Italians take Elbasan

On 7 October 1918 Italian troops occupied Elbasan, the main town of central Albania, lying in the valley of the river Shkumbin. According to the communiqué of the Italian high command, they entered it at 2.30 p.m., after breaking the stubborn resistance of Austro-Hungarian rearguards. The British chronology of the war gives the same date. Some studies give other dates, 30 September or 8 October, but the contemporary war communiqués point to 7 October.

The march on Elbasan was part of the pursuit that the Italians had begun on 1 October, when, after Bulgaria’s exit from the war, the Austro-Hungarian Army Group Albania began to withdraw. After the recapture of Berat the right wing of the Italian XVI Corps set off north up the valley of the river Devoll, while the left went across the coastal plain towards Lushnjë and Kavajë. On 6 October the Italians reached the Shkumbin near the Nova bridge and in the area of Murikjani, south-west of Elbasan. In the afternoon, taking many prisoners, they seized the heights east of Murikjani, and the next day they entered the town. The British official history of the Macedonian campaign (Falls) says briefly that the Italians occupied Elbasan without opposition. The Italian communiqués speak of fighting, but only with rearguards covering the retreat.

Elbasan lay on the old route from Macedonia to the Adriatic. At the turn of January and February 1916 it was taken by the Bulgarians, who handed it over to the Austrians that spring. The Italians had long regarded it as part of their sphere of influence. In the summer of 1918 the commander of XVI Corps, General Giacinto Ferrero, agreed to cooperate with the French in the offensive in Albania only on condition that the gains, above all Elbasan, would go to Italy. Now the town fell into their hands almost without a fight.

From Elbasan Italian columns set off over the Krabë Pass towards Tirana, while other units crossed the lower Shkumbin and marched on Kavajë and Durrës. Italian and British aircraft bombed the columns retreating along the road to Durrës. In the east, in the mountains near the border with Macedonia, the Serbs were attacking, and in those days they took Debar.