PART XXXIV: Old Foes, Old Friends.

January 4, 1942. Plisht, Serbian Occupied Albania)

"Thank God Zog didn't force all of us to give up smoking…" Musa Juka remarked as he took a drag on his cigarette. "…But most of all let us thank God that he kept his taste in tobacco!"

At that, his comrade Ndoc Çoba chuckled but said nothing. Though few smoked as many cigarettes as Zog prior to his coronation, almost all Albanian men smoked, which meant every man in Çoba's ceta appreciated the several thousand Greek cigarettes Zog had included in the most recent supply shipment. Like almost all the basic necessities, tobacco was hard to come by these days, particularly in Northern Albania where the Serbian occupation had ushered in a new era of violence and deprivation. Zog expected supply lines to improve with the recent American entry into the war, but as of right now, everyone had to go without more often than not.

After taking another long drag on his cigarette Çoba finally replied. "This shipment will go a long way to maintaining morale here, Musa. But we need more of them. The Serbs…"

"I've heard…"

Çoba nodded his head violently "But you haven't seen!" he hissed.(1) "You haven't seen the destroyed villages, the defiled bodies of women, girls, and boys…the men hanging from trees! This is no academic exercise any more… we are fighting for our very lives!"

Musa chose not to reply. He'd been coordinating all of the cetas in Northern Albania since the start of the war and he'd seen more than his share of violence against civilians. Given the minimal Italian presence in the region, most of the fighting prior to the Third Vienna Agreement had taken the form of normal inter-tribal feuding only occasionally augmented by Italian raids. The introduction of Serbian troops had changed all of that. Not only were they massacring Albanian civilians, but some Cetas, particularly those on the border with Kosovo and in Kosovo proper had already started killing Serbian civilians in retaliation. Like so many things, the King had anticipated this turn of events and had given him orders to put an end to it whenever he came across it, but Musa had been given so many other things to do…

Listening to Çoba vent validated his choice. Ignoring the implication that he was one of the King's desk monkey, Musa changed the subject "So, besides more cigarettes what else do you need from the south? Now that the Italians have turned their attention to the Soviets there's some breathing room and the routes to our people in Çameria are beginning to open back up. With the Americans now joining the war we might even get some care packages from Boston through…" (2)

Çoba finished his cigarette and ground the butt out with his boot "Ammunition goes without saying… 9mm isn't as helpful as anything larger. My men prefer Mausers to Carcanos, but I know there are limitations to what even Zog can do. The bigger issue is Winter clothing. My men are also finding it hard to hold on to what they have with all the refugees headed south. Their principles are noble, but if their fingers are too numb to shoot…"

Who are you, and what have you done with Çoba? Musa couldn't help but think as his mental image of the man began to adjust to new realities. The naïve, liberal politician who had been one of the first converts to the King's new ideology was gone. War had driven whatever idealism and optimism he had deep down into his soul. Perhaps it could be re-ignited… then again Musa had his doubts. The war had already changed Çoba, and it wasn't anywhere near over…

Musa concealed his bemused befuddlement at Çoba's newfound military aptitude by nodding and noting the man's request. Not all the cetas had the same problem of giving away their winter clothing to refugees, some of them were downright bastards and more often that not "appropriated" whatever the poor sods had managed to take with them "for the war effort." But if Musa was following the King's orders and enforcing Çoba's standard as the norm, he wasn't sure how much longer there'd be a resistance, at least up here in the North. Unlike the other groups Musa oversaw, Çoba's ceta was one of the only true "ideological Zogist" bands of any size here in the north as it was comprised mostly of Shkodran liberal Catholics. His wife ran a connected smuggling ring in Shkoder proper, intent on getting Albanians into and out of the "ghetto" the Serbs were establishing. Tribal loyalties simply weren't a factor for Çoba's people, and their neighbours had begun to notice.(3)

The very ideology that made them so reliable had also attracted the ire of their neighbours. By so confidently hitching their fortunes to Zog's Çoba's band became the harbinger of doom for anyone wedded to the traditional status quo in Northern Albania and thus painted a target on their own backs. The King had recognized this and agreed with Musa that he should give Çoba's band the lions share of the supplies headed north to compensate. Officially, it was due to the fact that they had sent more than their share of supplies and fighters down to aid the southern cetas during the fighting last summer. No other ceta inspired that same level of confidence in him. At the very least, Musa reasoned, the supplies they sent to Çoba wouldn't end up getting turned against them.

