Part XXX: Empires Strike Back
Excerpted from Elliot Daniel's "Balkan Travelblog")
Albania Off the Beaten Track, Day 13: Elbasan
Though completely understandable in light of their beauty, the modern tourist industry's focus on the spectacular vistas of the Albanian Alps and the Albanian Riviera leaves dozens of superb locations off the beaten track. As already demonstrated, by our previous entry on Korça and Berat (See Day 11 and Day 12) these locations are more than worth trips on their own as is the subject of our current post, the beautiful city of Elbasan. Even if you're not an urban planning nerd, the beauty of the city's post-war reconstruction featuring Albanian Neo-Classical architecture, large tree lined boulevards, fascinating museums, and excellent restaurants merit spending at least half a day if not a whole day here. Keep on reading for our suggested itineraries for both.
Completed in 1947, Elbasan's Central Train Station is the first of many excellent examples of Albanian Neo-Classical Architecture you will see upon arriving. Here it is, illuminated at night.(1)
Getting here
As one of the country's main infrastructure hubs, Elbasan is fairly easy to get to from most places in Albania. For those interested in seeing more of the country and have rented a car like us, the A3 motorway connects the country to Mbreti Zogu I Madh Airport and the rest of the North and also continues South to Berat and Gjirokaster. The A4 similarly connects Elbasan to the A1 and the Coastal Highway in the west and to Korça and the Mountain Highway. Buses also run along these routes, but most non-drivers prefer to take the train either from Durrës/Vlora or Korça. Unlike Berat, which really requires a car to fully enjoy all the region has to offer, city planners rebuilt Elbasan around its train station.(2) When coupled with a walkable downtown, an excellent public transportation system, and numerous bicycle rental options, the convenient rail options make a car-free trip to the city well worth your while.
….
Parku i Deshmorëvë
Even with all of the museums and other recently constructed attractions, the Parku i Deshmorëvë remains Elbasan's crown jewel. Situated immediately south of the Central Train Station the 133-hectare Park dominates the northern shore of the river Shkumbin and has been a fixture of the city's post-war reconstruction. Most travellers arriving by train will usually grab a meal, either from one of the excellent restaurants in the Station, or for those more economically minded, the excellent qofta(3) and byrek stands outside and take a short walk south to have a picnic in the park. Everyone has a favourite, but in our experience, they are all pretty good so its hard to miss. There are also plenty of picnic benches for you to sit at, and for those travellers with children, there are no fewer than three playgrounds for them to burn off some energy on.
Once your meal is finished, we highly recommend taking a stroll through the park's many trails to observe the beautiful trees and superbly cultivated gardens. For those concerned about noise from the nearby rail line, rest assured that the city planners took this into account and placed it in underground tunnels. Outside of a very slight rumbling every time a train comes through, it is very difficult to remember that you're often standing on top of a key rail hub. The trains are even less noticeable if you time your visit right and take part in one of the most charming Albanian traditions: the evening stroll. Around 6pm every night, hundreds of people make their way to parks to visit, exercise, and take in the scenery. As a tourist, the infamous Albanian hospitality will be on full display and you'll find yourself so deeply immersed in conversation that the slight rumble will fade completely into the background.(4) Don't worry about busting out your Albanian phrasebook either, English has been taught as the official second language since 1940 so almost everyone is completely fluent.(5)
For those less interested in people and more interested in history and art, or for those who aren't able to visit the park in the early evening, there are dozens of beautiful statues and sculptures interspersed among the trails. Featuring some of Albania's best artists, each one is worthy of a separate blog post as they all memorialize a different person who lost their lives during the war, serving as a silent reminder to the city's population of roughly 200,000 most of whom are descended from post-war "Returnees" of the immense sacrifice that made the modern Kingdom of Albania possible.(6) Though these figures often fade into the background amidst the conversation, football games, and picnics, their consistent presence reminds everyone why it continues to be called "The Park of the Martyrs."(7) Looking at it now, so full of life, it is hard to believe that 70 years ago, the riverbank was the site of an industrial slum where the collaborationist Vërlaci government disposed of the bodies of those they executed.
