This date marks the complete liberation of Albania from the Nazi occupation. As soon as Tirana was liberated (November 17, 1944), the General Command ordered the units of the National Liberation Army to continue combat operations in the northern areas of the country, to finish the complete liberation of Albania. On November 17, the partisan forces attacked the enemy soldiers‘ column headed for Kukës and on November 18 they finally liberated the city of Kukës. After two days, on November 20, the XXII Brigade liberated Puka. Now all of Albania, with the exception of Shkodra, was liberated. For the liberation of Shkodra, the last city that was under the control of Hitler’s forces, Brigades VI, VII, XXII, XXIII and the partisan group of Shkodra were charged. Fighting with the enemy forces took place around Shkodra, in Postribe, in the hills of Drishti and to the left of the Kir river. The counterattacks that the German troops undertook on November 28 were followed with heavy losses. After midnight, the enemy forces left the city. On the morning of November 29, fighters of the National Liberation Army entered free Shkodra. With the liberation of Shkodra, the complete liberation of the country ended. With the liberation of Albania and the establishment of the power of the National Liberation Front throughout its territory, the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War of the Albanian people ended, despite the fact that partisan units of Division V and Division VI would continue fighting for several months in the territory of Kosovo and Yugoslavia. Thus, before the Second World War ended, the National Liberation Front dominated by the Communist Party of Albania or the Albanian Labor Party, as it would be called after 1948, seized power, which it did not share with any other political force, as it happened in other Eastern countries. In summary, it can be said that: this victory was achieved by the Front and the Albanian Communist Party thanks to the full commitment of the forces in the war for the liberation of the country from the foreign yoke, the constant promise that after the war in Albania a democratic regime, thanks to the attitude and misalignment of the main nationalist forces, the National Front and Legality, and finally of the support they had from the Allied Powers of the Anti-Fascist Coalition, particularly from Great Britain, which helped the partisan movement with weapons and other materials necessary to win the war. (In the photo: Citizens of Shkodra at the celebrations of the liberation of the city, 1944.)
Text: The history of the Albanian people – Vol. IV , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Toena“, Tirana, 2009, page 102-103.
Photo: © Central State Archives
Graphic processing: AHCF