Not until they're all dead…

Far too many tribes had already cut deals with the Serbs to preserve their traditional rights and Stojadinovic's goons had been happy to oblige. They were busy enough with Kosovo at the moment, and couldn't care less about what happened in their new Northern Albanian lands outside of a narrow corridor between the 1912 border and their new port of "Skadar."(4) Musa had thought that the replacement of the relatively uninterested Italians with genocidally driven Serbians would have changed some of their tunes but there was little sign that any major Northern tribal leaders were about to follow the Kryezius and reconcile with Zog. The masses by and large were turning towards the King, but largely they remained weak and cowed by the might of the occupying powers outside of the few that had joined Çoba and a few others. The unfortunate reality was that the vast majority of armed and trained Albanian men in the North remained set against the Zogist cause.

That reality became blindingly obvious when a cacophony of rifle and machine gun fire destroyed the precious silence he'd been sharing with Çoba.

So much for the sentries… Musa thought as he dove for cover. Grabbing his Browning, he tried to focus on the task at hand. Though the rational part of his brain knew that the men remaining in Çoba's ceta were poorly trained at best due to the constant drain from combat in the south, he still expected them to be better than this.

Thunderous cries of "GJAK PËR GJAK!", "Për Republikën e Mirditës!", and "S verom u Boga, za kralja i otadžbinu!" (5) echoed from all around him as their attackers closed in on their camp, confirming a nagging fear that had dogged him since before the war even started. At long last, his enemies had coalesced, and it had compromised the resistance. The King had always maintained that the rewards had been worth the risk, and Musa had begrudgingly agreed with him. Few men knew the North as well as he did, but his political baggage was always a risk. Frankly, he was surprised it didn't happen earlier. The Italians had been far more attractive to the tribes. Then again, the Catholic tribes had happily erected their Republic of Mirdita twenty years ago during the first phase of the Serbian genocide in Kosovo…(6)

So much for the King's "royal marriage… Musa thought laconically as the hail of fire continued. Whenever he'd asked about Maxhide's marriage to Mark Markagjoni, the eldest son of Kapidan and would-be president of Mirdita, Gjon Markagjoni, he got nothing but vague expressions of concern about his sister's safety. Compared to his obvious disappointment in his sisters' Senije and Myzejen's decisions to follow their husbands and align with Zog's elder half brother Xhelal, his attitude towards Maxhide suggested a plot to Musa. He'd tried looking into it before, but he always had so many better things to do. Whatever the plot was, his chances of finding out what it was grew slimmer by the second.(7)

Scattered shots from Çoba's men grew in volume as their foes drew closer, buying Musa and Çoba much needed breathing room. "I'll cover you!" Musa yelled through the din to his compatriot, before popping over the edge of the barrels they were taking cover behind and unloading his Browning automatic pistol at the shadowy figures pushing towards him. A flurry of fire drove him back down and a few near misses left his ears ringing and covered him wooden shards, but these drew the ire of a captured Yugoslav Hotchkiss machine gun.

As it turned out, the hail of 13.2 mm fire was the least of their foes concerns. Çoba's men abandoned any restraint in the face of certain annihilation and precious mortar rounds began to explode all around them, silencing machine guns and halting the advance for a crucial moment. Sensing an opportunity, Musa forced his tired body to scamper along the cold northern Albanian ground towards the small boulder outcropping Çoba had moved to earlier. Keeping his head low, a small glimmer of hope began to emerge as he approached safety despite the hail of bullets falling all around him. But like so many things in this damned war, it didn't last as an explosion of pain in his lower back and abdomen halted his advance a mere meter from his destination.

A few of Çoba's men darted out and pulled him to the relative safety of the outcropping but Musa knew it was too late. By the look on Çoba's face, Musa's former foe and now reluctant friend knew it as well. The King had overseen an immense improvement in Albanian combat medicine, but there were still limits.

Musa couldn't help but feel the faint glow of pride as Çoba took his mentor's impending death in stride. Grabbing an old PuG from one of his men, Çoba pointed towards the North and began yelling indistinctly to marshal a breakout offensive from his shattered command. Wise choice… Musa thought as he felt his lifeblood pour out onto the stones beneath him. Their attackers had likely anticipated a breakout in any of the other directions. North took Çoba's men deeper into Mirdita territory which was deadly but not fatal, and their attackers had likely left it minimally guarded as a result.

