Part XIX: Asymmetric

July 27, 1940. Durres, Albania.

"Tirana in two weeks."(1) Second Lieutenant Mario Guerico joked as he finished his cigarette.

"Shut the fuck up Sottotenete(2), you don't get to make those jokes yet. You've been here for how many days now?" Primo Tenete(3) Giovanni Ravalli (4) was obviously not having any of it.

"Does it matter?"

"Of course it fucking matters!" Ravalli spat as he lit up another cigarette "You're one of the lucky sods who offloaded here at Durazzo. How many miles did you have to march?"

"How many men did you lose to Albanian fougasse?" (5) Mario shot back. "How many nails did you have to pull out of an 18 year old conscript who went down the wrong alley?"

iranailbomb.jpg

An example of a nail bomb used by Albanian partisans during the occupation of Durres​

Ravalli didn't say anything initially, preferring to take solace in his cigarette. "Don't play this game Sottotenete, you're going to lose every time." He said eventually between drags. "If you think the fougasse and the nail bombs are something, wait until you get up into the mountains." He paused for a moment to grimace and gesture at the hills in the distance. "Now that's the shit. Mussolini won't admit it, but Zog's got real soldiers in those mountains. This shit we're dealing with in Durres…it's nothing compared to their snipers and don't get me started about those grenade launchers. That's a piece of work. They buy them from us for a song and a dance and all it takes is some goat-fucker in some mountain workshop to turn them into absolute nightmares."

Mario tried to think of some witty response but he couldn't.

"I don't know if you've been told about it…but make sure you save a bullet for yourself if you ever get hit with their white-phosphorous shit."

"What?"

"It's supposedly for illumination or smoke or something fucking-innocuous but I tell you it's straight from hell. Chemical burns painful enough to drive a man insane…"

"Barbarians…"

"That's the truth isn't it? You know the Greeks coined the term to talk about them."

"No shit?"

Ravalli nodded "Get this, the Albanians even have a word barabar… means 'equal.' Pretty soon we'll all be equally barbarians…"

Mario smirked "Not if Soddu (6) has his way, don't forget, we're supposed to be liberators."

Ravalli laughed. "Is that what they're saying. What exactly are we liberating them from? If this is oppression maybe we should just sue for peace and let Zog 'oppress' us. If he could do this in Albania, imagine what he could do in Sicily?" He paused for a moment before continuing "No, this isn't about liberation. This is about conquest. Don't forget we're building the new Roman Empire."

"We're also avenging treachery."

"That too. But don't forget, unlike these fuckers we signed the Geneva convention so we have to do it with one hand tied behind our back."

"What's that mean?"

The look in Ravalli's eyes shook Mario to the core. "You really don't get it Sottotenete do you? You. Have. Been. Lied. To. They have all the advantages here. We're all just pawns in this game and they're eight moves ahead of us. They know exactly where we're going to come from and they're ready. When we overwhelm their positions they retreat back to their mountain holes and pick us off with impunity. I was at Santa Quarante. We thought that was bad, but Albania was supposed to be like an egg right? Crack the shell and it all falls apart? Right?"

Mario nodded quietly.

"That's what I thought too. Put the memories of my friends getting shot and stabbed in that damned castle aside and go on a nice march through the mountains. Make camp outside of some pissant village and it all starts, four men dead, six wounded. The next day, more shots, more dead, then again and again and again sometimes with grenades. Every time we fire into the mountain hills and run up only to find no bodies half the time. The rest of the time they're wearing smocks made of our fucking camouflage." (7)

"But you did take Vlora…"

"If we could somehow bring those naval guns inland…" Ravalli shook his head "…no you see they were ready there too. It was Saranda all over again, turns out the commander at Vlora was a hell of a lot better. Slaughtered us all day long then pulled back at night. You see, Vlora is surrounded by more goddamn hills and they knew exactly where to hole up and kill us. They waited until we advanced beyond where the guns could reach… Half my goddamn company died in those hills. Hell, it wasn't even my company to start with, the only reason they made me Primo Tenete was because I didn't have the common decency to die."

Grabbing another cigarette, Mario lit up and offered Ravalli another one. It really is worse than I ever imagined… "With all due respect Primo Tenete, but Prasca's already been removed from command. We outnumber the Albanians one hundred to one and now with all the ports we can finally begin to use our numbers to our advantage. It might take longer than we were told, but this will all be over soon."

