Italian invasion of Albania |Italian invasion of Albania,| |Part
of Interwar period| Three Albanian soldiers are shown here in an
unidentified location fleeing North with peasants towards
Yugoslavia April 12, 1939. |Commanders and leaders| | Victor
Emmanuel III | Zog I Mujo Ulqinaku † |Royal Italian Army: |Royal
Albanian Army: |Casualties and losses| |25 - 400 killed hundreds
of wounded and missing The Italian invasion of Albania (April 7
– April 12, 1939) was a brief military campaign by the Kingdom
of Italy against the Albanian Kingdom. The conflict was a result
of the imperialist policies of Italian dictator Benito
Mussolini. Albania was rapidly overrun, its ruler, King Zog I,
forced into exile, and the country made part of the Italian
Empire as a separate kingdom in personal union with the Italian
crown. Albania had long had considerable strategic importance
for the Kingdom of Italy. Italian naval strategists eyed the
port of Vlorë and the island of Sazan at the entrance to the Bay
of Vlorë, as it would g