Still, it was going to be a close-run thing. Musa could hear mortar rounds falling closer and closer. The telltale buzz and smell of PuG "beehive" rounds began to fill the air. Modified 38.5mm grenades filled with black powder and shrapnel were a desperate weapon for desperate times. Musa had seen them being made and doubted their effectiveness in the standard guerrilla actions the cetas preferred but recognized their appeal and usefulness in times like these. (8)

Yet even these fearsome rounds weren't enough to save Çoba. With the bulk of his forces pushing North, he'd chosen to lead the rearguard action only to be cut down in the process of reloading his grenade launcher. In a testament to his leadership his men did not break but instead redoubled their efforts to cover for their

Perhaps… Musa felt that faint glow of hope again. He hadn't seen Çoba's son fall, perhaps he was leading the breakout attack. Would they follow him? Çoba seemed to have his doubts when they'd spoken about it before. What else could make these young northerners break all tribal allegiances and fight with such determination in the face of certain death? Could it be that Jack was right all this time?

It's a shame I won't get to find out…

Then the revelation hit him nearly as hard as the Mauser round that would eventually result in his death. The King hadn't foreseen the Yugoslav annexation, but the rough contours of the war had been plain to him. Having figures amidst the collaborationists…were his other sisters playing similar games with the aristocrats? Perhaps…then again if Zog retained ties with the Mirditë even after all this, the aristocrats wouldn't matter.

Embers of hope flickered into a small flame. The potentially delusional nature of that hope mattered not to Musa as he turned his head and, despite his blurring vision, managed to fixate on a nearby hand grenade which had fallen to the ground in the confusion. Almost automatically, his numb hands reached out, grabbed it and pulled the pin. With the last vestiges of his strength and dexterity, he pulled the pin, and rolled over to ensure that his bodyweight would keep the bomb from exploding prematurely. With any luck he'd kill one more Serb or, better yet, an Albanian collaborator.

"Long live the King…"

Notes:

1. Again, in Albania nodding is used to signal disapproval.

2. Çameria is the Albanian name for Epirus. Boston of course, was the historic centre for the Albanian American community and headquarters of Vatra, the main Albanian liberal paper in both OTL and TTL.

3. In OTL, these liberals were early converts to early Italian efforts to govern Albania after April 1939 and were a surprisingly durable constituency prior to the rise of the Communists in 1945. In TTL they are far more motivated and far better armed, but this ends up making them much bigger targets.

4. Skadar is the OTL Serbian name for Shkoder. It's worth noting that they were ready to bring the world to the brink of war for the city in OTL during 1912-13. It's also worth noting that outside of "Skadar" they didn't really care about Northern Albania. Kosovo was their spiritual homeland and would have taken precedence when it came to genocidal acts.

5. "Blood for Blood," "For the Republic of Mirdita," and "For King and Fatherland, with Faith in God." The latter being a motto of Serbian četnik bands.

6. The Mirdita tribe did attempt to form a breakaway republic under Yugoslav protection in OTL. This revolt and a few others were viciously put down by Zog and Musa Juka prior to the SI. The Mirdita basically adopted an autonomous policy in OTL and never really forgot what Zog did to them. Zog himself is good evidence that many Albanians were willing to side with the Serbs when they needed to or felt an advantage. The harsh distinction between Serb and Albanian only really took hold after WWII.

7. See Part I for more details on the marriage.

8. Albanians were known for doing the same thing to their Peabody Martini rounds in OTL. I couldn't resist.

(Excerpted from Simon Anglim "Orde Wingate and the British Army" 2010)(9))

Chapter 5: Wingate in Albania​

...The lionization of Wingate's ambush of Kosta Pećanc's četnik band outside Peshkopi on February 3, 1942 is not without warrant. Mere weeks after it occurred, it had achieved legendary status throughout all Albanian speaking communities and reached English publications a few weeks after that. A combination of success, brutality, and a need for some good news out of an increasingly bleak Albania likely drove the popularization. These features when accompanied by placing the event in its proper historical context, demonstrates the evolution of Wingate's tactical thought brought about by drawing from Zogist experience and his reunification with Moshe Dayan and other SNS veterans.(10) Furthermore, it also marked the grisly death of the third most prominent Serbian collaborator, and a rare distinctly British contribution to the campaign against the Serbs.

