which in October 1944 consisted of 70,000 regulars, also took part in the war alongside the antifascist coalition. The Albanian partisans also liberated Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
, and assisted Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
's communist forces in liberating part of Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
and southern Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
. By that time, the Soviet Army
Soviet Army
The Soviet Army is the name given to the main part of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1992. Previously, it had been known as the Red Army. Informally, Армия referred to all the MOD armed forces, except, in some cases, the Soviet Navy.This article covers the Soviet Ground...
was also entering neighboring Yugoslavia, and the German Army was retreating from Greece into Yugoslavia.
Provisional Communist administration
The communist partisans regrouped and gained control of much of southern Albania in January 1944. However, they were subject to German attacks driving them out of certain areas until June. In May they called a congress of members of the National Liberation Front (NLF), as the movement was by then called) at PërmetPërmet
Përmet is a town in Albania, capital of Përmet District. The population is 7,717. It is flanked by the Vjosë river, which runs along the Trebeshinë-Dhëmbel-Nemërçkë mountain chain, between Trebeshinë and Dhëmbel mountains, and through the Këlcyra gorge....
, which chose an Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation to act as Albania's administration and legislature. Hoxha became the chairman of the council's executive committee and the National Liberation Army's supreme commander. The communist partisans defeated the last Balli Kombëtar forces in southern Albania by mid-summer 1944 and encountered only scattered resistance from the Balli Kombëtar when they entered central and northern Albania by the end of July. The British military mission urged the remnants of the nationalists not to oppose the communists' advance, and the Allies recalled their representatives with them to Italy. They did not evacuate nationalist leaders, although many fled. Before the end of November, the main German troops had withdrawn from Tirana, and the communists took control by attacking it. A provisional government, which the communists had formed at Berat
Berat
Berat is a town located in south-central Albania. As of 2009, the town has an estimated population of around 71,000 people. It is the capital of both the District of Berat and the larger County of Berat...
in October, administered Albania with Enver Hoxha as prime minister.
The consequences of the war
Albania stood in an unenviable position after World War II. The NLF's strong links with Yugoslavia's communists, who also enjoyed British military and diplomatic support, guaranteed that BelgradeBelgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
would play a key role in Albania's postwar order. The Allies never recognized an Albanian government in exile or King Zog, nor did they ever raise the question of Albania or its borders at any of the major wartime conferences. No reliable statistics on Albania's wartime losses exist, but the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Relief and Rehabilitation Administration reported about 30,000 Albanian war dead, 200 destroyed villages, 18,000 destroyed houses, and about 100,000 people left homeless. Albanian official statistics claim somewhat higher losses.
Furthermore, thousands of Chams (Tsams, Albanians living in Northern Greece) were driven out of Greece with the justification that they had collaborated with the Nazis.
During the Nazi occupation most Jews in Albania proper were saved, although others in the Kosovo region were deported and killed.
Foreign participation in the Albanian Resistance of WWII
There were a significant number of foreign citizens who participated in Albanian resistance during World War II. They were composed mostly of Italian soldiers who wished to continue the war against Nazi Germany, but other people from different nationalities participated also.Italians participation
Albanian resistance began in 1940 with small çetas but it became a significant force in 1942. Even during this period there were small groups of Italian soldiers who deserted the fascist army and joined the Albanian partisans. When Italy capitulated in September 1943 there were already some 122 Italian partisans dispersed among various units in Albanian National Liberation Army. When Italy capitulated there were some 100,000 Italian soldiers in Albania. They were from the Firence, Parma, Perugia, Arezzo, Brennero divisions and other small independent units. Many Italian forces surrendered to the advancing German army. A great part of them were sent to concentration camps or to forced labor in Albania in the service of the German army, while there were also mass killings of Italian officers, mostly from the Perugia Division centered in GjirokastërGjirokastër
Gjirokastër is a city in southern Albania with a population of 43,000. Lying in the historical region of Epirus, it is the capital of both the Gjirokastër District and the larger Gjirokastër County...
. Its general, Ernesto Chiminello, together with 150 officers, were executed in Saranda. Some other 32 officers were also killed in Kuç area three days later. Some took refuge in the mountains of Albania, while about 15.000 Italian soldiers surrendered to Albanian partisans. Some Italian troops led by Arnaldo Azzi, ex-commander of Firenze Division, created CITM, Comando Italiano Truppe alla Montagna (Italian Command of the Troops in Mountains). It's objective was to resist German troops with help from the Albanian Partisans. They managed to create some units of Italian soldiers under their command, but these troops were dispersed in the months of October–November 1943, by the German Winter Offensive. The officers of this command were attached to British missions in Albania and were repatriated in Italy in August 1944.
