Preface
The period from April 1939 to the end of 1940 was the initial phase of the Albanian resistance. During this period, the main fighting situation adopted by the patriots was non-violent resistance such as demonstrations, general workers, and strikes, followed by sporadic armed resistance such as sneak attacks and ambushes.
At the same time, since there was no strong political party in Albania to organize the resistance at this time, these struggles were mostly spontaneous rather than organized. In addition, during this period, there was a lack of cooperation between the various resistance forces that emerged in the country, and there was a lack of correlation between the various movements, which were mostly scattered.
In the early days, it was mainly intellectuals and students who carried out the resistance, while the leaders of the armed forces were still in the stage of accumulating strength.
Initial non-violent forms of resistance
Before the invasion, the Italian fascists imagined that the new regime they had established in Albania would be warmly welcomed by the people. However, they soon found themselves wrong, as they only cooperated with the landlords, merchants, and pro-fascist forces in the country, and were far from gaining popular support.
On April 12, when Ziano arrived in Albania, he found that "the people were greeted with joy. There is also some lukewarm, mainly among middle school students. They were reluctant to raise their arms in Roman salutation.
Some, even at the urging of their peers, openly rejected the opposition to forming alliances through individuals "at the Electoral College...... Some patriots have anger in their eyes and tears rolling down their eyes, and independent Albania will cease to exist. ”
At the beginning of the Italian invasion, the resistance movement in Albania developed slowly. Because of the underdeveloped domestic communications industry and the lack of information dissemination, many Albanians living in rural areas are not aware of this matter at all; At the same time, since the Balkan Wars, Albania has often been invaded by other Balkan countries, including Serbs, Austrians, Greeks, as well as Montenegrins, Bulgarians, etc.
As a result, many believe that the Italian invasions, as in the past, were only temporary. However, when the atrocities of the fascist movement began to have a malignant effect, the will of the people in Albania began to grow, from the initial non-cooperation to the later hatred and public provocation, and the voices of the people were more and more dissatisfied, "There were various forms of non-violent resistance movements such as demonstrations, strikes, and sabotage.
Although much of the resistance at this stage was unled and not effectively organized, it did spread widely, especially among young students: those well-educated at home and abroad had a stronger sense of national identity than the Muslim peasants and the poor of the northern tribes.
On November 28, 1939, the first anniversary of Albania's independence under foreign rule, mass demonstrations organized by anti-fascist leaders broke out in Tirana, Korca, Vlora and other regional centres.
In Tirana, some students refused to learn fascist songs and instead sang Albanian patriotic songs during the march, shouting "Albania". In Shkodar, 200 students and 200 workers sang patriotic songs without saluting the leaders of the local fascist party.
The local police conducted an investigation and found that some of the workers involved in the resistance claimed to be members of the Communist Party. Of the eight students arrested and imprisoned, three of them claimed to be members of the Communist Party. Officials in Korça and Vlora also reported on the student march. Many of the organizers of the resistance, including teachers, were arrested by the police and sent to concentration camps in Italy.
In January 1940, Albanian students continued to hold anti-Italian demonstrations in both Korça and Shkoda. On the 30th, the Italian fascists identified the teachers and students who led and participated in the resistance, arrested them and deported them to an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. "It is also logical that the Albanian intelligentsia is the most vocal in opposing the new situation. Whenever possible, they must be assimilated, and those who refuse to accept them must be severely punished. The problem is not very serious: only two or three hundred people are involved. ”
Although not yet affected by the Albanian communist movement, Albanian workers began to openly express their discontent. In June 1939, workers at the Vera shipyard went on strike to raise wages. This is despite the fact that the Italian occupation authorities issued an order on 11 April 1940 prohibiting all forms of strikes, demonstrations, rallies, processions, and imposing the death penalty on those who ignore the ban.
But there are still strikes. The workers showed their indignation at the occupiers and sabotaged the production carried out for them. In October, another strike was carried out at the mines in Senenica, and 12 people were imprisoned.
The development of armed resistance
In the early days, Albanian armed operations attacked only individual police officers and officials, mostly in a sporadic manner, without a clear purpose, and with little impact. However, in the later years, the armed resistance grew in size, and its actions became more planned and purposeful.
According to Italian reports, as early as April 1940, there was sporadic activity of armed groups in the northern regions of Albania. On the 18th, a rebellion broke out in the northern region of Albania. People from the hill tribes attacked Italian posts, sabotaged facilities, and massacred Italian personnel.
In May of the same year, a report from the British Consul General reported that there had been sudden incidents of robbery and burglary in Durres and Tirana, carried out by armed gangs driving cars. Former Archbishop Vesharon was beaten and robbed, several Italian soldiers, an officer and a foreman were killed.
Armed resistance soon developed into a mass movement. On August 9, 1940, Albanians and Italian troops clashed north of the Albanian border. When Italy tried to mobilize all classes of society to serve the army and levy livestock and food from the Albanians, the Albanians rebelled. The 4,000 tribesmen of the Mildita district took up the weapons they had hidden since the Italian occupation of Albania.
Before taking action, two Italian officials tried to consult with Albanian representatives, but were rejected and were immediately killed.
Italian authorities then sent 12,000 troops to quell the unrest. In retaliation, the Italians burned and razed the villages of Mamuset, Sconoma, and Orof, and machine-gunned the mountain people, killing and wounding many people. In the skirmishes that followed, Italy suffered nearly 100 casualties, including seven troops, including a lieutenant colonel.
The ranks of the revolt against Italy grew and spread rapidly, supported by many Albanians. As of August 12, about 10,000 Albanians reportedly rebelled against the Italian army's conscription. They fought against a well-armed army and killed about 400 Italian soldiers.
Between 4,000 and 5,000 people are armed in the Mirdita district of northern Albania, and about 3,000 in Mati, the birthplace of Sogu. Former Albanian Interior Minister Mousa Gaka was also in the ranks of armed resistance. The Matis blew up the bridge connecting Tirana and Shkodraki.
The Italians sent troops to suppress the rebellion, and although they eventually crushed the resistance, they themselves lost one or two battalions.
In addition, in South Albania, the people carried out a lot of destruction of oil fields and copper mines. In the Kavalash region, where there were 1,000 insurgents, a tribal leader informed the Italian authorities that he would oppose the requisition of food and livestock and the mobilization of Italian troops, and at the same time, demanded the release of Albanian nationalist party members imprisoned in Tirana.
By this time, several guerrilla forces had developed in the northern border areas of Albania. Gendarmerie Abbas Kubi's brother, Ibrahim Kubi, who had been reported by Italy in April for resistance in northern Kruja, has moved to the border to coordinate like-minded leaders on both sides of Albania and Yugoslavia.
Other notable potential guerrilla leaders are: former Soguda gendarmerie commander Murat Kalash, guerrilla Muslim Peza, active in Durrës and Tirana, and Muharrem Bajlakatari from Lugime, Gani Bey Yeouchi and Saeed from a prominent family in Kosovo, the three Hassans, Fiqiri Dina of Diber Region, and Mustafa Ginish, a member of the communist movement.
These small armed resistance groups were not yet fully organised, and their main resistance movements were cutting wires, distributing anti-Italian leaflets and carrying out some sabotage. At this point, though, the resistance of these groups is sporadic and scattered, and none of them seems to have had great success so far.
But it turned out that this resistance force would become the mainstay of the resistance to the Italian and German fascists in the future.