The destruction of Pećanc's band was hardly a surprise to anyone paying close attention to Albania in 1942. His brutal massacres of Albanian villages in both Kosovo and Northern Albania sent thousands of refugees streaming into Southern Albania and made him the ideal first target for Wingate's next Long Range Penetration Unit, the Drangòni.(11) Emboldened by prioritized arms shipments from the Germans, Pećanc had come to not only rely on firepower superiority but grow overconfident as a result.(12) Whereas most Serbian četnik bands remained in Kosovo or close to Shkodra and the roads connecting it to Serbia, Pećanc's men drove deeper and deeper into Albanian territory to root out any possible resistance by spreading terror. This campaign of terror in turn, robbed Pećanc of vital collaboration from local tribes who came to see Serbia as a better guarantor of their traditional privileges than radicalizing Zogist resistance groups. Moreover, as Alex Ristović points out in his recent article "Divisions within the Četnik Movement from 1941-44" recently released documents from the Serbian archives point to Pećanc's terrorist tactics and unabashed pro-German stance isolating him from valuable Serbian intelligence as well.

Kosta_Pećanac_portrait.jpg

An interwar photo of Kosta Pećanc​

Had he received accurate information, Pećanc likely would have chosen to return to Kosovo for the duration of the winter rather than remain in the vicinity of Peshkopi. At the very least, he would have asked for and likely received reinforcements to deal with the increase in partisan activity had he known exactly what he was facing. Instead, he redoubled his efforts to cow the Albanian populace into submission as a part of his effort to secure Serbia's new southern border, dividing his force of 6500 men into detachments that allowed Wingate and Zog to defeat them in detail.(13) Slowly but surely over the winter of 1942, the Drangòni whittled down Pećanc's forces with sniper attacks, roadside bombs, and set-piece ambushes, reviving faltering Albanian morale.

…

Wingate's attacks culminated in his attack on Pećanc's headquarters outside of Peshkopi on February 3, 1942. Timely intelligence allowed Wingate to capitalize on Pećanc's decision to divide his forces which had left him with less than 200 men to guard his headquarters. With both active and passive aid from the surrounding villages, Wingate pinned down Pećanc's men in their isolated positions while he marshalled 250 veteran fighters for a direct assault on Peshkopi. Moving in small groups, Wingate's men not only avoided detection but were able to bring to bear a devastating amount of firepower to bear against one of the most hated figures in Albania's recent history. Two heavy 81mm mortars, 4 45mm "assault" mortars, 10 PuG grenade launchers, 8 heavy machine guns, 16 Browning Automatic Rifles, and 50 submachine guns, as well as a bounty of ammunition tricked Pećanc into reporting that he was being attacked by the entire Zogist resistance in his panicked final dispatches.

Believing he could escape and rally his men, Pećanc's final dispatches suggest that even as Wingate's attack unfolded with devastating force, he believed that he could still crush Albanian resistance once and for all if given sufficient resources. However, it must have become apparent to Pećanc quite early on that he was surrounded. Pinned down by mortar and automatic weapon fire from all angles, Pećanc's men were caught completely unprepared for Wingate's final attack. One by one, their pickets fell before a hail of hand grenades preceded a volley of illumination shells cast a harsh white glow over the final bayonet charge that broke the last vestiges of the Četnik's morale. (14) Some of Pećanc's men had the wherewithal to surrender, but most did not, including Pećanc himself who was seemingly disemboweled and left to die during the final moments of the engagement.

The destruction of Pećanc's headquarters set the stage for a series of subsequent engagements which, though none was as effective as the initial attack, nevertheless inflicted grievous casualties on both Pećanc's Četniks and those sent to reinforce them. These attacks emboldened the handful of northern cetas which remained following the death of Zog's Minister of the Interior and right-hand man Musa Juka. Whereas previously most of the northern cetas consisted of Zog's old tribal allies stiffened by the implication of Musa Juka's wrath, the few that survived his death such as the Çoba ceta were comprised of true ideological converts. Emboldened by Wingate's actions and tangible support, these ideological Zogist cetas split and formed new groups throughout the northern villages, ushering in a new phase of the resistance in Northern Albania and laying the groundwork for the rapid transformation that gripped the region after its full liberation.