Much to our chagrin, and the chagrin of almost all the first-time tourists in Elbasan, the memorial to the most prominent of these martyrs is often ignored due to its location. Squirreled away in the courtyard of the First Albanian Protestant Church of Elbasan(8) located on park grounds, lies a simple yet elegant memorial to none other than Parashqevi Qiriazi. Featuring a trio of letters, a quill, and a ball set on a piece of parchment all carved out of local stone, the memorial highlights her role as one of the key fighters for the Albanian alphabet during the late Ottoman period and a champion of Albanian education. Nearby a small plaque lists her name and her achievements while sitting atop a strongbox used to collect donations to support Albanian language education.
The Qiriazi Memorial (9)
Qiriazi's most well known work: the Alphabet song (10)
No plaque ever tells you the entire story and Qiriazi's plaque is no different. If you're lucky, you might be able to catch the attention of the church secretary Anna Pilku. Asking her about the monument is perhaps the best way to learn about the Qiriazi family and we won't try to completely duplicate her efforts here. If you aren't able to visit while Mrs. Pilku is working, we highly recommend checking out the new biography on sale both at the Church and in nearby bookstores. Either way, you'll be able to learn about a fascinating woman who not only served as a key figure in the history of Albanian education but whose advocacy attracted the attention and love of none other than King Zog the Great. This love spawned a short-lived romance during the opening months of the war which in turn made Parashqevi a target of the collaborationist regime led by Shefqet Vërlaci who was also the father of Zog's estranged first wife. Following her arrest in June 1941, Qiriazi refused to give up any sensitive information during her interrogation, allegedly inventing fantastic stories to cope with the pain caused by the use of extremely brutal methods.(11) This stubborn refusal, coupled with the dishonor to his daughter caused by her affair with his daughter's husband, led Shefqet Vërlaci to order her death. Yet, fearing the loss of face that would come from a potential rescue, Vërlaci did not send her to Sazan like so many others, and chose to hand her over to the local Islamic authorities instead.
The role of the Albanian ulema in Parashqevi's execution is probably why her monument is kept out of the public eye as it hearkens back to a time when Albania's Muslim leaders were the exact opposite of the beacons of tolerance and liberalism they are today. Prior to the post-war reforms, Albanian Muslim leaders almost unanimously backed the Vërlaci government and its successors, eagerly persecuting anyone who deviated from their authority to re-establish cultural power lost following the fall of the Ottoman Empire.(12) For these leaders, Qiriazi not only committed adultery, but also represented Zog, modernism, and the Latin alphabet. All of these factors, coupled with Vërlaci's desire to draw Zog out of hiding, played into their decision to publicly stone her to death and dispose of her body in the Shkumbin river. When Zog did not show up due to his engagements with the Italian army around Korça (see Day 11!) and the execution proceeded without any resistance interference, it established a new precedent in which the Vërlaci government began to execute all high value resistance prisoners and no small number of ordinary prisoners in Elbasan rather than risk losing face from their escape or rescue.
As dark as this point in Albania history was, it is also worth noting that Qiriazi's execution marked a turning point in many ways. Fear quickly turned to anger and led thousands to either join or support the resistance even among Albanian Muslims the spectacle was supposedly aimed at. This break between the leadership and the rank and file paved the way for not only the explosive post-war growth of the Albanian Protestant Church, but also the eventual liberalization and subsequent popularization of Albanian Islam. Though it is nowhere near as dominant as it once was in Albanian society, roughly 40% of Albanians continue to identify as Muslim and Albanian madrasas have been set up around the world to promote tolerance and counter Wahhabism.(13) The success of this new liberal variant of Albanian Islam played a critical role in establishing Albania as a beacon of religious tolerance in the Balkans and gives credence to the often-repeated phrase of Pashko Vasa's that "The religion of Albania is Albanianism!"
Notes:
1. This picture is of OTL's Adana station in Turkey. In TTL, Jack/Zog borrows heavily from the First Ottoman National Architectural Renaissance while avoiding the modernist trends of the Second to shape postwar Albanian architecture. The most notable differences being a bit less explicitly Islamic imagery and a bit more utilitarianism without sacrificing aesthetics. For the sake of illusion pretend those eagles on top are Albanian style ones.
2. Elbasan had a rail line in OTL but it was primarily used for freight and industrial concerns. Albania continues to not have any regular passenger rail service today as most internal travel is done via bus and minibus.
3. Handmade Sausage. Essentially the Albanian version of a hotdog stand. Today the most common serving style is to have several qofta placed in a homemade roll with yoghurt sauce and white onion. Ketchup is sometimes available but generally frowned upon in my experience. TTL's Albanian cuisine is a bit more sophisticated by the 21st century, but more on that in a Forme of Curry inspired later update.
