Chapter 691: The Albanian Civil War
What was known as the Albanian Civil War was a conflict inside the Italian Kingdom/ Roman Empire Protectorate/ Puppet State of Albania, where Communist and Nationalist groups had taken up arms against the Italian, as well as later the Germans and the Austrian-Hungarians. At first independent groups supplied by Great Britain and the Soviet Union, these guerrilla groups soon united and were quickly supplied by Austria in secret as well that sought to limit, or outright oust Italian Influence on the Balkan Peninsula. Because of the Conflict, Albania became one of the most devastated countries in Europe during the Second Great War. Around 80,000 houses would be destroyed and roughly 12% of the Albanian population would become homeless. Over 32,000 Albanians would be killed, 14,800 wounded and around 64,500 imprisoned or deported. When Germany regained territory and Austria-Hungary moved to annex Czechoslovakia, Italy saw itself becoming a second-rate member of the Axis Central Powers. As Mussolini had not been informed about these moves, the Italian dictator decided in early 1939 to proceed with his own annexation of Albania. Italy's King Victor Emmanuel III criticized the plan to take Albania as an unnecessary risk. Rome, however, delivered Tiranë an ultimatum on March 25, 1939, demanding that it accede to Italy's occupation of Albania. King Zog refused to accept money in exchange for countenancing a full Italian takeover and colonization of Albania, and on April 7, 1939, Mussolini's troops, led by General Alfredo Guzzoni, invaded Albania/ attacking all Albanian ports simultaneously. There were 65 units in Saranda, 40 at Vlorë, 38 in Durrës, 28 at Shëngjin and 8 more at Bishti i Pallës. The original Italian plans for the invasion called for up to 50,000 men supported by 137 naval units and 400 airplanes. Ultimately the invasion force grew to 100,000 men supported by 600 airplanes. By 1:30 pm on the first day, all Albanian ports were in Italian hands. Unwilling to become an Italian puppet, King Zog, his wife, Queen Geraldine Apponyi, and their infant son Skander fled to Greece and eventually to London. On April 12, the Albanian parliament voted to unite the country with Italy. On April 12, the Albanian parliament voted to depose Zog and unite the nation with Italy "in personal union" by offering the Albanian crown to Victor Emmanuel III and the Italians set up a fascist government under Shefqet Verlaci and soon absorbed Albania's military and diplomatic service into Italy's.
On April 15, 1939, Albania withdrew from the League of Nations, from which Italy had resigned in 1937. On June 3, 1939, the Albanian foreign ministry was merged into the Italian foreign ministry. The Albanian military was placed under Italian command and formally merged into the Italian Army in 1940. Additionally, the Italian Blackshirts formed four legions of Albanian Militia, initially recruited from Italian colonists living in Albania, but later also from ethnic Albanians. Upon invading, Galeazzo Ciano hoped to reinforce an impression of benevolence with a number of initial gestures aimed more at public relations than at addressing any of Albania's profound social and economic problems. One of Ciano's first moves was to distribute food and clothing in some of the poor areas and to release political prisoners. He personally distributed 190,000 gold francs to the needy in Tirana, Shkodra, Vlora, Gjirokastra, Saranda, Korça and Kukes. Because the money was given to the poor, bypassing the usual bureaucracy, it did some good. The Italians also contributed greatly to infrastructure, agriculture, and chrome and hydrocarbon exploration in which Albania was rich. The Italians hoped that extensive investment in Albania would bring both economic and political benefits. Despite a weak domestic economy, Mussolini guaranteed the Albanians the sum of 22 million pounds over five years for economic development, considerably more than the 8.2 million Rome had spent since the early 1920s. Initial reports of the Italian activity were quite favorable. Ruth Mitchell commented at the end of April 1939, "What a great improvement there is in the condition of the people already. The whole atmosphere had become brisker and more enterprising; now at least there is hope." Even the German minister Eberhard von Pannwitz, who was perpetually critical of the Italians, commented favorably on the Italian tempo. The new construction projects brought in large amounts of capital and employed many Albanians. The government began letting Italians take technical positions in Albania's civil service, and also began allowing Italian settlers to enter Albania. This largely affected the Albanians' attitude towards the Italian invaders and the locals greeted them with more respect and liking. In an effort to win Albanian support for Italian rule, Ciano and the Fascist regime encouraged Albanian irredentism in the directions of Kosovo and Chameria. Despite Jacomoni's assurances of Albanian support in view of the promised "liberation" of Chameria, Albanian enthusiasm for the war was distinctly lacking. The few Albanian units raised to fight during the developments of the Greco-Italian War (1940–1941) alongside the Italian Army mostly either deserted or fled in droves. Albanian agents recruited before the war, are reported to have operated behind Greek lines and engaged in acts of sabotage but these were few in number. Support for the Greeks, although of limited nature, came primarily from the local Greek populations who warmly welcomed the arrival of the Greek forces in the southern districts.