This development, coupled with regular resupply from Zogist depots in Southern Albania and RAF air drops did wonders for Wingate's disposition. Any lingering disappointment from his failures in Ethiopia and discouragement over his apparent "demotion" to Albania vanished in the glow of victory after victory. Writing confidently to his superiors, Wingate argued that if he could achieve so much with a few hundred Albanians and Jews, he could achieve even more with a "proper British brigade in another theatre of war." Highlighting possibilities in both Corsica and Thailand, Wingate's efforts to secure reassignment to a more important theatre gained Churchill's attention even as he focused his attention on stopping the Japanese offensive through South-East Asia. Yet no reassignment came, nor did additional reinforcements appear for Wingate from abroad. Minor commando operations were planned for the Mediterranean and Northwestern Europe to keep the Axis on guard but nothing on the scale requested by Wingate. The RAF's transport fleet was stretched to the limit supplying Zog's forces as it was, adding a full brigade while maintaining current levels of supply to Zog was deemed beyond their capability.

So, Wingate took matters into his own hands in Spring 1942. Confident that his forces the supporting cetas would be able to handle the coming Serbian counter-offensive easily enough, Wingate turned his attention to what he saw as his next logical task: launching long range penetration missions into both Kosovo and Macedonia. In both regions he planned to challenge Yugoslav control and strengthen the resistance, yet these regions held an additional appeal for his Jewish fighters. Having grown increasingly distressed by the tales of persecution being told to them by refugees of all nationalities headed south from both regions, Wingate's men began to plan the Jewish population's evacuation before the Germans could arrive. Though the first phase of these operations garnered no resistance from London, Wingate's subsequent plans for Macedonia proved more controversial due to the anticipated opposition from the still neutral Bulgarian troops in the region. Given the atrocities being committed by such troops against the Albanian population, Zog had no qualms about endorsing these plans, yet London balked at the potential of bringing another Balkan nation into the Axis...

Notes:

9. OTL Book. Quite Good IMHO.

10. SNS= Special Night Squads, Wingate played a major role in organizing Jews into counter-insurgency units during the Arab revolt from 1936-39.

11. Guardian figures from Albanian mythology.

12. Kosta Pećanc was one of the first Serbian Axis collaborators in OTL who steadily received supplies from the German and was quite active in Kosovo.

13. Pećanc had roughly his many troops in OTL as well.

14. Wingate was a big fan of night bayonet charges in OTL at this point in time as well. The prevailing thought was that this would cut down on friendly fire issues.

February 4, 1942. Matohasanaj, Albania.(15)

Aga Bojaxhiu couldn't help but smile as she did her best to hold back tears.

It was supposed to be me…

The past year had been hard for all of them, but Aga had felt it more than most. Her brother Lazar had been an early convert to Zogism and had become one of his biggest supporters within the Italian dominated pre-war Albanian army. His enthusiasm had been infectious and when Zog declared war on Italy she'd volunteered well before his letter encouraging her to do so arrived. She'd been serving as a nurse since then, gathering more and more training as she went and honing her skills. At this point she doubted if any of the doctors she grew up with was as well versed in modern medicine as she was and Zog himself had taken notice.

Her success, coupled with Lazar's rapid ascension through the ranks of the resistance, made their family a poster child for the success of the resistance. Aga worked in the infirmary, Lazar fought on the frontlines, their mother tended to the children in the creche, all of them eager to take their place in the new Albania that Zog was creating. Zog himself had noticed even going so far as to periodically drop in and ask about her sister's service to the poor in India.(16) Normally, Aga would have shied away from those conversations as any connection with Catholicism was viewed as treasonous by large portions of the resistance, but Zog seemed to be able to make a distinction between the Italians and non-Italian Catholic groups.

