Albania Invaded — King Zog

For years, the Albania of King Zog I has lived under the growing economic and military tutelage of Fascist Italy, which financed his regime. In the spring of 1939, Mussolini, jealous of Hitler's successes and eager for a triumph of his own, demands an outright protectorate: military presence, colonisation, total control.

Zog plays for time and brushes aside the agreements put to him in exchange for complete Italian control. But his means are derisory: the Albanian army numbers only a few thousand ill-equipped men, and no outside help is forthcoming.

On 7 April 1939 — a Good Friday — Italy lands its troops. Zog, whose wife gave birth just three days earlier, must decide within hours. The fate of the dynasty, of the state's reserves and of Albanian independence is decided on the very day of the landing. Attempt a desperate resistance with a tiny army, in the name of national honour? Accept the Italian protectorate to keep a vassal throne? Or leave the country to preserve his family and, perhaps, a legitimacy in exile?