Part Xa: Military Miscellany

Excerpt from "King Zog the General: Foresight or Fortune" by Xhemal Hyseni)

Most agree that the First and Second Albanian Economic Miracles conclusively prove that King Zog was an economic and administrative prodigy. However, his military acumen has always been a more controversial subject. Some claim that he had an uncanny ability in this area as well, and all mistakes were simply issues of him working to circumvent Italian influence and undermine the power of the tribal leaders and the Beys, the traditional aristocracy of Albania that opposed him in every attempt to create a modern state out of Albania. Others claim that most, if not all of Zog's military innovations were the result of pure luck, where policies around other matters simply dropped a fortunate situation into the lap of the King and his armed forces - resting their opinion on Mustafa Kemal Pasha's poor opinion of the King as a military commander and the supposed lack of any grand victories to his name. A third opinion is that the King was intelligent enough to know the limits of his own knowledge where it came to military expertise and was both fortunate and foresighted enough to have a pool of such men to recruit from - from the Royal Albanian Legion, his Gendarmerie and his Army.

As usual when it comes to historical debates such as these, the answer is somewhere in the middle. King Zog had a precarious position between the Albanian aristocracy and traditional tribal society, the ambitions of fascist Italy (and its then warm supporters in France and Britain who sought to use Mussolini to counter Hitler's rising ambitions) and the lack of funds for the army, as his industrial, economic, and educational endeavours devoured not only the resources of Albania and the loans from Italy, but a substantial part of the King's personal wealth as well. Navigating procurements, new technology and who to supply with what in these circumstances often put the King between a rock and a hard place.

When Zog set out to standardize the equipment of the Albanian army and Gendarmerie, he drew not only on Italian, but also British and traditional Albanian experiences. Like his fellow monarch, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, King Zog had to navigate a minefield and like the Ethiopians, often turned to neutral nations that had a good military reputation but no political or military ambitions or interests in the southwestern Balkans, nor were easily bullied by the Italians. It should be noted that one of the mistakes the King made was to put a very heavy focus on having only one rifle cartridge (the Italian 6,5x52mm) and one pistol cartridge (the Parabellum 9x19mm).

While we all know conflict came before the Albanian army and gendarmerie were fully equipped as the King had intended, nevertheless, most of his reforms did see varying success. A fully equipped Albanian gendarme or soldier would in 1939 be equipped with many items as envisioned by the King and his team of military advisors.

He would wear a M1935 woolen uniform of local production. The tone was more khaki than corresponding Italian uniforms, and the cut decidedly simpler, which certainly made the Albanian soldiers look less martial, especially on parade. The trousers were wide, with tight pockets to the sides in order to make use of the woolen cloth's ability to keep a man warm even when wet and kept together by canvas puttees above good leather boots with rubber soles. The Albanians usually issued boots a size too large so their wearers could use thick woolen knitted socks or extra footwraps in colder weather. The jacket was short but generous in size, allowing free movement of the arms above the head. On his head, the Albanian soldier would wear an American M1917 helmet, repainted khaki, with an improved liner and chin strap while the gendarme would wear a peaked cap in the Italian style, with a white cover while on police duties and khaki cover when on combat duties. (1) Both the soldiers and gendarmes used Yugoslav style rank insignia, with red backgrounds (for the Albanian flag) and symbols in black (for the royal guard), blue (for the infantry), white (for the gendarmerie) and yellow (for the artillery).

Most interesting are the combat webbing introduced to both the gendarmerie and the army. It is evident that the King and his advisors on the matter studied the subject long and hard - the result shows inspiration from the Italians and the British, but also from traditional Albanian bucket ponchos used to carry water (and other heavy items) both on the chest and the back. Made from high-quality canvas webbing the combat webbing include fastenings for rucksacks both on the front and the back. Attached to the combat webbing would be a simple axe, a foldable spade and sometimes a short saw which combined with the knife-bayonet (for the 6,5x52mm M91/24 or M91/28 carbine) made up an impressive arsenal of tools for the Albanian soldier. A canvas pistol holster was also included for the infamous Browning High Power or for one of the countless other sidearms carried by Albanians during the war. Though Zog's decision to purchase the famed pistol later came to be widely applauded considering the weapon's continued use to this day, at the time it was seen as an extravagant expense even by the King himself. The real impetus behind its purchase turned out not to be functional but rather political as it served both as a symbol of the new Albania and also a way to help maintain the loyalty of Albanian Army officers who would have otherwise complained far more loudly about the funds headed to the Gendarmerie. Still, ongoing issues with corruption and the sidearm project's low priority meant that when the shooting started most Albanians carried a variety of sidearms into battle. (2)

When it came to personal cooking equipment, the Albanian soldier was one of the best equipped in the world. Once again working together with the Swedes, the Albanian army created the M1935 single kitchen, which consisted of an oval-shaped metal cooking pot with a water-tight lid. The lid could be used as a frying pan, and the whole thing or either of its parts mounted on a very simple stand, which incorporated parts of the infamous FMSh "Rocket Stove" and allowed the individual soldier to make a small fire with mere scraps of wood to cook his food. The pot also had a hanger to put it over a larger campfire when available. A foldable aluminum spoon, knife and fork completed the set which quickly proved to be extremely popular when it was released on the civilian market particularly with shepherds. Even today they are popular among amateur hikers and mountain climbers in Albania for their portability, low weight and great utility.

Notes

1. The Italians had chronic problems with securing enough modern helmets for their own army and every army which tried to buy from them ran into serious supply problems. In the interests of standardization, Zog with his American connections, would be able to secure enough surplus WWI helmets to do the job for about the same cost.

2. Again Zog could have gone Italian, but they hadn't yet developed a sidearm featuring the 9mm Parabellum in the 1930s. Given that countries like Estonia managed to buy a few thousand Browning High Powers in OTL I don't see why Zog couldn't splurge a little to keep the officers happy with a shiny new toy or two… I apologize if people were expecting the 11mm Montenegrin pistols to show up again. Really their appearance in TTL was just a one off as by the 1930s their black powder ammunition would be horribly out of date even for Albania.