Aga Bojaxhiu.jpg

(Aga (R) and Anjezë (L) Bojaxhiu in 1925)​

Unfortunately, his view was still the minority, and frankly neither Aga nor Lazar saw any future for them in the Roman Church given the ongoing massacres being committed by their Italian co-religionists. Or rather, former co-religionists. Aga had initially joined Parashqevi Qiriazi's Bible study out of a desire to improve her reading skills only to find an entirely more vital faith in the process. She'd been hesitant to take the next step, but Parashqevi's martyrdom made her recognize that the Protestant faith offered her far more than Catholicism ever could. She'd formally converted after that, and shortly thereafter led both her mother and brother into the light, much to her sister's dismay. They weren't alone. In the past six months Parashqevi's small bible study had multiplied at least tenfold, to the point that Zog requested that the British and Americans send a chaplain or two to help shepherd the growing Protestant movement in his ranks. (17)

That it was growing despite all the violence and persecution was more than enough proof to Aga of the righteousness of their cause, but that didn't make the pain of her brother's recent death any less. The relationships she'd built with her sisters in the Protestant church and the knowledge that she would see Lazar again had helped her deal with the grief, to the point that she had no idea how she'd survive without them, but the gaping maw in her soul was still there. Part of her wanted to blame Zog for all of this, after all, it was his insistence of leading from the front that inspired Lazar to do the same and get cut down by an Italian bullet two months ago. But the King himself had been one of the first to comfort her and her mother when he'd heard about Lazar's death. He'd continued to drop by and even invited them to dine with the Royal party on occasion. Far from rage, Aga began to feel something entirely different towards the King.

Those feelings had led her to reach out when she saw the weight of recent events becoming too much to bear. Perhaps he would have been able to endure it as they all had, if he hadn't been injured. But she couldn't blame him for wanting to do something. The Italians were so busy clearing out the people of Vlora, they'd been forced to delay deportations from the rest of the country and hold them in poorly guarded camps. So far, the resistance had managed to save thousands from dying on Sazan, but not without cost. The Italians were beginning to set up ambushes and one of them had come within inches of shooting Zog through the heart. Had he not reluctantly adopted the practice of wearing some body armour, the wound might have been fatal but instead he was able to retreat and begin recuperating at his new headquarters located in the mountains south of Vlora.

Aga had been in the right place at the right time and now was effectively his nurse which had led her to notice the King's darkening mood following the death of Musa Juka. Without his Minister of the Interior to manage affairs in the North, there seemed to be little left of the once vaunted resistance in the mountains. The handful that refused to collaborate seemed to have been cowed into submission by Serbian terror and the steady flow of refugees from the region not only strained the resources of the resistance in the south, but brought with them tales of brutality which made many question the future of the Albanian people north of the Shkumbin. The American declaration of war had helped buoy morale a bit, but it was becoming apparent that any American aid would take months if not years to arrive as they seemed fixated on the war in the Pacific. Even if it did arrive, there was no guarantee they would deploy enough of it to stop the massacres occurring all around them.

Aga had become convinced that dealing with wave after wave of bad news by was prolonging Zog's recovery and had resolved to break his social isolation. He needed to do something else other than read and respond to dispatches and glower at the deteriorating situations on his maps. It had taken a herculean effort, but in conjunction with the other nurses she'd managed to drag him out of his room and into a nearby system of caves where the junior officers had started a few small fires to help drive off the cold while they drank and sang songs. Zog had been awkward at first, after all, he'd written "Partizani Lufte po Shkonte" and "Hakmarrje Rini," but that too began to fade after a few shots of Raki.(18)

Slowly but surely, a smile crept onto his face and Aga could see some of the tension vanish from his shoulders. The wall between him and those gathered around the fire began to disappear and soon he found himself engaged in a truly fascinating conversation with none other than Liri Gega. Though she didn't want to admit it, she could tell from the sparkle in the King's eyes that Liri would be able to offer him far more than she ever could. She'd always been more intellectual than Aga, that much had been apparent from the moment they'd met while attending Qiriazi's bible study. Coming from a Muslim background, Liri had chosen to explore Bektashism instead of gravitating towards Protestantism following Parashqevi's departure and had lost touch with Aga until taking part in recent operations against the Italian concentration camps.

