Italians retake Berat

On 3 October 1918 General Giacinto Ferrero’s Italian XVI Corps again occupied Berat in Albania, an old town on the river Osum. The Italians had already taken it in July, but at the end of August had lost it in an Austro-Hungarian counter-offensive. The British chronology of the war and some accounts state that Berat was recovered on 1 October, the first day of the Italian attack. Contemporary Italian communiqués, however, point to a later day: according to the communiqué of 3 October, on 2 October the advanced guards were only approaching the town, and the communiqué of 4 October reports that in the course of 3 October the columns of the right wing occupied Berat and moved on.

The attack was a consequence of events in Macedonia. After the front on the Vardar was broken, Bulgaria signed the Armistice of Salonica on 29 September and left the war. The Austro-Hungarian Army Group Albania of Colonel-General Karl von Pflanzer-Baltin, which in the summer had repulsed the Allied offensive in Albania, now had its eastern flank completely exposed. Serbian and French troops from the Salonica front were advancing north towards Kosovo and Serbia and threatened to cut it off. Pflanzer-Baltin had to leave Albania. The Italian corps at Vlorë, which had not taken part in the September offensive, set off after the retreating enemy.

The pursuit had begun two days earlier. According to the communiqué of the commander-in-chief, General Armando Diaz, on 1 October the Italians attacked along the whole sector from the sea to the Osum. By evening, breaking the resistance of isolated units, they had taken Fier, the line of the river Seman and the hills on the left bank of the Osum. On 2 October the attack extended to both banks of the river. The Austrians fell back quickly, trying to break contact with their pursuers, and set fire to their depots. Even so, the Italians took prisoners and a great deal of equipment. British aircraft bombed the lines of retreat along the river Shkumbin and strafed the airfield at Tirana from low altitude.

On 3 October the Italians entered Berat. That same day the Italian left wing crossed the Seman and advanced across the coastal plain on Lushnjë, an important enemy supply centre. The columns of the right wing that had occupied Berat at once moved on up the valley of the Devoll towards Elbasan. According to the communiqué of 6 October, large ammunition dumps and 2,500 rifles abandoned by the Austrians were found in Berat.

This time the Italians no longer had to fear a counter-attack. The Austro-Hungarian army in Albania, decimated by malaria and cut off from reinforcements, made no further attempt to hold the central part of the country, and its retreat north, towards Montenegro and Kotor, went on until the end of the war. Berat remained in Italian hands.