4. I kept this from OTL. If you do end up visiting Albania (HIGHLY RECOMMEND AFTER COVID!) try to do this! Go for a walk along a main boulevard or in a park around dusk when the weather's good and you'll find hundreds of people doing the same thing. IMO its prevalence is partly a phenomenon of urbanization and also partly due to the nature of the communist period having few other avenues for entertainment and the sharing of information. Obviously TTL is quite different, but the urbanization is still there so I'm keeping it.
5. English became the main second language taught in TTL in 1993. Prior to that it was Chinese, prior to that Russian, and prior to that Serbo-Croatian for the first years after the war.
6. OTL Elbasan's population is around 100,000. More on the "Returnees" in future updates.
7.This was a common naming convention in OTL's communist Albania and in Kosovo. Still slightly prevalent in TTL for some of the same underlying reasons but not quite as prominent due to not having the need to construct a completely new religion/worldview.
8. The Albanian Protestant Church is from OTL and was founded before the POD by Parashqevi's older brother Gjerasim. In OTL it continues to serve as an umbrella organization for the various Protestant denominations that sprung up after the fall of Communism. In TTL it is a bit more formal and structured as hinted at by the name of the church. More on this in later updates.
9. This is an OTL statue I repurposed for TTL. In OTL it is located in Korça at the sight of the first Albanian language school and is meant to commemorate Albanian language education more broadly. In TTL that building doesn't survive so I put the monument in Elbasan instead.
10. Qiriazi's song remains one of the most popular national hymns in Albania, and is known by more schoolchildren than the national anthem even today.
12. Lest anyone think I'm being Islamophobic, I'd like to take this opportunity to point out again that in OTL Albanian Muslim leaders were unanimous in their support of a much more outwardly imperialistic Italian occupation that had numerous policies to explicitly Italianize Albanians. TTL's Regency is much more conciliatory. Also, in TTL Zog's policies have been weakening their influence and antagonizing them for over a decade despite his outward conformity, precisely the opposite of what he did in OTL (outwardly flaunting tradition and rules while supporting their expansion of power). So the leaders have got plenty of pent up anger to unleash. In OTL their support for the occupation only began to diminish in 1944 and even then only slightly due to their fear of the communists. IMO the liberalism of some Albanian Muslims in post-communist Albania (worth pointing out that due to Saudi money this is becoming less common) is partly due to the communist government's elimination of the largely conservative pre-war leadership.
13. Roughly 60% of Albanians identify as Muslim according to the admittedly imperfect 2011 census of OTL. Roughly a third of these have some connection to the Bektashi. Though it might seem like this number is high in TTL, keep in mind that the inclusion of Kosovo which is about 90% Muslim heavily offsets losses due to conversion. Also worth pointing out that I'm not saying all convert to Protestantism. I've already hinted that the Bektashi are going to be a much more potent religious force in TTL.
September 17, 1941. Boboshticë, Albania. (17)
Smells like victory…
Even a year earlier, the smell of a burning Albanian village would have been too much for Mario Guerico. Of course, back then he'd been a simple Primo Tenete fighting a fairly conventional war. Sure there were inklings of what were to come in the nail bombs that had harassed his troops in Durrazo and the occasional sniper or grenade launcher attack, but nothing had prepared him for the events which followed. His troops had been too exhausted after the Battle of Tirana to give chase to Zog's men, but they'd all assumed that the capture of Korça almost a year ago marked an end to this embarrassing chapter of Italian military history. Little did they know it was only the beginning.
It had started slowly at first. A sniper attack here, a mortar attack there, rumors of bandits lying in wait almost everywhere. Then slowly, more and more rumors started being true. Mario's unit had barely begun training the horde of new green replacements when it was sent south to relieve the battered defenders of Vlora. Despite claims that "rear echelon occupation duty" would barely distract from the recruits' acclimatization, what they encountered was anything but. It quickly became apparent that the best of Zog's men did not retreat back to Korça and instead remained behind to form resistance cells. Though they were often only armed with ancient shotguns and improvised explosives, they recruited women and even children into their murderous crusade and seemed to know exactly how to use the local terrain to their advantage.