Liri Gega.png

Liri Gega​

As it turned out she'd lost her brother Agim to the fighting several months ago as well, but she was not perturbed. She too had become an enthusiastic Zogist because of her brother's fascination with the man and his ideas. However Agim was an intellectual and not a soldier, he'd been able to form and inspire a ceta, but died in combat after only a few months of fighting. If anything, Agim's sacrifice had only made Liri more devoted to Zog and his dream for Albania. She'd taken his place as leader of his ceta, a rare feat for a woman, and inspired her troops like Deborah with her passion and vision for the future. That passion and those dreams, coupled with Liri's breadth of knowledge and ability to express it ignited something within Zog that Aga never could. (19)

Being 12 years younger certainly doesn't hurt either…

Her initial reaction had been to take offense and compete for the object of her affection, but she held back when she saw the effect Liri had on the king. Unlike Aga, years of speaking with her intellectual brother had given her a wit and an ability to connect with Zog on an entirely different level. Moreover, she was technically still a Muslim, so there would be no religious tension to their relationship. But most of all she seemed to be able to make him truly relax, far more than Aga ever could. He would need that to weather the days ahead. So she stood back and watched as flirtatious words began to pepper their conversation. Feigning disbelief, Liri convinced Zog to demonstrate his musical talents and he reluctantly picked up a bouzouki and led the crowd in "Hakmarrje Rini," before growing somber once again.

Slowly his fingers played with the notes and then, as if remembering a long-lost friend, he began to play a new song.

"These mist covered mountains

Are a home now for me

But my home is the lowlands

And always will be

Someday you'll return to

Your valleys and your farms

And you'll no longer burn to be

Brothers in arms…"

The English words hung strangely in the air for a moment as up until this point, Zog had been speaking Albanian, save for a few greetings to the British attaches which had joined them. Yet since English had long since replaced Italian and Greek as the second language of the resistance the words still resonated, particularly with Liri, Aga noted with a hint of bitterness as the song continued.

"Through these fields of destruction

Baptisms of fire

I've witnessed your suffering

As the battle raged high

And though they did hurt me so bad

In the fear and alarm

You did not desert me

My brothers in arms

There's so many different worlds

So many different suns

And we have just one world

But we live in different ones

Now the sun's gone to hell and

The moon's riding high

Let me bid you farewell

Every man has to die

But it's written in the starlight

And every line in your palm

They were fools to make war

On our brothers in arms." (20)

Cheers erupted from the small crowd and Liri wrapped her arms around Zog and planted a kiss on his cheek, tears streaming down her face. Such a brazen display of affection would have been unheard of prior to the war, but things were changing so quickly now. Though Zog was startled, he did not reject her affection and instead smiled warmly at her while accepting more raki from the men gathered with them.

Fortunately for Aga, a pair of messengers interrupted the merrymaking and distracted her from Liri's seemingly inevitable conquest of the man she'd allowed herself to fixate on for months. Yet her relief was tinged with concern as she saw Zog's face harden as he addressed the two men, his firm voice cut through the din and silenced everyone around the fire. "Status report soldier."

The young messenger halted and gave a brief salute before unwrapping his scarf and handing a message to Zog. "Report from the North my King. Wingate's men have attacked Pećanc's Headquarters."

Zog nodded and accepted the message a predatory grin spread across his face as he briefly scanned it, but he said nothing more and tucked it into his uniform. Turning to the second man he continued "And you soldier?"

Aga couldn't help but notice the second figure chuckling softly as he gave a similarly brief but sloppier salute and pulled off his scarf to reveal a face that would have been familiar were it not pockmarked by scars and bearing a black eyepatch.

"Enver Hoxha reporting for duty my king…"

Notes:

15. A small village in the mountains south of Vlora and a noted Bektashi stronghold.

16. Yup, Aga's sister is Anjezë Bojaxhiu who in OTL became Mother Teresa. Her brother Lazar served in Zog's army in OTL and they lived in Tirana.

17. There were roughly 1-200 Protestant Christians in Albania prior to 1939 in both OTL and TTL. A tenfold increase is noteworthy, but on an absolute scale, the number of Protestants in Albania remains quite small at this point in TTL.

18. Two notable OTL Partisan anthems which would be well known to anyone acquainted with Albanian history. (1)

19. Liri Gega's family and backstory to 1928 are from OTL as well. In OTL she became one of the leading figures of the Albanian communist party before she was purged by Hoxha following the Stalin-Tito split. In TTL, her brother and her both gravitate towards Zogism like Hoxha and so many others.

20. Funny how changing a few words at the end changes the meaning of the entire song. For an acoustic take on the OTL song