Albanian military at time of Italian invasion in 1939

Billy · #1

First allow me to say this is an excellent forum, by far the best WWII forum out there. I'm new here, and interested in all aspects of WWII, and since I've been interested in it for years I've had time to look into a lot of the well-known areas of the War, nowadays however I'm most curious about the smaller, more obscure aspects of it. In this vein I have a question regarding the Albanian military under King Zog at the time of the Italian invasion. Does anyone have any photos of the uniforms of the Albanian Army of that period, as in the Albanian soldiers that resisted the Italian invasion? I can find really nothing anywhere about this. I know it's a small topic, there wasn't a great deal of fighting and technically it was not part of the War as it occurred just a teeny bit before the outbreak, but it is a curious matter, one that I've been wondering about for some time.

BIGpanzer · #2

Hello, Billy!
AFAIK in 1938-1939 small Albania with 1 million population had the following army:

I) Land Army (Royal Guard + 6 battalions of Royal Frontier Guard + 12 (only 9 of them were permanently organized) infantry battalions + 1 section of armored cars and tanks with several obsolete Italian Lancia IZ and Fiat 3000 + 22 batteries of artillery: 12 of 65mm, 6 of 75mm, 2 of 105mm and 2 of 149mm guns + 9 companies of engineers)

In 1935 Albanian Army had 11581 rifles, 204 machine-guns, 56 guns less than 120mm, 8 guns over 120 mm, 8 armored fighting vehicles.

II) Gendarmerie (10 district HQ, 31 subdivisional HQ, 251 post HQ - near 2000 gendarmers with rifles)

III) Police Forces (near 200 policemen)

IV) Air Forces (very small, 1 airfield with several training aircrafts)

V) Navy (one flotilla of light patrol motor boats, total tonnage 184 t, 141 seamen)

Photo of Albanian infantrymen in 1914 (in 1920s-1930s the Albanian uniform didn`t change a lot)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v513/ ... oldier.jpg

Billy · #3

Thanks a lot BIGPanzer! Was the fez cap worn in combat or just ceremonial?

BIGpanzer · #4

I believe that fez caps were worn by Albanians in combat also, as they were worn by Croatian ( http://www.waffen-ss.no/Bilder/handschar.jpg ), Turkish, etc. soldiers as well as by Albanian volunteers of German SS troops (Scanderberg).

Allen Milcic · #5

BIGpanzer wrote:I believe that fez caps were worn by Albanians in combat also, as they were worn by Croatian ( http://www.waffen-ss.no/Bilder/handschar.jpg ), Turkish, etc. soldiers as well as by Albanian volunteers of German SS troops (Scanderberg).

Small clarification - the Fez was not warn by the Croatian armed forces (the Fez being a particularly Muslim piece of headwear, the Croatians being predominantly Roman Catholic). Rather, the Fez was worn during WW2 by Bosnian Muslims of the nominally Croatian "Handschar" SS Division (Bosnia-Herzegovina being part of the WW2 era puppet 'Independent State of Croatia').

Regards,
Allen/

BIGpanzer · #6

Thanks for the clarification, Allen!
I meant Croatian "Handschar" SS division in my letter above

Korbius · #7

Actually Albanians did not wear fez in combat, unless you're talking about the ceremonial uniform of the Royal Guard, or they were usually worn by local militias and collaborators of the Italians and Germans during WWII. Below are some pictures of the first two decades after the Great War.

photos taken from the "Albanian Armed Forces" book.

Korbius · #8

The Gendarmerie was the only to put up resistance against the Italians, since they were British trained and were not indoctrinated by the Italians as the rest of the Albanian army. They succeeded in repelling the main amphibious attack in the city port of Durres, and were forced to withdraw a couple of hours later, after the Italians landed for the second time with light tanks and armored cars.
Adrian helmets were the standard issue, and the uniforms look like as in the following pictures.

Victor · #9

Korbius, please mention sources photographs as required by the forum guidelines.

Billy · #10

Wonderful!! Thanks Korbius!! The Royal Guard's ceremonial uniform looks similar to the Greek Evzones. I suspected the Army might have Adrian helmets but I had nothing more to base that on than the fact that the Adrian was very popular during the inter-war years in many armies and that as the Army was Italian-trained I figured they might have bought the same helmet the Italians had before Italy adopted the Modello 1933, but this confirms thier usage. Any idea what colour the uniforms were? Were they similar to Italian grigio-verde colour? Thanks again, great pictures.

Serbian boy · #11

Allen Milcic wrote:
BIGpanzer wrote:I believe that fez caps were worn by Albanians in combat also, as they were worn by Croatian ( http://www.waffen-ss.no/Bilder/handschar.jpg ), Turkish, etc. soldiers as well as by Albanian volunteers of German SS troops (Scanderberg).
Small clarification - the Fez was not warn by the Croatian armed forces (the Fez being a particularly Muslim piece of headwear, the Croatians being predominantly Roman Catholic). Rather, the Fez was worn during WW2 by Bosnian Muslims of the nominally Croatian "Handschar" SS Division (Bosnia-Herzegovina being part of the WW2 era puppet 'Independent State of Croatia').

Regards,
Allen/

If I know correctly some Roman Catholic croats was in 13.Waffen-Geirgs-Division der SS.Warn they fez or not?

Allen Milcic · #12

Serbian Boy wrote:If I know correctly some Roman Catholic croats was in 13.Waffen-Geirgs-Division der SS.Warn they fez or not?

Hi Serbian Boy:

No, they didn't, though some of the German officers did.

Regards,
Allen/

Allen Milcic · #13

I also note that some of the Muslim battalions of the NDH Domobranstvo wore the Fez.

Allen/

Korbius · #14

Greetings Billy,

The Royal Guard shared costume similarities with the Evzones, which in turn had been influenced by southern Albanian insurgents in the 18th-19th century that went on to aid the Greek independence cause after the failed uprising of Ali Pasha Tepelena. You're right about the uniform colors and also on the assumption of their helmets.

Billy wrote:Wonderful!! Thanks Korbius!! The Royal Guard's ceremonial uniform looks similar to the Greek Evzones. I suspected the Army might have Adrian helmets but I had nothing more to base that on than the fact that the Adrian was very popular during the inter-war years in many armies and that as the Army was Italian-trained I figured they might have bought the same helmet the Italians had before Italy adopted the Modello 1933, but this confirms thier usage. Any idea what colour the uniforms were? Were they similar to Italian grigio-verde colour? Thanks again, great pictures.

Mario Raguz · #15

After WW II, did Albanians captured any German or Italian plane?