The Royal Army's initial response had been to take and execute hostages but that had only exacerbated the situation as the villagers not only refused to hand over the Zogists but also joined them. The additional strength allowed them to expand their activities. Soon, in addition to the pin-prick attacks, the Zogists began to launch coordinated attacks on Italian patrols, convoys, and camps all according to a pre-determined formula. If there wasn't a mine concealed somewhere to detonate, concealed mortars always initiated the engagement, followed by light machine guns providing covering fire for the rest of the partisans to close the distance. Then, if the numbers were favourable, the advancing partisans would open fire with rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, and hand-thrown explosives before initiating a bayonet charge. If they weren't, and they often weren't, they'd just try and kill as many as possible before retreating back into the hills and the forest while their Italian opponents blindly fired hundreds of rounds in their general direction. (18)
Moreover, the pin-prick attacks similarly escalated. Bombs began showing up in bakeries and even on the streets of Vlora itself. One of their more insidious strategies was to place empty barrels in the harbor and along major streets to acclimatize troops to their presence only to fill them with explosives and detonate them at an opportune time. Often these explosions were similarly accompanied by small arms fire which in turn led to small massacres as the targeted troops retaliated on any Albanians in reach. Yet it seemingly didn't matter how many Albanians they killed or how many Albanians were killed by the resistance, things just kept getting worse. More and men stopped coming back from patrol despite increasingly defensive tactics. Morale plummeted as it began to feel like all the Italians were under siege at all times. As a competent soldier cursed with surviving everything the Albanians threw at him, Mario climbed the ranks only to find himself increasingly despairing over the state of his men. As embarrassing as it seemed now, for a few days back in late May, he'd actually wondered if Zog was really going to make good on his promise to drive the Italians into the sea just like he had in 1920.
General Roatta had changed all that. At long last they finally had a superior who knew what needed to be done. As brutal as his methods and his Circolare 3C were, they were necessary to contain the resistance and regain control over this backward Balkan province. Though their offensive tactics often resulted in additional casualties, the Albanian bodies piling up proved that they were a hell of a lot more effective than firing blindly into the hills. As much as his past self would have balked at the actions he was currently taken, over a year of fighting had convinced Mario that force was the only language the Albanians understood. They very well might need to burn every single village down to the ground and kill every able-bodied male in order to pacify the region.(19)
All the more room for the new settlements… (20)
The screams of the women and children being herded off to the camp on the outskirts of what used to be Korça belied their fate. They all knew it. No one was supposed to survive the camps. If they survived the initial weeks, they often didn't survive the journey to Sazan, and to date no one had made it off the island. Sure, they lost a few here and there to various escapes and rescues, but, more often than not, those were rounded up as well. Or at least they would be, eventually they'd finally realize that fighting back was futile or there would simply be no Albanians left. The Albanians simply couldn't keep this level of fighting up. For every Italian soldier they killed, five more took their place and another five were waiting to be deployed.
Then again, Mario was beginning to get the feeling that the Albanians, and Zog in particular, liked this kind of war. Their entire culture was built around bloodfeuds and battle. The only difference now was that there was a whole new population of enemies to take up arms against and for perhaps the first time in Albanian history they were all united against a common foe. As much as the northern tribes and imams claimed loyalty, Mario had his doubts especially considering that the Albanians now had a powerful new benefactor shipping them weapons and ammunition. Mario doubted that the now seemingly ubiquitous mortars had just materialized out of Albanian cellars. Once they finished their job wiping out the last of the resistance around Korça they'd finally be able to secure the border and cut the remaining cells off from the steady supply of bombs being shipped across the border Krauts be damned.
So much for a "Quiet Southeast…"
Then again, the Germans never gave a damn about their so-called "allies." The only thing that mattered was their resource shipments. As long as Greek neutrality shielded the oil, tobacco and non-ferrous metals making their way up the Danube, they didn't care that the Greeks were eagerly abetting thousands of Italian deaths. When Hitler remained unmoved by even concrete proof that the Greeks were turning a blind eye to the Albanians and the British, Mussolini gave Roatta the go ahead. They'd secure the Southern Border and if a few skirmishes with the Greeks led to war then so be it.
If we even make it that far…
Mario's veteran ear heard the faint pop of an Albanian grenade launcher in the distance and reflexively sent his entire body diving for cover. The grenades themselves weren't particularly large, the Army had sold them to the Albanians for that precise reason, but quantity had a quality all its own. A skilled team could fire off six rounds in under a minute courtesy of the charges held in the weapon's Carcano rifle magazine and skilled teams seldom operated alone.(21)
"GRENADES!"