Ravalli scowled but took the cigarette anyways "God, is this what all Venetians are like now? Let me tell you about a bridge…" He paused to chuckle at his own joke. "Look, I hope you're right. But I've seen a whole lot more than you, and I'm telling you that this isn't over by a long shot. Did you receive any training for this? I sure as hell didn't. We're going to need tens of thousands of men, Alpini, mortars you name it, we also need the goddamn navy to keep the British off our backs, but there's a fat chance we'll get any of it."

"So what do we do?"

"Follow orders…Die…maybe live long enough for Mussolini to realize what needs to be done."

"And that is?"

"Barabar… we need to make them fear us. No quarter, torture, revenge killings, gas… whatever it takes to even the odds. We did it in Libya and Abyssinia, why not here?"(8)

If the Army wasn't desperately trying to retain officers with combat experience, Mario might have reported Ravalli. Even then, army bureaucracy was never particularly fast in good times. All reporting him would accomplish would be to make everyone's lives more difficult. "That may be true, but I'd appreciate it if you'd keep your opinions to yourself, it's making the men uneasy…"

"Well," Ravalli shot back with mock seriousness "we wouldn't want that, now would we?"

Something deep inside told Mario that this entire conversation had been an entirely useless endeavour. He'd have to live with Ravalli for the time being. Perhaps he could find a way to distract or contain him, or perhaps the situation would resolve itself at the Front. The campaign's logistics had been a mess from day one, but things were finally beginning to turn around enough to spark rumors of an advance to Tirana. Durazzo and Valona (9) were still a long way from fully operational, but Shengjin was beginning to take some of the pressure off Saranda and the recently constructed airfield there should prevent British aircraft from launching another attack. (10) If he could contain Ravalli long enough, perhaps one of the man's dreaded snipers might take care of Mario's problem for him…

Notes

1. Italian soldiers made similar jokes in OTL when their invasion of Greece quickly bogged down.

2. Second Lieutenant.

3. Senior Lieutenant.

4. Ravalli committed several heinous war crimes in Greece in OTL. He was one of the only Italians tried by Greek courts and he was imprisoned until 1959 when Italy threatened to cease paying reparations if he was not released. Following his release, he became police prefect of Palermo.

5. IED similar to a claymore.

6. Minister of War Ubaldo Soddu took over from Prasca during OTL's invasion of Greece. In TTL the high casualties and slow advance dooms Prasca to a similar fate.

7. See part X, Zog purchased large numbers of Italian shelter halves which used the 1929 camouflage pattern, a pattern which the Italians only stopped using in the 1990s IIRC. In OTL's Italian campaign, the Germans converted these shelter halves into smocks for their troops.

8. Davide Rodogno in his book "Fascism's European Empire" makes an astute point connecting the total unpreparedness of the Italians for guerrilla warfare to the atrocities they eventually committed. Underfed, poorly equipped, and surrounded by an invisible enemy it's hardly a surprise that so many troops lashed out against civilian populations especially when the qualities and ideologies of the Italian officers who led them are taken into account. Though the German occupiers also faced similar problems, albeit to a lesser extent, their brutality was driven far more by the Wehrmacht's utter hatred of anyone who engaged in guerrilla warfare dating back to the Franco-Prussian War coupled with Nazi ideology IMO.

9. Vlora

10. More on that later in this update.

July 31, 1940. Shijak, Albania.

Erzen bridge.jpg

The Erzen River Bridge near the village of Shijak in 1914. The Italians built a slightly better version in both OTL and TTL but generally poor infrastructure in the region in OTL caused a handful of Albanian resistors to delay their advance on Tirana. In 1949 the communists built another bridge over the river to replace the Italian one which still remains in use today.L​

"I trust your inspection went satisfactorily Your Highness?" The title still felt odd in Mehmet's mouth. If he was being perfectly honest with himself, the fact that Zog himself still obviously felt some discomfort helped him deal with his own queasiness.

"At ease General Pasha." Zog replied quickly with an awkward wave. He was tall for an Albanian so he had to duck slightly to avoid one of the beams holding up the roof of the cellar which housed the Headquarters, but he did so fairly gracefully as he moved towards Mehmet and the map he was standing over. "I feel I have no choice but to repeat the same thing I told you at Durres: simply marvelous work. If Skanderbeg had men like you at his side, we'd have easily driven the Turks back 500 years ago."