There were also some 2150 Italians who expressed their desire to continue the fight dispersed among Albanian partisans units. Some 472 Italian fighters were dispersed among Partisan Shock Brigades. Here, there was a group of 137 men who created the Antonio Gramsci Battalion
Antonio Gramsci Battalion
The Antonio Gramsci Battalion was formed on 9 November 1943 from captured Italian soldiers who wished to continue the war by resisting Nazi German forces in Albania. In the beginning its forces amounted to 137 men who chose their own leaders: Terzilio Cardinali , Alfredo d'Angelo , Giuseppe Monti ...
attached to First Shock Brigade and the Matteotti unit was attached to Third Shock Brigade. Some 401 were engaged in logistic and another 1,277 were attached to local commands. During the period 1943-1945 there were other units of Italian fighters among Albanian partisans, such as the 6th Battalion of the Fifth Shock Brigade composed of some 200 Italians.
Wehrmacht deserters
Part of the German force of Occupation was composed of Wehrmacht recruits from the Caucasus region. The first Wehrmacht deserters went to Albanian Partisan units at the end of 1943 during the German Winter Offensive, but their numbers grew in the summer of 1944 during the German Summer Offensive. There was a great flow of Wehrmacht deserters during the end of conflict to Albania from September to October 1944, while German forces began withdrawing from Albania. In August 1944 an new unit was formed in Third Shock Brigade from some 40 Wehrmacht deserters (mostly ArmeniansArmenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
and Turkmen
Turkmen people
The Turkmen are a Turkic people located primarily in the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and northeastern Iran. They speak the Turkmen language, which is classified as a part of the Western Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages family together with Turkish, Azerbaijani, Qashqai,...
). Some other 70 Armenians created their own unit attached to First Shock Brigade in September 1944. There were also other small groups of Wehrmacht deserters dispersed among Albanian partisan forces, composed of Germans, Austrians, Frenchmen, Czechs and Poles.
Allied links and assistance
The British had tried mounting operations into Italian-occupied Albania in early 1941, from what was then neutral YugoslaviaKingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
. These attempts were quickly abandoned after the Germans and Italians overran Yugoslavia. Thereafter, no attempt was made to contact Albanian resistance groups until 17 April 1943. The first liaison party from M.O.4, a branch of the liaison organisation SOE
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...
, was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel "Billy MacLean
Neil McLean (politician)
Lieutenant-Colonel Neil Loudon Desmond McLean DSO, known as Billy McLean , was a British Army intelligence officer and politician who led a celebrated Special Operations Executive operation in Albania during the Second World War, and later attempted to overthrow Communism in the country...
, with Major David Smiley
David Smiley
Colonel David de Crespigny Smiley, LVO, OBE, MC & Bar was a British special forces and intelligence officer. He fought in the Second World War in Palestine, Iraq, Persia, Syria, Western Desert and with Special Operations Executive in Albania and Thailand.- Background :Smiley was the 4th and...
as his second-in-command. Rather than drop "blind" into Albania, the mission was dropped into North-West Greece, where British parties were already operating with Greek guerrillas. From there, they made their way into Albania on foot or on mules.
After several false starts, the mission made contact with the NLM. The first supply drop of arms and equipment was received on 27 June. The bulk of the stores received in this and subsequent drops were donated to the NLM, who were the dominant group in Southern Albania, and were used to equip the "First Partisan Brigade".
Later in 1943, SOE increased the size of the mission to Albania. The new commander was Brigadier Edmund Frank Davies (who was nicknamed "Trotsky"), with Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Nicholls
Arthur Frederick Crane Nicholls
Brigadier Arthur Frederick Crane Nicholls, GC, ERD was awarded the George Cross for gallantry and leadership on active service with the Special Operations Executive in Albania in 1944. He is the only member of the Coldstream Guards to have won the medal.Nicholls was born in Hampstead on February...
as Chief of Staff. MacLean and Smiley were withdrawn to SOE's new base at Bari
Bari
Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...
in Southern Italy to report. Although they noted that the Communist-led NLM appeared to be more interested in securing political power after the war than fighting the Germans, they recommended that SOE continue to supply them, while attempting to achieve agreement between the NLM and the other resistance movements.
In January 1944, the Germans attacked and overran the British mission HQ. Brigadier Davies was captured, while Lieutenant Colonel Nicholls died of exposure and post-operative shock after leading the survivors to safety.
During the remainder of 1944, SOE continued to supply the NLM, despite complaints from MacLean and Smiley, now running liaison parties with Abaz Kupi
Abaz Kupi
Abaz Kupi or Abas Kupi also known by his nom de guerre as Bazi i Canës, was an Albanian politician, leader and fighter, known mostly for his role during World War II. A royalist, he created the Legality Movement in Albania which promoted the return to the throne of Zog of Albania...
's group and the Balli Kombëtar in Northern Albania, that the NLM were using these arms against their political opponents rather than the Germans. Smiley, MacLean and Julian Amery were evacuated to Italy at the end of October. SOE refused to evacuate Abaz Kupi on the same boat, and he made his own escape from the country, being picked up by a Royal Naval vessel in the Adriatic.