His panicked cry sent the rest of his company scrambling for cover mere moments before the first grenades detonated. No white phosphorous this time, but plenty of high explosive to make things uncomfortable.
Speaking of uncomfortable…
Larger explosions from heavier mortars erupted in the surrounding countryside. Given the ones they'd captured or rather re-captured before, they were probably all Italian 81mm weapons fresh from North Africa. The only real difference being that whereas the average Italian division had roughly a dozen heavy mortars, the Albanians had 5 times that number. Mario always found it peculiarly cruel that the Albanians used most if not all of the same weapons they did, yet were somehow that much more effective.
Moreover, he found it even more enervating that the Albanians seemed to be consistently one step ahead of him and his comrades. A fact hammered home yet again today as the heavy mortar rounds fell all around the village but none in the village itself. All of the fear in the world, it seemed, couldn't stop Zog's peasants from reporting the Italians' every move and letting him know that the entire operation here in Boboshticë was all a plot to draw him out of hiding. If Zog was choosing to engage here it could only mean one thing.
Drenova all over again…
That had been a fucking disaster, one perfectly set up by the Albanian king. He'd played off the presence of the Blackshirts in Roatta's final push on Korça to draw them right to his underground headquarters, putting up just enough fight to draw them in. Then with over half of the unit combing the tunnels, he set off the charges and set his men on them. A flurry of mortar, sniper, and submachine gun fire followed. Less than a hundred men survived. Were he and his unit not about to be subjected to the same fate, Mario probably still would have found it funny given the hatred he and the rest of the Royal Army harboured for the organization.
We were supposed to be better than this…
Even though Roatta believed that Zog would likely not stick around after Drenova, he ordered precautions taken and did his best to lure the King out of hiding. Rumor had it that he even went as far as to bribe the loyal imams in Elbasan to have Zog's lover and former Minister of Education publicly stoned to death. Whatever Roatta had done, it obviously worked. The increasing numbers of grenades falling around his position served as a testament to that as did the fire from the Albanian light machine guns which, unlike their Italian counterparts, did not jam every five minutes despite firing the exact same ammunition.(22)
Popping his head up, Mario took aim with his Beretta, one of the few Italian weapons respected in the country, and squeezed off a burst of automatic fire. Though he was rewarded with a distinctly Albanian scream, the fact that it was drowned out by the screams of his own men prevented it from resonating. Moreover, the sheer weight of Albanian rifle fire was disconcerting. Some of the Blackshirts had mentioned some of the Albanians carrying a new kind of automatic rifle but these reports had been dismissed as simply misidentified Albanian Brownings.
Only now did Mario realize that the fanatics were right. His next burst caught one of Zog's men square in the chest and he was definitely carrying some kind of automatic rifle distinct from the Browning. Shorter and possessing both a front and rear pistol grip, the weapon enabled Zog's men to lay down a stupendous amount of fire as they stormed the village like men possessed.
Originally purchased for the Albanian Navy in this configuration, Zog heavily modified roughly 100 Scotti Naval Rifles for his personal guard during the war.(23)
Pain exploded from Mario's shoulder causing him to whirl around and squeeze the trigger again. He would have killed the man attacking him had his weapon not been empty. Doing so probably would have ended the Italian campaign in Albania right there. For the briefest of moments, Mario locked eyes with his assailant and recognized the eyes from the pictures posted in the barracks. No such recognition lay in the eyes of King Zog nor did they show a modicum of mercy. Instead, they just glowered at him from beneath a British helmet as Zog slammed his rifle butt into Mario's face and sent him sprawling. For the briefest moment he thought back to his wife and took a small measure of pity that she didn't see the man he'd become before the Albanian king squeezed the trigger and sent a burst of rifle fire through his skull.
Notes:
17. OTL village in the hills around Korça.
18. If the Italian response seems comical and inept, that's because this is from OTL. When Wingate used the same tactics on the Italians in Ethiopia they responded the same way.
19. Basically, Albania becomes a stand in for Slovenia in TTL. Though not as "traditionally" Italian, it is the only avenue for expansion into the Balkans.
20. Italy did send settlers in OTL, however in TTL this takes more priority due to no occupation of Yugoslavia and worse performance in Africa.
21. See Part X for more details on these grenade launchers.
22 Again see Part X.
23. Foreshadowed in Part X. Feel free to debate this, but from everything I see, the Scotti weapons were not suitable for widespread use. The complexity and cost rule it out as does the fact that the 6.5 Carcano is a bit too hot for it to be a truly effective AR. As a specialist weapon however, these problems could be mitigated and it could be quite useful.