"Skanderbeg didn't have to deal with the Regia Aeronautica…"

Zog chuckled "No…no he most certainly did not." He paused for a moment to look over the map. "But from what I've seen you and your men are doing extremely well nevertheless. The fact that you've been able to entrench so effectively not only here but at Marikaj and Vorë amidst continual harassment is a testament to your skills…"

"With all due respect, your highness, if my Albanians had been this motivated back in 1912, we'd all still be speaking Turkish. (11) They're the ones who you should be praising. If not them than the men or man who inspires them. I just look at maps and point."

"I've already praised them for their part." Zog replied quickly, ignoring the thinly veiled compliment. "Now I'm praising you for yours. All the enthusiasm in the world is of little value unless it is channeled appropriately."

"True, but digging in at Shijak was your idea." (12)

"…but you executed it. Besides, neither of us really thought the defense of the coast would go so well. This position was never supposed to last as long as it did and that's largely a result of your planning and leadership. Now when you retreat, you'll be able to bleed them again far more effectively as they march on the capital."

"Where you'll be waiting, I presume?" Before he could continue his thought, Mehmet paused for a moment to take a good look at the King. Though the dust and light had obscured his initial advance, the lantern light revealed something different about him which he hadn't noticed initially "Will all your troops be clad in such attire?" He interjected pointing at the King's odd uniform.

"Sadly no," Zog said with a shake of his head. "Eventually though, I'd like to distribute this uniform as widely as possible. It turns out the seamstresses of FMSh can do just about anything when they put their minds to it, even converting Italian tents into uniforms."(13)

"Any chance of getting some of those uniforms here? Preferably with bodies still in them." Years ago he would have chided the king for focusing so much on camouflage, but having seen just how effective it could be in the past month, Mehmet realized that even a small improvement like the uniform Zog was wearing would have impressive dividends.

Zog laughed. "I'll see what I can do. If everything goes to shit maybe I'll just come myself."

"That bad?" At first Mehmet had been taken aback by the casualness with which the King approached him, especially in light of the fact that their only contact had been through written correspondence for years. Still, as odd as he found it, the fact that the King avoided an over-serious view of himself went a long way to building his appeal in the army as well as a sense of camaraderie Mehmet hadn't felt since the First World War. He'd probably never get used to it but it was far better than the alternative of having some bajraktar playing at royalty.

"Well, I can't have you hog all the glory."

"You're welcome to trade places with me. I'm sure your bed in the Royal Palace is a hell of a lot more comfortable."

Zog laughed and clapped him on the back "You're welcome to it, or rather what's left of it. The Palace has been the target of…" he paused to count on his fingers "…8 air raids by now. If you wish I can show you the cellar I'm staying in. There's a bit more wine, but other than that, it's remarkably similar, well besides the snakes."

"Your majesty, are you aware that you're the King? You can leave whenever you want."

"Heavy lies the crown I'm afraid…Though you're probably more right than you realize. There is indeed less and less for me to do in the capital, especially now that the mess with the bank is dealt with and our alliances are secured."

It took every ounce of self-control for Mehmet not to snort "Ah yes, the British and the Colonel… de…"

"General de Gaulle." Zog interjected.

"Ah yes, he was promoted wasn't he…" Mehmet sighed. "Don't mistake my words, aligning with the British I understand completely, in fact, feel free to let Churchill know that we need another air raid…(14 But your fascination with this 'Free French' movement is frankly a waste of time. If the French do decide to rejoin the fight, they sure as hell aren't going to follow some jumped up Colonel."

Zog smirked briefly before responding "You should tell that to the people of Madagascar…"(15)

"I would, but it is on the other side of the world after all. Besides, courtesy of the British all their ships have been demilitarized. At best your vaunted 'General' has a few hundred real soldiers following him and a mass of colonial auxiliaries." (16)

"For now…"

"Not that any of our allies are willing to come directly to our aid now. In that sense we really are like Skanderbeg, left alone, fighting tyranny from the mountaintops."

"Fortunately for us General Pasha, you and I both know that Mussolini is no Mehmet the Conqueror. If we hold the course, we can, and we will outlast them."

