Battle of Gjorm
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| Battle of Gjorm | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Albanian Resistance of World War II | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Balli Kombëtar LANÇ |
 Italy | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Hysni Lepenica |
Franco Clementi † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Initially 1,600 Balli Kombëtar troops |
Initially 2,000 troops 500 field guns tanks | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Minimal[quantify] |
186 KIA several thousands wounded 80 POW 2 tanks 29 machine guns 3 field guns | ||||||
The Battle of Gjorm (Albanian: Beteja e Gjormit) was a battle of the Albanian Resistance of World War II against the Kingdom of Italy. The battle took place on January 1–2, 1943, in the areas of Gjorm, Vranisht, Dukat, Tragjas and Tërbaç in south-western Albania.[1]
After the occupation of the Kingdom of Albania by the Kingdom of Italy in 1939, several resistance groups were formed. The most important of these groups were Balli Kombëtar, a nationalist organization formed by Mit'hat Frashëri and Ali Këlcyra and the Albanian National Liberation Front, which later became a communist group led by Mehmet Shehu and Enver Hoxha.
Dukat and Gjorm became two of the centers of Balli Kombëtar, whose forces in the region were led by Euklid Karistopoli, a military commander, and Hysni Shehu, a prominent lawyer from Tragjas.[2] Dimitro Kokalari, a commander of the Albanian National Liberation Front, created a partisan unit in the wider region of Mallakastër.[1]
Beginning in mid-1942, there were frequent minor attacks against the Italian troops located in the area. In November 1942, these attacks intensified. The commander of the heavily armed Italian troops in the area, which initially numbered 2,000, was Colonel Franco Clementi.[1]