October 1, 1941. Panarit, Albania. (24)
"Colonel!"
His liaison's heavily accented English cut through the mountain air and helped bring Orde Wingate out of the pity spiral he found himself in, if only for a moment. Zog may have refused to recognize his demotion, but as far as London was concerned, he was still a major.(25)
"Yes, Lieutenant Rucaj?"
"The King once again sends his regards but regrets to inform you that he's been delayed by ongoing operations."
Of course…
True to form, "Europe's Last Warrior King" had taken the death of his paramour and thousands of other civilians during the most recent Italian offensive quite personally. Despite the massive risk to the entire Albanian resistance movement, Zog had been personally engaged for almost a month. To be fair, most of those operations were relatively simple and relatively low risk, but every now and again he did things that must have truly sent his advisors up a wall. Any confidence of his that the movement could survive his death was certainly not shared by his subordinates, yet he had developed such a reputation and propaganda apparatus no one could keep him from the front. Moreover, he'd been preparing for this very conflict for over a decade and it showed. As far as he could see, there was simply little for him to actually do if he wasn't personally engaged in the fighting.
And to think…he wanted my advice!
Wingate still couldn't figure out the angle on that one. His contacts in London similarly had no idea other than insisting that it wasn't some ploy by his opponents to get him out of the way. Everything from the capital seemed to suggest that Zog had indeed personally requested his presence and Churchill had responded out of a profound sense of respect and admiration. With the campaign in Abyssinia all but wrapped up in March, Gideon Force had been disbanded and Wingate rushed back to Cairo and from there to Drenova where he got a front row seat to Zog's operation and Roatta's counter-offensive.
So much for D'Aosta and conciliation… Graziani's school seems to have won the day.(26) Then again, Abyssinia wasn't right next to Taranto. Mussolini might very well be able to completely colonize this place…
"Is everything alright Colonel?"
Snapping back to reality Wingate nodded instinctively but Lieutenant Rucaj wasn't fazed. "Yes, of course."
Rucaj smiled "Good, then the King wondered if you wanted to observe the training of the Northern Penetration Columns. He would appreciate your input upon his return."
Would he now?
Wingate tried to keep the sarcasm off his face as he nodded and followed Rucaj down the rocky path. It had been obvious from the moment he arrived that the Albanians had been not only studying but expanding on his work since at least 1938 if not earlier. Zog had asked for his "input" a few times now. Each time, it felt like he was the one being educated not the other way around by the time they finished. Though it was perhaps a bit demeaning, Zog did his best not to be paternalistic and at the end of the day Wingate had no choice but to admit that such an education was necessary. Gideon force had hardly been the proof of concept he'd intended it to be. Perhaps if they'd had more time, but Legentillhomme had moved too fast.(27) He needed to demonstrate the validity of his ideas here while he still had a modicum of support from London and apparently Zog himself.
That being said, Wingate couldn't help but wonder if any of the lessons or tactics derived from Albania would transfer to other environments. A decade of preparations meant that in addition to a sizeable armoury, Zog had thousands of trained fighters and an entire underground apparatus to support them. In a very real sense, for those living outside the major cities and off the major roads, the Kingdom of Albania had never really fallen. For those villagers, the only real difference was that now Zog was able to govern without regard for the Italians and the Albanian aristocrats they propped up albeit in a more decentralized fashion. Democratically elected local village councils now dominated the political landscape as they oversaw the redistribution of land and the reorganization of local agriculture into cooperative ventures as well as local taxation. Zog's government meanwhile provided protection, organized education, and provided the necessary experts and supplies to keep things running smoothly. It wasn't sustainable by any means. They still relied on pre-war stockpiles augmented by regular shipments, but this kind of parallel Mountain government was certainly the envy of all occupied Europe.(28)
After all, that infrastructure and the troops it supported had enabled Zog to grind down not only the initial army sent to invade and occupy his country, but an entirely different set of divisions sent to demolish his movement. The Italians were of course proclaiming victory following the Battles of Korça and "securing the Greek border," but all indications pointed to them abandoning efforts to project control into the countryside. They simply took too many casualties and Mussolini was not willing to commit even more forces to secure the Albanian mountains. Perhaps if Zog's men took the oil pipelines again, but, for now, reports from across the country signalled that the Italians were generally returning to the major cities and roads of Albania. (29)
For now, the only significant change to the pre-Revolution status quo coming from Roatta's counter-offensive seemed to be a series of fortifications and garrisons along the road from Elbasan to Korça and the Greek border. Roatta obviously was attempting to draw Zog's men out of hiding with these positions as they not only drove a stake into the resistance's territory, but also cut them off from one of the primary routes for smuggled weapons. Apparently, plans were already in place to compensate for the loss of the Lake Prespa route with more smuggling via other routes and more air drops, but Wingate had his doubts. Until Roatta's men retreated, the coming months would be lean ones for the resistance. That being said, Roatta's position was awfully exposed and there were still plenty of places between Elbasan and Korça that Zog's men could use for ambushes. If the Italians really wanted to hold it they'd have to either receive massive reinforcements or draw from their other positions in Albania.