"Your majesty, you and I have had this conversation so many times, frankly I don't care to repeat it right now. Nor do I think it's wise to go over it again at this point as there's nothing we can do to change our ultimate fate. No matter how badly we bleed the Italians here, or in Tirana, or anywhere else, we simply cannot continue to match them in the field. We will be driven into the mountains and you will lose a large portion of the population, particularly the Northern tribes. All of what you've built over the past few years will be destroyed. All we really can do now is fight and hope that instead of being consigned to the history books, your vaunted allies turn the tide quickly enough to ensure that it lays the foundation for yet another a new country."

Zog sighed. After a pregnant pause he spoke quietly "Amen General, that's all we can do at this point…" Collecting himself he continued "…but let me worry about the Tribes. All I need you to do is preserve your command while doing all you can to bleed the Italians when they try to cross the Erzen.(17) I do hope your appetite for vengeance has not been sated by recent events…"

Mehmet grinned "Rest assured your majesty, I'm still hungry. More than enough for a few more pages in the history books."

Notes

11. Vehib Pasha served with the Ottoman/Albanian forces during the First Balkan wars and fought around Yanya/Ioannina.

12. After the brief battle of Durres in OTL's April 1939 invasion, poor infrastructure and token Albanian resistance played a major role in a substantial delay of the Italian march to Tirana at Shijak.

13.Zog's uniform is roughly equivalent to a modern BDU but using Italian camouflage patterns. While this is a bit nicer than the standard one he's hoping to churn out, it's not that far off and is meant to signal his commitment to a key contributing factor to Albania's success so far. See Part X for more information.

14. See subsequent portion.

15. Again keep reading!

16. Vehib Pasha is operating off incomplete information here. Understandable given his proximity to the front and other distractions.

17. The Erzen river serves as Shijak's western border and also served as a substantial barrier between Durres and Tirana due to the fact that there were only a handful of crossing points.

(Excerpted from Cornelius Reese "Europe's Last Warrior King" 2011)

…Following the Battle of Tirana, the Vërlaci government made a determined attempt to connect Zog's absence from the initial battles and retreat from the city to an established pattern of behaviour dating back to the First World War. Rather than put himself at risk, they claimed, Zog was only willing to fight for Albania when the outcome had already been decided. Unsurprisingly, this propaganda campaign fell flat on its face for a number of reasons, the most notable being the incredibly limited reach of the Italian occupation resulting in the message failing to reach rural Albanians who might have been more easily swayed.(18) Instead it fell upon deaf ears, particularly in the city of Tirana where not only were their numerous accounts of the King's bravery during the battle itself, but Zog had built up considerable good will by not only spearheading civil defense efforts, but opening his own air raid shelter to regular Tiranans.

Still, the question raised by the Vërlaci's remained. Given his subsequent willingness to both visit and occasionally fight on the front as well has his penchant for propagandistic appearances, his absence from the initial battles continued to raise eyebrows even among his most ardent postwar supporters. What exactly was Zog doing during those initial weeks, and particularly during the early days of the Italian invasion? While Zog's initial answer, that he was consumed with nationalizing the Albanian National Bank, ensuring that his substantial wealth and commercial holdings could be most effectively harnessed to the war effort, and securing Albania's alliances was no lie recently released documents show that it was far from the whole truth.

Still, it is worth stopping to note the immense pressures Zog faced in the aftermath of June 10. Even if he did nothing other than what he initially claimed, he had more than enough to excuse him from visiting the front. After all, he was the only Head of State to enter the conflict with not only a globe spanning personal fortune worth nearly 450 million US Dollars (19) but with no control of his country's monetary policy. Instead the main offices of the Albanian National Bank were not only filled with Italians but were themselves located in Rome as a result of the SVEA loan agreement. (20) The latter was particularly concerning for Zog due to its direct impact upon his Kingdom's ability to keep its army in the field and he had made preparations accordingly.

Unlike modern observers, or even contemporary foreign observers which both placed far more emphasis on the seizure of the Italian Embassy and the oil infrastructure around Fier, Zog opted to personally lead the forces tasked with seizing the offices of the Albanian National Bank in Tirana. While the Italians had insisted on keeping the bill printing machinery in Rome for this very reason, Zog was able to secure significant cash reserves as well as documents central to the bank's functioning. He was also able to install his own officials immediately to the effect that the Bank reopened its doors a mere three hours after Zog's men took it. While the rushed reopening, bullet holes and all, was largely an aesthetic move to signal Zog regaining control over Albanian monetary policy, it was also backed by concrete policies.

