More excerpts from Ettore Galeotti’s diary

“6-7 March 1941. We have to return to the right bank of the Osum for the offensive. We leave in the evening and we cross again the river (…), and on the following day, in the evening, we reach the ridge of the Mali Trepelit where the mountain artillery is still in place with – I think – two batteries. We set up camp with makeshift tents. A field mass is held for the entire battalion. The rite is impressive [as the soldiers were given general absolution in articulo mortis – which means right before death – by the chaplain, in anticipation of an impending assault]”.

 

“24 April 1941. We enter Greece. The landscape starts changing a little. The villages are more numerous and better looking than those in Albania. The mountains are more rocky and imposing, their slopes have more trees. By now the Greek resistance is almost nil. On the doorstep of some Greek houses, peasants offer some coffee to the Alpini. This gesture surprised me a lot, as the Greek soldiers have always been proud and very determined in fighting against us”.

 

“14 May 1941. In Elbasan [Albania] I stop in the main square where the king of Italy is scheduled to arrive, and a great crowd is waiting. I stop as well and shortly thereafter, indeed, I see Victor Emmanuel III arriving in an open car (…), preceded and followed by other cars. He passes ahead, slowly, as if he was making a review. The king salutes with his hand on the field cap, very calm and composed. The crowd claps timidly, without much enthusiasm. For me, this was a poignant sight. To see the old, frail king still doing his duty as a sovereign, as he had done during the war of 1915-1918, visiting troops and populations, in an open car, despite the enormous risk that he was running in the middle of an insidious crowd…” [Galeotti was almost prophetic in this respect: three days later, Albanian patriot Vasil Laçi tried to assassinate Victor Emmanuel III while he was visiting Tirana. Laçi’s shots, however, all missed, and he was caught and executed. After the war he was posthumously declared a Hero of Albania, and a film was made about his assassination attempt].


Alpini fighting in the mountains of Albania (Archivio Centrale dello Stato)

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