Albanian resistance during World War II The Albanian Resistance of World War II was a movement of largely Communist persuasion directed against the occupying Italian ( until 1943 ) and then German forces in Albania , which led to the successful liberation of the country in 1944 . The Center for Relief to Civilian Populations ( Geneva ) reported that Albania was one of the most devastated countries in Europe . 60 , 000 houses were destroyed and about 10 % of the population was left homeless . Communist and Nationalist resistance . Beginnings of the Communist movement . Faced with an illiterate , agrarian , and mostly Muslim society monitored by King Zog ' s security police , Albania ' s Communist movement attracted few adherents in the interwar period . In fact , the country had no fully - fledged Communist Party before World War II . After Fan Noli fled in 1924 to Italy and later the United States , several of his leftist protégés migrated to Moscow , where they affiliated themselves with the Balkan Confederation of Communist Parties and through it the Communist International ( Comintern ) , the Soviet - sponsored association of international communist parties . In 1930 , the Comintern dispatched Ali Kelmendi to Albania to organize communist cells . However , Albania had no working class on which the communists could rely for support , and Marxism appealed to only a minute number of quarrelsome , Western - educated , mostly Tosk intellectuals and to landless peasants , miners , and other persons discontented with Albania ' s obsolete social and economic structures . Paris became the Albanian communists ' hub until Nazi deportations depleted their ranks after the fall of France in 1940 . Enver Hoxha ' s and Mehmet Shehu ' s early years . Enver Hoxha and another veteran of the Spanish Civil War , Mehmet Shehu , eventually rose to become the most powerful figures in Albania for decades after the war . The dominant figure in modern Albanian history , Enver Hoxha rose from obscurity to lead his people for a longer time than any other ruler . Born in 1908 to a Tosk landowner from Gjirokastër who returned to Albania after working in the United States , Hoxha attended the country ' s best college - preparatory school , the National Lycée in Korçë . In 1930 he attended the university at Montpellier in France , but lost an Albanian state scholarship for neglecting his studies . He subsequently moved to Paris and Brussels . After returning to Albania in 1936 without having earned a degree , he taught French for years at his former lycée and participated in a communist cell in Korçë . He later went to Tirana and when the Albanian Communist Party was formed in November 1941 , he was appointed as the general secretary of the party , a post which he kept until his death in 1985 . Shehu , also a Tosk , studied at Tirana ' s American Vocational School . He went on to a military college in Naples but was expelled for left - wing political activity . In Spain Shehu fought in the Garibaldi International Brigade and became a commander of one of the brigade ' s battalions . After the Spanish conflict was over , he was captured and interned in France . He returned to Albania in 1942 and soon became a prominent figure . During the conflict he won a reputation for his commanding abilities with the partisans . Beginning of the Albanian Communist and Fascist parties and the National Liberation Movement . After the invasion of Albania by Italy in April 1939 , 100 , 000 Italian soldiers and 11 , 000 Italian colonists settled in the country . Initially the Albanian Fascist Party received support from the population , mainly because of the unification of Kosovo and other Albanian populated territories with Albania proper after the conquest of Yugoslavia and Greece by the Axis in Spring 1941 . Benito Mussolini boasted in May 1941 to a group of Albanian fascists that he had achieved the Greater Albania long wanted by the Tirana nationalists . The Albanian Fascist Party of Tefik Mborja had strong support in the country population after the Albania annexation of Kosovo . In November 1941 , the small Albanian Communist groups established an Albanian Communist Party in Tirana of 130 members under the leadership of Hoxha and an eleven - man Central Committee . The party at first had little mass appeal , and even its youth organization netted few recruits . In mid - 1942 however , party leaders increased their popularity by calling the young peoples to fight for the liberation of their country from Italy . This propaganda increased the number of new recruits by many young peoples eager for freedom . In September 1942 , the party organized a popular front organization , the National Liberation Movement ( NLM ) , from a number of resistance groups , including several that were strongly anticommunist . During the war , the NLM ' s communist - dominated partisans , in the form of the National Liberation Army , ignored warnings from the Italian occupiers that there would be reprisals for guerrilla attacks . Partisan leaders , on the contrary , counted on using the desire for revenge such reprisals would elicit to win recruits . Nationalist resistance . A nationalist resistance to the Italian occupiers emerged in October 1942 . Ali Këlcyra and Mit ’ hat Frashëri formed the Western - oriented and anti - communist Balli Kombëtar ( National Front ) . This movement recruited supporters from both the large landowners and peasantry . They supported the creation of Greater Albania by Italians and called for the creation of a republic and the introduction of economic and social reforms , opposing King Zog ' s return . Their leaders acted conservatively , however , fearing that the occupiers would carry out reprisals against them or confiscate the landowners ' estates . The nationalistic Gheg chieftains and the Tosk landowners often came to terms with the Italians , and later the Germans , to prevent the loss of their wealth and power . Between Italy ' s surrender and German occupation . With the overthrow of Benito Mussolini ' s fascist regime and Italy ' s surrender in 1943 , the Italian military and police establishment in Albania buckled . Albanian fighters overwhelmed five Italian divisions , and Italian recruits flocked to the guerrilla forces . The communists took control of most of Albania ' s southern cities , except Vlorë , which was a Balli Kombëtar stronghold , and nationalists attached to the NLM gained control over much of the north . British agents working in Albania during the war fed the Albanian resistance fighters with false information that the Allies were planning a major invasion of the Balkans and urged the disparate Albanian groups to unite their efforts . In August 1943 , the Allies convinced communist and Balli Kombëtar leaders to sign the Mukje Agreement that would coordinate their guerrilla operations . The two groups eventually ended all collaboration , however , over a disagreement on the postwar status of Kosovo . The communists supported returning the region to Yugoslavia after the war with the hope that Tito would cede Kosovo back to Albania peacefully , while the nationalist Balli Kombëtar advocated keeping the province . The delegates at Mukja agreed that a plebiscite should be held in Kosovo to decide the matter ; but the communists soon reneged on the accord declaring that the communist delegates had not followed the orders they were given by the party leaders . Later , the communists were attacked by Balli Kombëtar forces , igniting a war that was fought for the next year throughout Albania . German occupation . Germany occupied Albania in September 1943 , dropping paratroopers into Tirana before the Albanian guerrillas could take the capital , and the German army soon drove the guerrillas into the hills and to the south . Berlin subsequently announced it would recognize the independence of a neutral Albania and organized an Albanian government , police , and military . Many Balli Kombëtar units collaborated with the Germans against the communists , and several Balli Kombëtar leaders held positions in the German - sponsored regime . Tirana was liberated by the partisans on 17 November 1944 after a 20 - day battle . The partisans entirely liberated Albania from German occupation on 29 November 1944 . The National Liberation Army , which in October 1944 consisted of 70 , 000 regulars , also took part in the war alongside the antifascist coalition . The Albanian partisans also liberated Kosovo , and assisted Tito ' s communist forces in liberating part of Montenegro and southern Bosnia and Herzegovina . By that time , the Soviet Army was also entering neighboring Yugoslavia , and the German Army was retreating from Greece into Yugoslavia . Communist takeover of Albania . Provisional Communist administration . The communist partisans had regrouped and gained control of much of southern Albania in January 1944 . However , they were subject to German attacks driving them out of certain areas until June . In May they called a congress of members of the National Liberation Front ( NLF ) , as the movement was by then called ) at Përmet , which chose an Anti - Fascist Council of National Liberation to act as Albania ' s administration and legislature . Hoxha became the chairman of the council ' s executive committee and the National Liberation Army ' s supreme commander . The communist partisans defeated the last Balli Kombëtar forces in southern Albania by mid - summer 1944 and encountered only scattered resistance from the Balli Kombëtar when they entered central and northern Albania by the end of July . The British military mission urged the remnants of the nationalists not to oppose the communists ' advance , and the Allies recalled their representatives with them to Italy . They did not evacuate nationalist leaders , although many fled . Before the end of November , the main German troops had withdrawn from Tirana , and the communists took control by attacking it . A provisional government , which the communists had formed at Berat in October , administered Albania with Enver Hoxha as prime minister . The consequences of the war . Albania stood in an unenviable position after World War II . The NLF ' s strong links with Yugoslavia ' s communists , who also enjoyed British military and diplomatic support , guaranteed that Belgrade would play a key role in Albania ' s postwar order . The Allies never recognized an Albanian government in exile or King Zog , nor did they ever raise the question of Albania or its borders at any of the major wartime conferences . No reliable statistics on Albania ' s wartime losses exist , but the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration reported about 30 , 000 Albanian war dead , 200 destroyed villages , 18 , 000 destroyed houses , and about 100 , 000 people left homeless . Albanian official statistics claim somewhat higher losses . Furthermore , thousands of Chams ( Tsams , Albanians living in Northern Greece ) were driven out of Greece with the justification that they had collaborated with the Nazis . During the Nazi occupation most Jews in Albania proper were saved , although others in the Kosovo region were deported and killed . Foreign participation . There were a significant number of foreign citizens who participated in Albanian resistance during World War II . They were composed mostly of Italian soldiers who wished to continue the war against Nazi Germany , but other people from different nationalities participated also . Italians participation . Albanian resistance