The first of these policies, the expansion of the money supply, Zog had been working on for nearly half a decade. Working with counterfeiters from around the world, Zog already had not only the expertise but the equipment and material to begin printing large numbers of his own bank notes by 1939. Despite Zog's best efforts, such preparations did not go unnoticed by the Italians and not only contributed towards worsening relations but also threatened to start a conflict themselves. Fortunately for Zog, Musa Juka's work in limiting the reach of Italian spies coupled with Zog's appeal to Italian vanity proved to be enough to temporarily de-escalate tensions. By presenting false reports regarding shortfalls from his companies and rampant corruption, Zog claimed that his counterfeiting efforts were merely meant to disguise these problems until they could be brought under control. While this failed to convince many, in the absence of serious evidence to the contrary, it proved to be enough for Mussolini who was willing to let the matter slide due to Zog's continual infusion of US Dollars into the Italian economy with his yearly loan re-payments.

Following the seizure of the Banka Kombetare's offices, the true rationale for Zog's foray into counterfeiting became apparent. Still, following Zog's announcement that the Albanian Gold Franc would no longer be adhering to the Gold Standard, officials in Rome were confident that their bills would retain legitimacy both in Albania, and abroad. What they did not foresee was Zog's prioritization of negotiations with not only the British Government, but British Banks as well. Even before the Anglo-Albanian alliance was finalized, Zog had succeeded in securing British recognition of his nationalization of the Albanian National Bank, a substantial loan to back his new currency, and a favourable fixed exchange rate to the British Pound Sterling. The results were immediately apparent as the deflationary shackles the Albanian economy had struggled with for over half a decade were lifted and it was at last able to function as a modern economy to fund the modern war it found itself embroiled in. (21)

While most Albanians would have undoubtedly been displeased with the abandonment of the Gold Standard had it lasted long enough, the ongoing war meant that only a handful paid significant attention to it. Those that did found Zog's policies eminently reasonable considering recent events, even if many initially expressed a hope for the "Gold" Franc's eventual return.(22) Even Zog's decision to use his newfound control over Albanian monetary policy to blur the line between his public and private lives raised little ire. Zog had given so much of his wealth to the country after all, what right did any Albanian have to critique a handful of moderate repayments? Besides to do so with Italian troops on Albanian soil threatened to draw the ire of either Musa Juka or the massive numbers of Albanians who directly benefited from his previous policies. In the heady days of June and July 1940 both were equally dread inducing for opponents of the regime as the Kingdom of Albania threw itself fully into the war.

Despite publicly maintaining that his massive spending spree was intended to throw the Italians back into the sea, a closer examination of Zog's investments in June and July 1940 show that he remained resolute in following his plan to wage an asymmetric campaign from the mountains. Rather than training and arming the thousands of volunteers to head to the front, Zog instead combined his reserves as well as the Royal Albanian Legion and the Royal Albanian Scouts to form hundreds of resistance cells or çetas. In addition to receiving equipment and training, members of the çetas together with the Albanian Army and the Gendarmerie were all given excellent pay and allowed to partake in the newly nationalized FMSh pension plan. The prospect of the latter, a completely new phenomenon in Albania, proved to be particularly valuable in both attracting and maintaining the allegiance of everyday Albanians both during the initial days of the Italian invasion and in the bloody occupation which followed. While post-war adjudication boards would disqualify many applicants, the prospect offered by Zog and his pension plan proved to be vital in securing the loyalty of tens of thousands of Albanians when times grew more difficult…

…Zog also devoted a considerable amount of effort to secure a British guarantee that they would respond in kind to any Italian gas attacks on Albania. Having not only corresponded but built a strong friendship with Vehib Pasha, Zog was all too keenly aware of Mussolini's proclivity to use chemical weapons to compensate for his armed forces' weaknesses. Furthermore, Zog was also incredibly concerned about Albania's liminal status as a European nation. Despite its geographic location, centuries of cultural isolation had left Albania isolated from European society and in Zog's eyes vulnerable to being seen in the same light as Abyssinia when it came to the use of chemical weapons. Though Zog had stockpiled a number of gas masks, he nevertheless forced his men to strictly adhere to international treaties in order to increase the chances of avoiding the scourge of chemical warfare. Fortunately for his countrymen, Zog's efforts quickly bore fruit and a clearly worded British communique quashed nascent Italian plans to use poison gas to bring about the rapid victory Mussolini craved…