Faced with an agrarian and mostly Mohammedan 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 the First Great War. 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 German and Fascist French deportations depleted their ranks after the fall of France in 1940. Enver Hoxha and a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, Mehmet Shehu, 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. 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 the 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. Mehmet Shehu was a short, weiry, dark swallow-faced man of about thirty who seldom smiled except at other people's misfortunes. He spoke good English, was very capable and had far more military knowledge than most other Albanians. He had a reputation for bravery, courage, ruthlessness, and cruelty, he had boasted that he personally cut the throats of seventy Italian carabineri who had been taken prisoner. I got along with him at first, for as soldiers we had something in common; but he did little to conceal his dislike for all things British, and my relations with him deteriorated. After the invasion of Albania by Italy in April 1939, 100,000 Italian soldiers and 11,000 Italian colonists 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 Central Powers in 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. Several groups led by Baba Faja Martaneshi, former gendarmerie officer Gani bej Kryeziu, a communist Mustafa Gjinishi, and a rightist politician Muharrem Bajraktari. An attempt to unite those groups in one organization was undertaken by Major Abaz Kupi, by now a democratic politician, who created an underground organization called the Unity Front. This front, which increased in numbers within several months, was crushed in April 1941 after the defeat of Yugoslavia and Greece. Some of its members passed over to the collaborationist camp, some were arrested, and some others fled to the mountains. The warfare ceased for a while.
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. The resistance in Albania became active after the defeats of the Italian forces in the war with Greece, which started on 28 October 1940. Originally the slogan of building the "Greater Albania", into which the Italians promised to incorporate a substantial part of Greek Epirus (Cameria), allowed collaborationist authorities to mobilize several thousand volunteers for the army (besides regular troops). The collapse of the Italian offensive in Greece caused a crisis among the regular troops, who refused to take part in further fights, as well as in volunteer units, which dispersed; some soldiers made for the mountains. Eventually, the number of combat groups and partisan detachments, reinforced by deserters from the army, had grown to dozens, with over 3,000 men. In November in Lezha, a town near the port of Shengjin on Adriatic coast, mutinous soldiers who refused further service in Italian units fought a battle with an Italian punitive expedition, killing 19 and badly wounding 30 Italians, before retreating to the mountains. In the same month a partisan detachment laid an ambush for an Italian transport column en route to Gjirokastra. Several Italians were killed. On 17 May 1941 in Tirana a young man called Vasil Laçi attempted to assassinate king Victor Emmanuel III by shooting at him. However he failed and was shortly after executed. In mid-1942, however, the Party called on young people to fight for the liberation of their country from Italy. The propaganda increased the number of new recruits by many young people 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 anti-Communist. During the war, the NLM's Communist-dominated partisans, in the form of the National Liberation Army, ignored 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.
