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Forcat Detare - Naval Forces (NF) History

Naval units were subordinate to the Coastal Defense Command which, although a part of the People's Army, is operationally responsible directly to the Ministry of People's Defense. None of the pre-World War II navy survived the occupation and, as with the other branches of the service, the navy denied any earlier ancestry and celebrated August 15, 1945, as its founding date.

The senior naval officer in 1970was commander of naval forces, a deputy commander of coastal defense, and deputy minister of defense for naval affairs. In late 1969 Ymer Zeqir held these positions. As deputy commander of coastal defense he coordinated naval operations with those of the air defense and ground forces that would participate in defense of the coastal area. As deputy minister of defense he represented the naval forces in national defense planning and coordinated personnel, logistic support, and matters that are common to other branches of the armed forces.

Naval forces in 1970 were divided into three commands: the Submarine Brigade, the Vlore Sea Defense Brigade, and the Durres Sea Defense Brigade. All combat ships were assigned to one of the three. The Submarine Brigade was based at the Pasha Liman anchorages south of the city of Vlore, at the extreme southwestern point in the bay. Main facilities of the Vlore Sea Defense Brigade were located on the island of Sazan, in the mouth of the bay about ten miles west of Vlore. This was the site of the Soviet submarine base before 1961. The Durres Sea Defense Brigade controled the units stationed at Durres and those that were locked within Lake Scutari. The Buene River is navigable between Lake Scutari and the Adriatic, but only the smallest of the ships in the lake could pass beneath the Shkoder city bridges.

The officially stated mission of the naval forces was to provide for the military security of coastal waters; to prevent smuggling; to prevent submarines from approaching the coast or harbors; to lay and sweep mines; to intercept enemy forces; to escort convoys along the coastline; and, together with police patrol boats, to control entries to, or exits from, the country. Original Soviet support for the navy was provided in order to secure a submarine and minelaying base with access to the Mediterranean Sea.

Forces available were considerably weaker than those of any one of the potential enemies and, with the exception of Vlore, Albanian harbors provide little natural protection. It was therefore probable that the leadership thought in terms of peacetime shore patrols and would hope, in wartime, to use what units they were able to preserve to prevent totally uninhibited use of the seas adjacent to the country.

In 1970 naval ships included three or four submarines, eight minesweepers, twelve motor torpedo boats, one or two oilers, and perhaps twenty-five or thirty more ships, about one-half of which were classed as coastal patrol and one-half as auxiliary types. The submarines are obsolescent medium-range boats. Two of the minesweepers are oceangoing vessels; the other six can sweep harbors or inshore seas only. Most of the miscellaneous vessels were formerly Italian, of World War II and earlier vintages. Albanian sources claim that a dozen newer torpedo boats have been supplied by the Chinese, six of them hydrofoil types.

Naval personnel in 1970 numbered approximately 3,000. Since many of the ships put to sea infrequently, many of the navy men do part-time fishing or agricultural work. Familiarity with ships helps a new conscript get a naval assignment, and many of those drafted are from the vicinities of Vlore or Durres and may serve their three years being only rarely out of sight of home. Their morale is only fair.

Officers were required to have a general education that included at least some university credits. They receive specialized courses before going to sea. Before 1961 most officers and some of the higher noncommissioned officer ratings received some training in the Soviet Union. Without this training or a Chinese substitute for it, there has probably been some degradation in the technical capabilities of the officer and noncommissioned officer personnel.

The strength of the naval forces shrank between the mid-1970s and 1991. In particular, old Italian ships of World War II vintage and most of Albania's minesweepers left the inventory. Torpedo boats and coastal patrol craft constituted the bulk of the naval forces. In 1991 Albania had twenty-nine Chinese-built Huchwan hydrofoil torpedo boats, each of which had two 533mm torpedo tubes. Patrol craft included six Chinese-made Shanghai-II fast inshore gunboats and two older Soviet Kronshtadt-class patrol boats. Minesweeping forces consisted of old Soviet-built T-301 and PO-2 boats. The naval forces also had two obsolete Soviet Whiskey-class diesel submarines constructed during the 1950s.

Naval forces were organized into two coastal defense brigades composed of minor surface combatants located at the Durr?s and Vlore naval bases. All combatants were assigned to one of these bases. Other naval facilities were located at Sazan Island, Pasha Liman on the strait of Otranto coast, Sarand, and Shengjin. The Soviet Union constructed the base at Sazan Island, but it was not used regularly after Soviet-Albanian relations ruptured in 1961. Naval personnel numbered about 2,000 men, with roughly one-half being conscripts.

The naval forces were exclusively coastal defense forces and closely coordinated their operations with the ground forces. Their mission was to provide the initial line of resistance to a seaborne invasion of Albania. Considerably weaker than their potential adversaries, the naval forces were intended to deny an aggressor uninhibited access to the waters adjacent to Albania. They would be largely sacrificed in the effort to defeat at least some of the units of a large, well-equipped opposing naval assault force. They would try to prevent submarines from approaching Albanian coasts and ports, to lay and sweep mines, and to escort convoys. The absence of a shore-based coastal defense force with surface-to-surface missiles, however, was a serious deficiency in the navy's ability to repel a seaborne attack on Albania. Naval forces, together with police patrol boats, were also responsible for preventing smuggling and controlling access to Albanian ports.