Italians formally occupy Vlorë

The British chronology of the war records briefly under 29 May 1915 that the Albanian port of Vlorë was “formally occupied by Italian forces”. The Italians, however, had been there for half a year. They had occupied the island of Sazan at the entrance to the Bay of Vlorë at the end of October 1914, and in December sailors landed in the town itself, followed by a regiment of Bersaglieri with mountain artillery. We have not been able to establish what act lies behind the entry for 29 May. Neither the published Italian diplomatic documents nor the accounts available to us mention a proclamation, an annexation or a change in the town’s administration on that day. What is known is that after Italy entered the war the nature of this presence changed completely.

From neutral occupation to war base

When the Italians put their landing force ashore at Vlorë, they were a neutral state. The government in Rome then assured Vienna that the occupation was temporary, was meant to protect an Italian medical mission and restore order, and that the neutrality of Albania, established by the great powers in 1913, was not being violated. From 24 May 1915 Italy was at war with Austria-Hungary, and Vlorë became a forward outpost of a belligerent state, lying opposite Italian Otranto at the entrance to the Adriatic. As early as the first months of 1915 the command of the occupation corps had begun to build an entrenched camp around the town and to expand the port.

In the spring Rome’s plans for the town changed too. In the secret Treaty of London of 26 April 1915 the Entente promised Italy “full sovereignty over Vlorë, the island of Sazan and territory of sufficient extent to assure defence of these points”. The temporary occupation was thus to become a permanent acquisition. The provisions of the treaty, however, remained secret.

The blockade and the dispute with the Greeks

The war quickly brought disputes over the Albanian coast. On 26 May Italy declared a blockade of the Austro-Hungarian coast, which it extended to the Albanian coast as well, down to Cape Kefali in the far south of the country. Greece protested; since the autumn of 1914 its troops had been occupying Northern Epirus, that is southern Albania. On 29 May the Foreign Minister, Sidney Sonnino, informed the minister in Athens that the southern limit of the blockade had been moved north, to a place called Aspri Ruga (“White Roads”), between Vlorë and Himarë. This was the same point that the Italians had already indicated to the Greeks in March as the furthest limit of the Greek occupation of Epirus. Rome demanded at the same time that Greece itself patrol the coast south of Aspri Ruga, because according to Italian information Austro-Hungarian submarines were obtaining supplies off the coast around Himarë. The Greek Foreign Minister, Georgios Zografos, replied at the beginning of June that the limit of the Greek occupation ought to run further north, at Cape Grammata, and the dispute dragged on.

A long presence

For the time being the Italians confined themselves to Vlorë and its immediate surroundings. At the beginning of June Serbian troops entered Albania, and soon the Montenegrins occupied Scutari. Vlorë became crucial for Italy at the end of 1915, when the Serbian army was retreating through Albania to the Adriatic. In December a large Italian expeditionary corps landed here, which was to cover the evacuation of the Serbs and defend the town against the Austrians. The Italians remained in Vlorë until 1920.