On 17–22 February 1943 in the village of Labinot, the first nationwide conference of ACP took place. The estimation of the political and military situation in the country pointed to the need to create a homogeneous national liberation army. A decision concerning warfare tactics also was taken; it recommended that commanders of units conduct actions with bigger forces. On 17 May, twelve partisan detachments under the homogeneous command carried out an attack on the Italian garrison in Leskoviku, which protected an important road junction. Partisans encircled the town in a tight ring and undertook the offensive. Over 1,000 Italians held the town. The battle lasted three days. The commander of the garrison had demanded air support, but before the support arrived, partisans seized the town. The Italians lost several hundred soldiers and considerable quantities of weapons and equipment. At the end of June the Italians started a punitive expedition against partisans in the region of Mallakastra and Tepelena. Two thousand partisans took up defensive positions on mountain passes. In the first clash the Italians were forced back, but they renewed the action on 14 July with tanks, artillery and aircraft. After four days of fighting, the partisans had suffered heavy losses and retreated to higher parts of the mountains. In general from May to July the Italians lost thousands and many were wounded. After March 1943, the NLM formed its first and second regular battalions, which subsequently became brigades, to operate along with existing smaller and irregular units. Resistance to the occupation grew rapidly as signs of Italian weakness became apparent. At the end of 1942, guerrilla forces numbered no more than 8,000 to 10,000. By the summer of 1943, when the Italian effort collapsed, almost all of the mountainous interior was controlled by resistance units. The NLM formally established the National Liberation Army (NLA) in July 1943 with Spiro Moisiu as its military chief and Enver Hoxha as its political officer. It had 20,000 regular soldiers and guerrillas in the field by that time. However, the NLA's military activities in 1943 were directed as much against the party's domestic political opponents, including prewar liberal, nationalist, and monarchist parties, as against the occupation forces.
A nationalist resistance to the Italian occupiers emerged in October 1942. Ali Këlcyra and Mit’hat Frashëri formed the Western-oriented and anti-communist Balli Kombëtar (National Front). This movement 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 Gheg 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. The Balli Kombëtar, which had fought against the Italians, were threatened by the superior forces of the LNC and the Yugoslav Partisans, who were backed by the Allies. The Balli Kombëtar were also supported by the Austrian-Hungarians as a anti-Communist force and soon they ended all support for the anti-Italian Communists alltogether. Among prominent Balli Kombëtar commanders were Safet Butka and Hysni Lepenica. Butka had been interned in Italy for two years until he was released in August 1942 and allowed to return to Albania. He then took to the mountains and became an outstanding leader of the Balli Kombëtar movement in the Korçë area.[4] The nucleus of his guerrilla group was composed of 70 seasoned and highly experienced fighters which in case of emergency could become a thousand men strong.[4] The Butka group had been giving valuable assistance to the fighters at Vlorë and had recovered from the military depots in the village of Dardhe, Suli, Graçan, Progri, Pleshishti, and Verbinj all the agricultural production (corn, tobacco, wool, etc.) which the Italians had requisitioned and restored to its owners. His forces attacked Italians on Floq in January 1943, Vithkuq in March 1943.
The fighting that took place with general commander Hysni Lepenica during August 1942 in Dukat, Mavrovo, Vadicë, Drashovicë and Llakatund with the help of Allied aviation resulted in victory. After Italian capitulation, Communists and Ballists sought the surrender of all remaining Italian forces in peace. However Hysni Lepenica instructed by the Central Committee of the National Front, went to Gërhot where the Italian division "Ferrara" was located to take their weapons as agreed with the division general, but after Tilman's intervention the division general attacked Lepenica's group. At the battle of Gjorm that resulted in a decisive victory for the Albanians and the death of Italian Colonel Clementi, Lepenica committed suicide when he heard that clashes between the Communists and Ballists had started. Fearing reprisals from larger forces, the Balli Kombëtar made a deal with the Germans and formed a "neutral government" in Tirana which it continued its war with the LNC and the Yugoslav Partisans. The Balli Kombëtar were also active in Kosovo and Macedonia. Their forces were mainly centered in Kosovska Mitrovica, Drenica, and Tetovo. However it was noted that the Balli Kombëtar in these regions were more aggressive than the Ballists of Albania. The Austrian-Hungarians even tried to use Serb and Chetnik forces to oppose Communist and Albanian guerrillas by turning them against one another.
