The Battle of Tirana!

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Meltdown711 Moderator Posts: 892 (5/11/05 10:23 pm) Reply	The Battle of Tirana! The Battle of Tirana From here The Battle of Tirana was fought between 15 September 1944 (when the First Partisan Brigade received the order to march on the capital) and 17 November of that year, when the last phase of the battle was concluded. In the preparatory phase, between 25 September and 29 October, the 3rd, 4th and 5th Brigades left bases in Dibr, Kerrabe and elsewhere and began systematic attacks on enemy communications and suply lines. On 10 October formations from the 1st and 4th Brigades moved into the capital and attacked the German headquarters in the Medrese (Islamic School) building, killing a number of officers and also setting fire to various installations elsewhere in the city. At this time the partisans faced a German garrison of about 2,500 troops in the city, based in ex-King Zog's Palace, the central Post Office, the National Bank and the Tomorri cinama. The 1st and 4th Brigades were then reinforced by the newly-formed 23 Brigade in the capital. The main phase of the battle began on 29 October and lasted 19 days. In bitter house-to-house fighting the Axis troops were gradually cleared from Tirana, after an initial assault from the first Brigade coming from the direction of Elbasan road. Local people constructed barricades to protect the soldiers and suffered very heavy casualities -substantially higher than the partisan troops themselves. Particularly bitter fighting took place in the Old Bazaar area, which was more or less destroyed. In the second phase of the battle German aircraft bombed the city on 7 November and partisan reinforcements engaged German troops in a wider area, including areas on the periphery of Tirana and outside it. German forces were reinforced by troops evacuated from Greece in the later stages of the battle. The city was liberated in the morning of 17 November. A victory parade was held on 29 November 1944. ------------- The victor is not the conquerer, unless the conquered admit defeat. "The Albanians, these tigers of mountain wars, have as their religion rebellion." (Ibn-Kemal, a historian of the Turkish court, 1468-1534) "I have not brought you freedom. I have found it here among you." Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu Edited by: Meltdown711 at: 5/11/05 10:28 pm

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