…Even as documents began to be released to historians, the question of what Zog was doing during the events of the Italian invasion itself from late June to early July remained unanswered. It was only with the opening of key archival fonds in the Albanian, French, and British archives that the true nature of Zog's activities in Tirana during those critical days became apparent. In a clear foreshadowing of his future internationalism and strategic vision, even as Italian troops stormed ashore Zog became obsessed with attempting to manage the fallout which resulted from the Franco-German armistice of June 25, 1940. Zog simply refused to accept the massive blow to the alliance he was in the process of joining and instead retained a fervent hope that the French could be persuaded to continue the fight their government had abandoned. While Zog's letters make his focus on the broader strategic implications absolutely clear, it should also be noted that in securing fair treatment for the French, Zog hoped to also secure fair treatment for his own assets if the worst case scenario played out…

…In addition to giving clear instructions to his diplomatic staff, Zog also sought to leverage the relationship he'd built with none other than Winston Churchill himself. Despite finding many of his policies, particularly towards the Irish, Arabs, and Indians abhorrent, shortly after his coronation Zog began corresponding with the then quite unpopular backbencher out of respect for Churchill's skill as a writer and politician. Shortly thereafter, Zog came to see in Churchill's resolute opposition to appeasement the potential of an alliance. While they never developed a close relationship before the war, their correspondence undoubtedly laid the foundation for Zog to leverage his country's initial actions into giving him an outsized impact on the course of the war.(23)

Having studied British history and in possession of a keen strategic mind himself, Zog presciently observed the immense importance of the French Navy. Claiming to be concerned about the "character of the alliance," Zog immediately wrote to Churchill upon hearing of the armistice, begging him to neutralize the French Navy immediately but to do so in a way that left the door open for France to rejoin the fight. Zog began his letter by aptly examining the argument for Britain attempting to seize or destroy the Marine Nationale and positing that such a policy could irreversibly damage decades of diplomatic progress. He then moved on to examine and rate possible alternative routes to neutralizing the French Navy, before settling on either encouraging the French Navy to sail to Martinique to be demilitarized or having them demilitarized in situ as the options most likely to be palatable to Admiral Darlan and his subordinates. While acknowledging that the latter was not ideal, Zog concluded his letter by expressing his confidence that if the French ships were even temporarily removed from the conflict, the Royal Navy was more than capable of defeating them after dealing with the Italian fleet.(24)

Even with Zog's letter and the actions of Sarachi, Noli, Koniça, and the rest of the nascent Albanian Government in Exile, Churchill's policy vacillated during those key days at the end of June. With the Luftwaffe subjecting Britain to the same kind of ruthless bombardment Albania was experiencing, the thought of both the French and Italian fleets joining the Kriegsmarine's invasion fleet remained a terrifying possibility. While Zog's arguments held a considerable amount of weight, Churchill also clearly felt tempted to use the French fleet to send a clear message that Britain would not go quietly into the night to both the Americans and the former appeasers in Parliament. While the Italian defeat at Durres certainly played a large role in calming British panic about the coming invasion, the need to send a clear signal to the rest of the world continued to pull Churchill away from the more moderate proposals from not only Zog but figures like Admiral Dudley Pound as well.(25)

What was needed was an alternative avenue for Britain to send a clear signal regarding her willingness to continue to fight and as much as Zog would have liked to provide one, he was simply not in the position to. Fortunately, Admiral Cunningham was. Having argued for an intervention in the Italian Invasion of Albania since June 10, Cunningham finally got his wish when Churchill endorsed his complicated plan to use both his force and Somerville's to draw out the Italian Navy and reinforce Malta in the process. While the elderly carrier ARGUS ferried a dozen Hawker Hurricanes close enough to fly to Malta, Somerville would use the ARK ROYAL's aircraft to raid Italian airfields in Sardinia while Cunningham used the EAGLE's expert air group to at long last strike at Italian forces off the Albanian coast. (26) While not quite as flashy as Churchill's planned seizure of the Marine Nationale, Cunningham's proved to be a palatable enough alternative to induce Churchill to abandon his initial hard line stance.

