World War II in Albania
| World War II in Albania | |||||||
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| Part of the European theatre and Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II | |||||||
Map of Albania during World War II | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
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1942-1943 LANÇ Balli Kombëtar |
1942-1943 | ||||||
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1943-1945 |
1943-1945 | ||||||
World War II in Albania began when the country was invaded by Fascist Italy and became a protectorate. Resistance movements like the National Liberation Movement and the Balli Kombëtar were formed but they had differences right from the start. The NLM were a Communist resistance movement while the BK were an Anti-communist and Nationalist resistance movements. When Germany occupied Albania in 1943, the Balli Kombëtar made a deal with Germany and continued the war against LANÇ and the Yugoslav Partisans. By august 1944 the German forces in Greece and Macedonia were retreating beacause of the Red Army advances in the Balkans and soon caught up to Yugoslavia, where they entered on September 30th. The Albanians liberated the capital city Tirana in November and would be fully liberated 12 days later.