Albania at War, 1939-1945

Cover

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Title page

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Copyright

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Contents

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pp. vii-

Acknowledgments

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pp. ix-

I am greatly indebted to many friends and colleagues without whom this work would have been considerably more flawed than it is, and to the various institutions who helped to make this work possible. The encouragement of my friend and mentor, Professor Dimitrije Djordjevic, I will always gratefully acknowledge. Professors Stephen Fischer-Galati, Peter Sugar, and Nicholas...

Foreword

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pp. xi-xiii

Albania and its people have coursed this century in relative obscurity. That they have attracted so little attention stems in part from the country’s small size, population, and economy. Another reason is that Albania is the only nationstate in all of central Europe to have remained neutral in both world wars. Its...

Abbreviations

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pp. xiv-

Note on Place-Names [Includes Image Plates]

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pp. xv-ixx

INTRODUCTION [Includes Image Plate]

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pp. 1-4

It is becoming increasing dif�cult to justify yet another book dealing with some aspect of World War II. Of all the armed conflicts of past centuries, World War II has engendered the most interest as well as an exhausting amount of written material. The opening of the Soviet archives and the recent commemoration of the �ftieth anniversary of the many defining moments of...

1. Count Ciano’s Invasion of Albania

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pp. 5-32

The Italian invasion of April 1939, which began the war in Albania, was the culmination of centuries of Italian interest and twenty years of direct, if unsuccessful, economic and political involvement in Albania, principally under Benito Mussolini. The Straits of Otranto, which separate Albania and southern Italy by forty miles of the Adriatic Sea, have always served more as a bridge than a barrier, providing escape, a cultural span, and a convenient...

2. The Construction of an Italian Albania [Includes Image Plates]

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pp. 33-60

The Albania of 1939, which Ciano intended to make bloom and Mussolini hoped to use as a bulwark, presented a considerable challenge. There certainly had been some development since independence in 1912, particularly in terms of political stability and internal cohesion. But Zog’s limited constructive talent, his inability to grasp modern economics or ¤nd advisers who could, and...

3. Italian Greater Albania

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pp. 61-88

Ciano was willing to exaggerate Italian popularity in Albania in order to convince Mussolini to invade. Ciano could delude Mussolini, but he found self-deception, particularly following his first visit to Albania after the invasion, more difficult. Rather than receiving the warm welcome his agents had assured him, he saw overt hostility. Once the Italians had established their

4. Italian Repression and the Beginning of Resistance [Includes Image Plates]

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pp. 89-120

The Italians made many mistakes in Albania, not the least of which was assuming that they could win over a majority of Albanians at all. The Albanian attitude toward the Italians in 1939 ranged from indifference to suspicion to passive antipathy to hatred; by late 1940 the latter was the prevailing emotion. Unlike with their feelings about the Germans after 1943, the Albanians never...

5. The Growth of Resistance and the Collapse of Italy [Includes Image Plates]

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pp. 121-156

The Italians made many mistakes in Albania, not the least of which was assuming that they could win over a majority of Albanians at all. The Albanian attitude toward the Italians in 1939 ranged from indifference to suspicion to passive antipathy to hatred; by late 1940 the latter was the prevailing emotion. Unlike with their feelings about the Germans after 1943, the Albanians never...

6. The German Invasion and the Construction of a German Albania

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pp. 157-188

The Germans watched Italy’s decline with some alarm, recognizing that in the event of a complete collapse, their own responsibilities would increase significantly. Italian-occupied territories everywhere, including Albania, would have to be invaded and held, straining an already overburdened Wehrmacht. The Germans also realized that they had perhaps been overcautious of Italian...

7. Resistance to the Germans [Includes Image Plates]

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pp. 189-222

The story of Albanian resistance to the Germans is one of complexity and controversy. Although the resistance picture in Albania was by no means simple under the Italians, the arrival of the German forces contributed to the further splintering of the movement. And astute German policy did much to reduce the effectiveness of the many pieces as well as help insure the failure of...

8. German Retreat and the Construction of a Stalinist Albania

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pp. 223-256

The collapse of Romania and the imminent fall of Bulgaria encouraged the German high command to finalize plans for the withdrawal of army group E and part of army group F from the Balkans. Headquarters in Belgrade ordered all units, including the Twenty-first Corps, to prepare for withdrawal, so as not to be caught between the advancing Soviets and the growing partisan forces....

CONCLUSION

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pp. 257-274

Albania’s wartime experience began with the Italian invasion of April 1939 and ended with the German withdrawal of November 1944 and the construction of the Stalinist republic. The intervening five and a half years produced three different “Albanias“—Italian, German, and Stalinist—all of which were built, to a certain extent, on elements of artificiality. The war also produced...

NOTE ON SOURCES

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pp. 275-284

The task of attempting to grasp even the basics of Albania at war is not a simple one. Albania’s Stalinist past has made the researcher’s work difficult. A basic problem is that the Albanian archives remained closed to foreign scholars until the early 1990s. Further, Enver Hoxha reports that what existed in the archives prior to 1944 was destroyed in the Battle of Tirana, although this is...

NOTES

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pp. 285-319

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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pp. 321-327

INDEX

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pp. 329-338