began in 1940 with small " çetas " but it became a significant force in 1942 . Even during this period there were small groups of Italian soldiers who deserted the fascist army and joined the Albanian partisans . When Italy capitulated in September 1943 there were already some 122 Italian partisans dispersed among various units in Albanian National Liberation Army . When Italy capitulated there were some 100 , 000 Italian soldiers in Albania . They were from the " Firence " , " Parma " , " Perugia " , " Arezzo " , " Brennero " divisions and other small independent units . Many Italian forces surrendered to the advancing German army . A great part of them were sent to concentration camps or to forced labor in Albania in the service of the German army , while there were also mass killings of Italian officers , mostly from the " Perugia " Division centered in Gjirokastër . Its general , Ernesto Chiminello , together with 150 officers , were executed in Saranda . Some other 32 officers were also killed in Kuç area three days later . Some Italians took refuge in the mountains of Albania , while about 15 , 000 Italian soldiers surrendered to Albanian partisans . Some Italian troops led by Arnaldo Azzi , ex - commander of Firenze Division , created CITM , " Comando Italiano Truppe alla Montagna " ( Italian Command of the Troops in Mountains ) . Its objective was to resist German troops with help from the Albanian Partisans . They managed to create some units of Italian soldiers under their command , but these troops were dispersed in the months of October – November 1943 , by the German Winter Offensive . The officers of this command were attached to British missions in Albania and were repatriated in Italy in August 1944 . There were also some 2150 Italians who expressed their desire to continue the fight dispersed among Albanian partisan units . Some 472 Italian fighters were dispersed among Partisan Shock Brigades . Here , there was a group of 137 men who created the Antonio Gramsci Battalion attached to First Shock Brigade and the " Matteotti " unit was attached to Third Shock Brigade . Some 401 were engaged in logistic and another 1 , 277 were attached to local commands . During the period 1943 - 1945 there were other units of Italian fighters among Albanian partisans , such as the 6th Battalion of the Fifth Shock Brigade composed of some 200 Italians . Wehrmacht deserters . Part of the German force which occupied Albania was composed of Wehrmacht recruits from the Caucasus region . The first Wehrmacht deserters went to Albanian Partisan units at the end of 1943 during the German Winter Offensive , but their numbers grew in the summer of 1944 during the German Summer Offensive . There was a great flow of Wehrmacht deserters during the end of conflict to Albania from September to October 1944 as German forces began withdrawing from Albania . In August 1944 an new unit was formed in Third Shock Brigade from some 40 Wehrmacht deserters ( mostly Armenians and Turkmen ) . Some other 70 Armenians created their own unit attached to First Shock Brigade in September 1944 . There were also other small groups of Wehrmacht deserters dispersed among Albanian partisan forces , composed of Germans , Austrians , Frenchmen , Czechs and Poles . Allied links and assistance . The British had tried mounting liaison operations into Italian - occupied Albania in early 1941 , from what was then neutral Yugoslavia . These attempts were quickly abandoned after the Germans and Italians overran Yugoslavia . Thereafter , no attempt was made to contact Albanian resistance groups until 17 April 1943 . The first liaison party from M . O . 4 , a branch of the liaison organisation SOE , was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel " Billy " MacLean , with Major David Smiley as his second - in - command . Rather than drop " blind " into Albania , the mission was dropped into North - West Greece , where British parties were already operating with Greek guerrillas . From there , they made their way into Albania on foot or on mules . After several false starts , the mission made contact with the NLM . The first supply drop of arms and equipment was received on 27 June . The bulk of the stores received in this and subsequent drops were donated to the NLM , who were the dominant group in Southern Albania , and were used to equip the " First Partisan Brigade " . Later in 1943 , SOE increased the size of the mission to Albania . The new commander was Brigadier Edmund Frank Davies ( who was nicknamed " Trotsky " ) , with Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Nicholls as Chief of Staff . MacLean and Smiley were withdrawn to SOE ' s new base at Bari in Southern Italy to report . Although they noted that the Communist - led NLM appeared to be more interested in securing political power after the war than fighting the Germans , they recommended that SOE continue to supply them , while attempting to achieve agreement between the NLM and the other resistance movements . In January 1944 , the Germans attacked and overran the British mission HQ . Brigadier Davies was captured , while Lieutenant Colonel Nicholls died of exposure and post - operative shock after leading the survivors to safety . During the remainder of 1944 , SOE continued to supply the NLM , despite complaints from MacLean and Smiley , now running liaison parties with Abaz Kupi ' s group and the Balli Kombëtar in Northern Albania , that the NLM were using these arms against their political opponents rather than the Germans . Smiley , MacLean and Julian Amery were evacuated to Italy at the end of October . SOE refused to evacuate Abaz Kupi on the same boat , and he made his own escape from the country , being picked up by a Royal Naval vessel in the Adriatic .