During World War II, Germany won hundreds of battles and Italy lost hundreds of battles, the two were in stark contrast, but Italy did not win a single battle or fight, that is, at the beginning of the war, Italy invaded Albania and occupied it in only six days.
Albania's position had long been favored by Italy, which was the best springboard for Italian power to enter the Balkans, and during World War I, Italy declared war on the Allies against the water and seized the opportunity to occupy Albania. In 1920 the Albanians revolted against Italian rule and drove the Italians out.
Light green: Italy, dark green: Albania
After Mussolini came to power, he began to plan his return to Albania, began to infiltrate the Albanian economy in 1925, and planned domestic resource exploitation with the Albanian government, gradually controlling the exploitation of resources, and promoting the closeness of Italian and Albanian blood to enhance the sense of identity of the people.
In 1926, Italy and Albania signed a military treaty to form a defensive alliance, Italy provided economic assistance, trained the army, and later the Albanian army was almost all Italians, and the italians were also very high in Albania, and one-third of the imports came from Italy.
Even so, the Albanian king refused the gradual infiltration of Italy and continued to make overtures to neighboring Yugoslavia and Greece. After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, Italy was stimulated by this incident and on March 25, 1939, issued an ultimatum to Albania, asking its government to agree to italy's occupation of Albania, but the Albanian king refused.
When the albanian king's child was born on April 5, the army fired cannons to celebrate the birthday, which made the people think that the Italians had fought, and then a demonstration against Italy broke out, and coincidentally, Italy sent 100 aircraft to throw leaflets to the whole of Albania, instructing the people to obey the Italian occupation, which further deepened the Albanians' antipathy and dislike of Italy.
Albanian officers and government officials, already anticipating the outbreak of war, left the country early, and the Albanian king went to Yugoslavia, where the main force against the Italian invasion was civilian armed forces.
On 7 April, Italian troops began to invade Albania, initially with 100,000 men and 600 aircraft, but due to inadequate preparations, only 22,000 people and 400 aircraft actually participated in the battle.
The Albanian government army had collapsed, and civilian forces and some gendarmes resisted the landing of the Italian army, but the gap in weapons between the two sides was too great to resist. The Italian army was poorly organized and coordinated, even if it was crushed by troops and weapons, but the plan was poor, the implementation was poor, and the progress was slow. After the war, the commander of the Italian army said: "If the Albanians had a well-equipped fire brigade, they could drive us to the sea." ”
On April 12, Italy occupied all of Albania, which lasted for 6 days, and according to Italian statistics, 25 Italian troops were killed and 97 wounded. Albania killed 160 people and injured hundreds more. This is enough to see that the intensity of the war is extremely low. Italy gained all of Albania as it wished, and its army was incorporated into the Italian army.