Career_of_Admiral_Sir_Andrew_Cunningham_A9760.jpg

Admiral Andrew Cunningham Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean​

While Churchill insisted that all commanders be instructed to both offer the option to join the Royal Navy and destroy the French vessels if negotiations failed, his eventual orders bore a striking similarity to Zog's proposals. To salve French pride negotiations were to be personally conducted with between the Admirals themselves and the disarming of the vessels in situ was established as the most likely outcome. As an additional option, Churchill also adopted Zog's suggestion of using a plebiscite among the officers as a way to bring the matter to a successful conclusion. While several have noted the similarities between Zog's proposals and the negotiations which took place between Cunningham and his French counterpart Godfroy, no record of correspondence between the two men has been discovered. Regardless of where the ideas came from, everyone involved seems to have breathed a sigh of relief on July 3, 1940 as in one port after another British and French admirals came to an agreement to de-militarize their ships. While all of the vessels retained the capability to be re-militarized, to do so required extensive shipyard work and expertise the Axis frankly did not possess. Given the fact that he not only had far more pressing concerns in Albania, but he had also contributed to averting yet another catastrophic Anglo-French war, Zog's willingness to allow his contribution to remain in the shadows seems eminently justified.

Subsequent events also quickly justified Zog's belief in the enigmatic young General Charles de Gaulle. While, like Churchill, Zog disagreed with de Gaulle on numerous points, the potential he saw in the young General quickly came to the fore in the aftermath of the events of July 3. Oddly enough, despite de Gaulle's presence in the UK, the first force to join him did so on the other side of the world in Madagascar. Here too, Zog seems to have played a minor role, encouraging de Gaulle's fledgling movement to contact the governor Jules Marcel de Coppet along with the government of Jan Smuts. Zog believed that de Coppet, a rare opponent of François Darlan in the French colonies, was more likely to break with the new Vichy regime and indeed, inspired by "the spirit of brotherhood and resistance" with which the naval issue was solved, de Coppet became the first colonial governor to join the Free French on July 5, 1940. While the instability of his position forced him to call on Jan Smuts to send South African forces to help maintain order, de Coppet's declaration opened the door to de Gaulle's Antananarivo declaration a week later which in turn sparked other declarations around the world as the Free French Movement truly took off. (27)

Even before the true impact of the neutralization of the Marine Nationale became apparent, it was already being felt in the Mediterranean as the Royal Navy's fleets involved quickly moved to execute Cunningham's plan codenamed Operation HURRY on July 14. Unfortunately for both Cunningham and Churchill, their desired confrontation with the Regia Marina would have to wait as their Italian counterpart, Admiral Angelo Iachino found himself utterly overwhelmed by the flurry of British movements. With so much of the Regia Aeronautica tied up in the continued bombing of Albania, Iachino struggled to get a clear sense of the British objectives. In the absence of clear information, Iachino gave into fear and allowed the anxiety he had been feeling about the risks of the invasion of Albania to guide his decision making. Believing the western fleet to be a distraction, Iachino saw Cunningham's force as the true threat and moved to deploy his battleships south of Saranda to block them while remaining in close proximity to the remaining air assets at his disposal.(28)

In choosing to focus on Cunningham, Iachino left the door open for Somerville to execute his portion of the mission with almost no resistance. Not only were the 12 Hawker Hurricanes onboard the ARGUS able to make the flight to Malta with ease, but the ARK ROYAL's aircraft were able to inflict significant damage to Italian positions around the Sardinian city of Cagliari. Taking off shortly before dawn, 12 Fairey Swordfish, 9 armed with bombs and 3 with mines, braved heavy AA fire and succeeded in destroying several hangars and aircraft as well as mining the harbor all in exchange for the loss of 2 planes and no crewmen. Given that the units usually responsible for that portion of the Mediterranean had been shifted to either continue the terror bombing of Albania or focus on Cunningham's fleet it is unsurprising that Somerville's entire taskforce was able to safely return to Gibraltar on July 16. (29)

