Historical Collections

Prince Vilhem (Vidi)

With his arrival in Albania on March 17, 1914, Prince Vilhem (Vidi) declared the establishment of the government headquartered in Durrës. According to the Organic Statute of Albania, which contained the main decisions of the London Conference of Ambassadors, the country's military forces were the Gendarmerie and the Militia. Military organization had begun earlier with the arrival of Dutch officers in November 1913, led by Colonel Thomson, who had managed to form four detachments of around 300 men each in Southern Albania, but under Prince Vilhem (Vidi) government, military organization took on concrete forms.

The organization and expansion of the Gendarmerie in a short period in many prefectures made it possible for the Gendarmerie to play a dual role, that of defense and maintaining peace. From April 1914, the Gendarmerie was reinforced with voluntary contingents from various parts of Albania. To defend the Prefecture of Korçë, threatened by Greek guerillas, a battalion of 300 men was sent, and after the liberation of Korçë, a small military force was organized in Southeastern Albania, where men aged 20 to 40 were called and mobilized.
The armament of Albanian forces mainly consisted of rifles, some machine guns, and mountain artillery batteries. After Prince Vilhem’s departure, as a consequence of the outbreak of World War I, Albania became a battleground for warring forces, and it was difficult to speak of military organization. Only in 1916, in the Autonomous Region of Korçë, a regiment of 1,000 Albanians with Albanian officers was created under the overall command of a French major. In addition to these forces, Sali Butka's bands also operated in that area.