British agents working in Albania during the war fed the Albanian resistance fighters with false 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 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. The two forces would work together in fighting off Italy's control over Albania. However, A dispute arose concerning the status of Kosovo. Whereas the Balli Kombetar proposed to fight for the integration of Kosovo into Albania, the Communist representatives objected fiercely. The Balli Kombetar labelled the partisans as traitors of Albania and often called them "Tito's dogs" while the partisans accused the Balli Kombetar of collaborating with the Axis Central Powers, thus igniting a war between the two that would last for one year. In anticipation of such invasion, the Axis Central Powers drew up a series of military plans for action against guerrilla forces in the Balkans. German and Austian-Hungarian forces were stationed to assist Italians in Albanian airports and ports, ostensibly to protect Italian Albania from the possibility of an Allied invasion. By mid-August there were some six thousand German troops and eight thousend Austrian-Hungarian ones in Albania. The Austrians planned to construct an independent neutral Albania controlled by a government friendly to Austria-Hungary. After the Mukje Agreement was broken by the Albanian Partisans, war broke out between the Albanian Partisans, who were backed by parts of the Yugoslav Partisans, who in turn were backed by the Allies. Meanwhile the Balli Kombëtar formed a new pro-Axis Central Powers government of Albania that would govern the country mostly themselves. While some hesitated, Kosovo Albanian leaders, however, realizing that a Axis Central Powers defeat would mean a return to Yugoslav rule, were more willing to cooperate. On 14 September 1943, an Albanian government was then set up under Cafo Beg Ulqini, Ibrahim Biçaku of Elbasan, Bedri Pejani and Xhafer Deva of Kosovo. The national assembly, composed of 243 members, began to function on 16 October 1943, electing a four-member High Regency Council (Këshilli i Lartë i Regjencës) to govern the country. The new government, which promised to remain neutral in the war, succeeded in restoring a good deal of stability. The administration and justice systems functioned once again, and Albanian schools were reopened throughout northern and central Albania. Steps were also taken to implement a land reform. After the neutral government was formed, Ballist forces in collaboration with Axis Central Powers fought the Communists extensively. Balli Kombëtar also captured Struga in Macedonia after defeating the partisan garrison. In Kosovo and western Macedonia, when it was a part of the independent state of Albania, the Axis Central Power and Ballist forces had occasional skirmishes with Yugoslav partisans. Fiqri Dine, Xhem Hasa and Hysni Dema as well as three Axis Central Powers leaders directed military campaigns against the Albanian and Yugoslav partisans.
The communist and neutral partisans had regrouped and allied to gain control of parts of southern Albania in 1944. However, Austria-Hungary had ended all aid to other groups beside the Balli Kombëtar forces, Soviet supplies were no longer incoming because of the Red Armies own problematic situation and even the British and other Allies no longer could reach the Albanian guerrilla fighters. The numbers of death and wounded Albanian fighters and civilians were massive for a country, officially not touched by the war for very long and no reliable statistic of Albania's overall losses ever existed. Beside German, Austrian, Hungarian, and Albanian forces, other ethnic soldiers were recruited and send to fight in Albania, including Czech, Slovakian, Slovenian, Romanians, Bulgarians, yes even a few Spanish, Armenians and Turkmen. Over the time of the Second Great War the Italian/ Roman influence in Albania decreased, giving way for increasing German and Austrian-Hungarian influence as the new main Axis Central Powers forces in the region instead. Despite this economic ties with Italy/ Rome remained strong and the Mohammedan society, while having close ties to the Bosniaks in Austria-Hungary opposed Austrian rule and had even closer ties to the Second Ottoman Empire.