Needless to say, Cunningham's fleet was far less fortunate. However, as a result of Iachino's defensive posture, neither his nor Cunningham's fleets entered into visual range or traded fire. In a telling sign of the future of naval warfare, the entirety of the engagement was to be conducted by aircraft. Despite being tempted to call off the raid in its entirety by the ferocity of the Italian aerial assault, Cunningham nevertheless persisted and managed to find an opportunity to launch 10 Swordfish from the EAGLE early on July 15. Armed with a mixture of torpedoes and bombs, these aircraft failed to spot Iachino's fleet and instead arrived over Saranda to find the harbour clogged with Italian shipping. Like their comrades from the ARK ROYAL, the men of 813 and 824 Squadrons faced heavy AA fire but were nonetheless able to deliver their ordinance. Due largely to the vastly more target rich environment the results were far more spectacular than the raid on Cagliari. Despite vastly inflated initial combat reports, post-war analysis revealed that the raid succeeded in sinking three merchant vessels totalling 16,000 GRT and inflicting moderate damage to several other vessels and, more importantly, the overworked port facilities at Saranda. While the aircraft did spot Iachino's fleet on their return flight, by the time they arrived Cunningham had already made the decision to withdraw. To his credit, despite facing considerable opposition from the Regia Aeronautica, due to their continued reliance on inaccurate level bombing techniques, Cunningham's fleet was able to escape almost unscathed. Only the venerable carrier EAGLE suffered damage due to a single direct hit and several near misses which, while not significant themselves, revealed a larger issue with the vessel's aircraft refueling system which necessitated a rapid retreat to Alexandria to undertake repairs.(30)

Churchill kept any disappointment with Cunningham's failure to engage the Italian battlefleet private and instead focused on capitalizing on Operation Hurry's political impact. When combined with the neutralization of the Marine Nationale, it served as a clear signal, particularly to figures like Ambassador Joseph Kennedy, that Britain was willing to continue the fight against the Axis despite claims that Churchill was only willing to "fight to the last Albanian." Cunningham's raid on Saranda also served as the first tangible result of Zog's alliance with the United Kingdom and substantially bolstered his support as a result. Yet the practical impact of the raid proved to be far more important as the confusion and damage to Saranda's harbour delayed Italian reinforcement efforts pushing the start date for the Italian drive on Tirana back to August 1 and giving Zog's men two more crucial weeks to prepare for the coming storm.

Notes

18. Just so it's clear, Italy's occupation in OTL was incredibly weak/light outside of the major cities and roads as well.

19. Again, really rough calculations here. If anyone wants to critique them I'm all ears. As a point of comparison King Farouk of Egypt inherited assets worth roughly $100 million USD in 1936.

20. All OTL, the SVEA loan agreement was signed before the insertion. See Part III if you'd like a refresher.

21. The Albanian Gold Franc was one of the strongest currencies in Europe in OTL due to the constant influx of Italian money and the Italians' refusal to grant Zog control over monetary policy and insistence on maintaining a rigid adherence to the Gold Standard. This of course created deflationary trends which harmed the Albanian economy in OTL which Zog has dealt with in TTL by using his enormous wealth to circumvent. However, even though he is fabulously wealthy he's got better things planned for his money than privately funding his war to prop up an unsustainable Gold Standard.

22. Low levels of education in OTL have not been completely overcome in TTL meaning that many Albanians retain their distrust of anything other than precious metals.

23. See Part IX.

24. While I recognize this is a stretch, to be fair Churchill received letters from dozens of people on the issue of the French fleet in OTL, many of which were far less important and influential than Zog. In OTL he jested to his overworked staff that "if words counted, we should win this war."

25. Honestly, I've vacillated on this all week. If people think it's a bridge too far feel free to let me know. I came down where I did because after further examination, the events of OTL's Operation Catapult were an incredibly near run thing. Pound argued for demilitarization in situ as well in OTL but Churchill didn't take it up. In TTL Zog's letter to Churchill allows him to make it seem like it's all his idea. This seems to me like precisely the kind of situation where a few letters at the right time could have made all the difference.

26. While TTL's Operation Hurry is slightly earlier than OTL's and of course features an Albanian angle, otherwise it's all basically from OTL.

27. de Coppet and his opposition to Darlan is from OTL. He was also making overtures to Smuts to send troops and aircraft to help maintain order in OTL when Operation Catapult occurred. Enraged he resigned and was replaced by Leon Cayla who also abandoned any thought of joining the Free French when news from Oran reached him. However unlike de Coppet, Cayla remained in office and promptly brought Madagascar into line with Vichy.

28. In OTL Iachino was similarly overwhelmed by Operation Hurry. However without an invasion to protect he remained in Taranto with his battleships.

29. Somerville's actions are basically the same as OTL's only they occur a few weeks earlier.

30. In OTL this problem with the aircraft refueling system prevented the EAGLE from taking part in Operation Judgement