• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Forcat Tokësore - Land Forces History

The free-spirited and hardy Albanian mountaineers have had excellent reputations as individual fighters. The Romans recruited some of their best soldiers from the regions that later became Albania. In succeeding periods many Albanians became famous in the military service of the Ottomans.

Nationalism was rarely necessary to motivate these men. Before 1912 the country had independence for only one brief period. It was gained then by the national hero, Skanderbeg, and freedom evaporated almost immediately upon his death in 1468. The history and legends attached to him make up a large part of the national military tradition. Other than in his day, freedom was rarely fought for except in the context of defense of tribal areas against the incursions of marauding neighbors. There were few occasions when Albanians rose up against occupying foreign powers. Conquerors generally left the people alone in their isolated mountain homelands and, as a feudal tribal society persisted, there was little if any feeling of national unity in the country.

Organized military action also played an almost negligible part in attaining independence. Some revolutionary activity occurred during the rise of national feeling in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There were clashes between insurgents and Turkish forces as early as 1884 but, at the same time that the Albanians were resisting Turkish practices they considered oppressive against themselves, they were defending the Turks in their hostilities with the Greeks or the Slavs. They continued to be recruited into, and to serve in, the Turkish army.

By 1900 about 8,000 armed Albanians were assembled in Shkoder, but they were unopposed, and a situation resembling anarchy more than revolution prevailed in the country during the early 1900s. There were arrests, incidents of banditry and pillage, and many futile Turkish efforts to restore order. Guerrilla activity increased after about 1906, and several incidents occurred, which produced martyrs but which were not marked by great numbers of casualties. Nevertheless, although it was unorganized and never assumed the proportions of a serious struggle, the resistance was instrumental in maintaining the pressure that attracted international attention and led the great powers, when they intervened after the Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913, to recognize the independent state of Albania.

World War I began before the country could establish a viable governmental body—much less form, train, and equip a military establishment. During the war years it was occupied by the warring parties, and the last of them remained into 1920.

Ahmet Zogu—as minister of the interior and minister of war until 1922 and prime minister from 1922, except for a brief exile in 1924, until he became King Zog in 1928—created the first national forces of any consequence. Before 1925, so that he would have some assurance of their loyalty, these consisted of about 5,000 men from his home tribal district. Starting in about 1925 with Italian assistance and a considerable degree of Italian control over the forces, men were drawn through universal conscription. The first drafts called about 5,000 to 6,000 annually from the approximately 10,000 young men who became eligible for the draft each year. Italian aid equipped the forces, and Italian officers provided most of the training and tactical guidance, to the point that they had effective control over their employment.

At about the same time the Gendarmerie was formed with British assistance. It had an Albanian director, a British general who served as its inspector general, and a staff of British inspectors. The Gendarmerie became an effective internal security and police organization. It had a commandant in each of the ten prefectures, a headquarters in each of the subprefectures (up to eight per prefecture), and a post in each of the nearly 150 local communities. Its communications network was for many years the most complete telephone system in the country.

Although the Italians objected strenuously, King Zog used the Gendarmerie as a safeguard against the possible consequences of Italian domination of his regular armed forces. He kept the force under his direct control and retained its British advisers until 1938. Zog also retained a sizable armed group from his old tribal region.

King Zog's efforts to reduce Italian control over his forces were insufficient to save them from quick humiliation before World War II. The Italians attacked on April 7, 1939, and, although annual conscription had created a trained reserve of at least 50,000 men, it was never called. Resistance was overcome in about a week. Later in 1939 the Italians incorporated Albanian units into their forces. Little benefit was derived from the Albanians, who could see little point in fighting for the Italians, even against their traditional enemies, the Greeks. They deserted in large numbers.

Resistance to the occupation grew rapidly as signs of Italian weakness became apparent. At the end of 1942 guerrilla forces had numbered no more than perhaps 8,000 to 10,000. By the summer of 1943, when the Italian effort collapsed, almost all of the mountainous interior was controlled by various resistance groups.

The Germans took over the occupation from the Italians and inflicted near-decisive defeat upon the guerrillas in January 1944. Resistance grew again, however, as final defeat for the Axis powers appeared certain, and by the end of 1944 guerrilla forces probably totaled about 70,000 men. In addition, by their count, they had suffered about 28,000 casualties. The Communist-controlled National Liberation Movement had then solidified its hold over the guerrilla groups and was able to take over the country after the war. Enver Hoxha had been the chief political commissar of the General Staff that was created in July 1943. From that post he rose rapidly to leadership of the group and through it became the head of the Communist government that took over at the end of World War II.

Albania's first Communist military forces were equipped, trained, and modeled after Yugoslavia's. When Yugoslavia embarked on its separate road to socialism in 1948 and was expelled from the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform—see Glossary), Albania aligned directly with the Soviet Union. This did not involve an immediate change in materiel, organization, or training because the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia had had much the same relationship before their break.

Soviet aid included advisory personnel, a considerable amount of modern conventional armament, a few small World War II naval vessels, and a number of aircraft. This aid was halted entirely in 1961. The Soviet submarine flotilla that had been based on Sazan Island, off Vlore, passed Gibraltar in June 1961 on its way back to northern Soviet ports.

Communist China succeeded the Soviet Union as Albania's ally. Albania can provide China with little of tactical importance, but its value as an ally from a political standpoint has been sufficient to warrant continuation of aid in quantities sufficient to maintain the armed forces at about the same levels of personnel strength and equipment that they had achieved when they were supported by the Soviet Union, although interruptions in training are believed to have caused a deterioration in technical skills and know-how.