Pro-Austrian Albanians occupy Berat

The British chronology of the war records under 17 February 1916 the occupation of Berat by Austro-Hungarian troops. The Austrian official history presents it differently. The regular Austro-Hungarian units were then still far to the north, before Durrës, and it was Albanians allied with them who reached Berat, overcoming the weak resistance of the supporters of Essad Pasha Toptani. None of the available sources gives the exact day. All that is known is that Essad’s men left the town before 13 February and that, according to the Austrian official history, Albanian units friendly to the Austrians were in Berat by 23 February at the latest.

The collapse of Essad’s power

Berat, on the Osum river, a former centre of Ottoman power in south-central Albania, lay on the road from the mountains towards Vlorë, where the Italians had been since December 1914. Essad Pasha, who had ruled in Durrës since the autumn of 1914, kept mercenaries here. His power, however, rested mainly on the support of the Serbs and the Italians. When in January and February 1916 the Serbian army sailed away from Albania and the Austrians were approaching from the north, it began to disintegrate rapidly.

On 13 February the Italian consul in Durrës reported to Rome that Essad’s mercenaries, most of them from districts already occupied by the Austrians, had left Berat and refused to withdraw to Vlorë. Essad admitted that he could now rely only on two or three hundred men personally devoted to him. According to the consul, the Austrians were supported by some six thousand Albanian volunteers, who were received sympathetically by the population. The governor of Tirana, occupied by the Austrians, became Refik Bey Toptani, a bitter enemy of Essad and of the Italians.

Austria’s volunteers

From the start the Austrians wanted to wage the war in Albania through the Albanians themselves. Many Albanians from the north and centre of the country, who in 1915 had endured Montenegrin and Serbian rule, now took up arms. Volunteer units were formed under Austro-Hungarian officers who knew the country. One of them, some six hundred men under Captain Hässler, had by mid-February advanced through Tirana as far as Kavajë. By the end of February units commanded by the former Austro-Hungarian officer Ghilardi stood on the Shkumbin and sent patrols as far as the Seman river, which is formed by the confluence of the Osum and the Devoll not far from Berat.

Bulgarians in Berat

Soon the Bulgarians also appeared in Berat. According to the Austrian official history, at the beginning of March advance Bulgarian units, which had earlier taken Elbasan, were already in the town. At the same time a Hungarian military commentator, quoted by the British press, wrote that the Bulgarians were reportedly in Berat as well. According to The Times History of the War, when Elbasan came under Austrian influence the Bulgarians moved the centre of their political efforts in Albania to Berat. The Bulgarian presence, however, ended quickly. In April Sofia came to an agreement with Vienna on the division of spheres of influence, and its troops withdrew from central Albania. In the second half of April an Austro-Hungarian intelligence detachment was already operating in Berat, and the Austrians sent a battalion of regular infantry there only at the end of May 1916.