Zog was apparently counting on the latter, particularly as initial reports from their people in the relatively tranquil north seemed to signal this strategy occurring. At long last, the time had seemingly come for the National Liberation Movement to begin operating in force up north. To accomplish this, Zog had assembled several hundred men to make the perilous journey north and mobilize the largely dormant çetas already present there. Given the reputation of William Stirling and Jocelyn Percy in the region, he wanted as much British representation as possible and thus Wingate and others had been brought in to compensate for their reassignment elsewhere in Europe. Though he'd be technically subordinate to Zog's Minister of the Interior Musa Juka, all indications pointed to a surprising degree of autonomy for his command and a golden opportunity to prove his ideas on a larger stage. Much like Abyssinia, Northern Albania had plenty of disloyal tribes and a history of banditry, but Zog was truly miles ahead of Hailie Selassie as a nation builder. Wingate was confident that given a few months, he'd be able to retake Shkodra from the Italians assuming nothing else changed.
Particularly with men like these…
As he crested the ridge behind Lieutenant Rucaj, Wingate couldn't help but smile as he recognized a familiar face among the men training below. Even before Wingate's arrival, Zog's men in London had worked behind the scenes with Chaim Weizmann to get Moshe Dayan and other veterans of the SNS released to aid the resistance in Albania. (30) Again, Wingate couldn't quite understand why Zog had chosen to use his hard-won influence in precisely that way, but he'd succeeded. His efforts to get refugees out of Hitler's Germany had made him a hero to many Jews and the fact that he offered excellent pay and unofficially hinted at the possibility of forming a Jewish unit when the situation allowed had sealed the deal. Whether the situation would ever truly allow such a measure remained to be seen, but the men of the Yishuv were eager to take the fight to the enemy and Zog was giving them that chance. Furthermore, they were doing so outside of Palestine which made it palatable to the British.
For the briefest of moments, Wingate truly felt sorry for the Italians and their allies in the north. So far, they'd been shielded from the majority of the violence. They truly did not know what was about to hit them…
Notes:
24. OTL village, high in the mountains south of Berat.
25. In OTL Wingate languished in Egypt following the end of the East African campaign in June and the beginning of his assignment in Burma. He reverted to being a major and ended up contracting malaria and having his natural depressive tendencies aggravated by the drugs given to treat said malaria. In TTL, there's an active guerilla war in the Mediterranean and Britain is struggling to help. Furthermore, Zog has a few ideas of his own about where Wingate should and, perhaps more importantly, should not go.
26. Granziani preceded D'Aosta as the colonial governor of Italian East Africa and oversaw an extremely brutal occupation in comparison. Known as "The Butcher of Abyssinia," Wingate would have known about him and seen Roatta as continuing those practices.
27. See Part XXIV for more on TTL's East African campaign. TL;DR: no Operation Catapult + no Greek Campaign = much quicker liberation of Ethiopia and Eritrea.
28. The Yugoslavs and the Greeks were able to do something similar with no preparation whatsoever in OTL. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to have Zog do moderately better than they did with over a decade to prep in TTL.
29. Worth pointing out again that the Italians don't know about Libyan oil and are largely cut off from Romanian oil by the Germans, so the meagre quantity of poor-quality oil from Albania is of high value to the Italians. Their fuel shortages in TTL will be significantly less overblown than OTL.
30. Moshe Dayan was freed in OTL in 1941 through Weizmann's advocacy. In OTL he fought alongside the British in the Syrian campaign and that's where he lost his eye. There's no Syrian campaign in TTL (see Part XXIX) so Zog's able to bring in some additional Jewish help alongside the other officers sent from the UK.