See also
- Albania under ItalyAlbania under ItalyThe Albanian Kingdom existed as a protectorate of the Kingdom of Italy. It was practically a union between Italy and Albania, officially led by Italy's King Victor Emmanuel III and its government: Albania was led by Italian governors, after being militarily occupied by Italy, from 1939 until 1943...
- Albania under Nazi GermanyAlbania under Nazi GermanyThe Albanian Kingdom existed as a de jure independent country, between 1943 and 1944. The usual de facto name in most of the historic German literature and documents is Großalbanien, sometimes Gross-Albanien...
- Participants in World War IIParticipants in World War IIThe participants in World War II were those nations who either participated directly in or were affected by any of the theaters or events of World War II....
- Timeline of Albanian history to 1993Timeline of Albanian history to 1993-2nd century AD 1 to 11th century:*150 AD, Ptolemy's map shows the city of Albanopolis . Ptolemy also mentions the Illyrian tribe named Albanoi, who lived around this city. The area was part of Roman Macedon, specifically the Epirus Nova subdivision...
- Socialist People's Republic of Albania
- Antonio Gramsci BattalionAntonio Gramsci BattalionThe Antonio Gramsci Battalion was formed on 9 November 1943 from captured Italian soldiers who wished to continue the war by resisting Nazi German forces in Albania. In the beginning its forces amounted to 137 men who chose their own leaders: Terzilio Cardinali , Alfredo d'Angelo , Giuseppe Monti ...
Sources
- Library of Congress Country Study of Albania
- Julian Amery, (1948). Sons of the Eagle. MacMillan & Co Ltd London. This book from a British agent with the Royalists during the war has no ISBN but is being reprinted.
- Colonel David SmileyDavid SmileyColonel David de Crespigny Smiley, LVO, OBE, MC & Bar was a British special forces and intelligence officer. He fought in the Second World War in Palestine, Iraq, Persia, Syria, Western Desert and with Special Operations Executive in Albania and Thailand.- Background :Smiley was the 4th and...
. Albanian Assignment, Foreword by Patrick Leigh FermorPatrick Leigh FermorSir Patrick "Paddy" Michael Leigh Fermor, DSO, OBE was a British author, scholar and soldier, who played a prominent role behind the lines in the Cretan resistance during World War II. He was widely regarded as "Britain's greatest living travel writer", with books including his classic A Time of...
, Chatto & Windus, London, 1984. The SOE in Albania by a brother-in-arms of Julian Amery and Neil "Billy" McLeanNeil McLean (politician)Lieutenant-Colonel Neil Loudon Desmond McLean DSO, known as Billy McLean , was a British Army intelligence officer and politician who led a celebrated Special Operations Executive operation in Albania during the Second World War, and later attempted to overthrow Communism in the country...
. With numerous photographs. - Colonel David SmileyDavid SmileyColonel David de Crespigny Smiley, LVO, OBE, MC & Bar was a British special forces and intelligence officer. He fought in the Second World War in Palestine, Iraq, Persia, Syria, Western Desert and with Special Operations Executive in Albania and Thailand.- Background :Smiley was the 4th and...
. Irregular Regular, Michael Russell, Norwich, 1994 (ISBN 0-85955-202-0). Translated in French in 2008. Au coeur de l’action clandestine. Des Commandos au MI6, L’Esprit du Livre Editions, (ISBN 978-2-915960-27-3).The Memoirs of a SOE officer in Albania and Thaïland (Force 136Force 136Force 136 was the general cover name for a branch of the British World War II organization, the Special Operations Executive . The organisation was established to encourage and supply resistance movements in enemy-occupied territory, and occasionally mount clandestine sabotage operations...
), then a MI6 agent (Poland, Albania, Oman, Yemen). - Brigadier Edmund Frank "Trotsky" Davies. Illyrian venture: The story of the British military mission to enemy-occupied Albania, 1943–44, Bodley Head, 1952.
- Xan FieldingXan FieldingXan Fielding, born Alexander Wallace Fielding DSO , was a British soldier and writer, noted for his English translations of Planet of the Apes and The Bridge on the River Kwai, both by Pierre Boulle....
One Man in His Time – The life of Lieutenant-Colonel N.L.D. ("Billy") McLeanNeil McLean (politician)Lieutenant-Colonel Neil Loudon Desmond McLean DSO, known as Billy McLean , was a British Army intelligence officer and politician who led a celebrated Special Operations Executive operation in Albania during the Second World War, and later attempted to overthrow Communism in the country...
, DSO, Macmillan, London, 1990. Biography of a soldier, SOE agent and Scottish politician. - ALBANIA IN WW II by Julian Amery, from the Oxford Companion to the Second World War (1995), pp. 24–26
