– Lefter Kasneci –
The war waged by the forces of our National Liberation Army for the liberation of Kosova and other districts of Yugoslavia occupies a special and important chapter in the glorious annals of our army. In compliance with orders by our Commander-in-Chief, Comrade Enver Hoxha, these divisions pursued the Germans deep inside the territory of Yugoslavia, rendering in this way a valuable service to the Yugoslav people in freeing them from the common enemy. On October 13, 1944, on orders of the General Command of the Albanian National Liberation Army, in response to the request of the Command of the Yugoslav National Liberation Army, the 3rd and 5th Brigades had crossed the state boundaries of Albania and kept up their fight against nazi troops for the liberation of Kosova. By the end of November and at the beginning of December 1944 these brigades were joined also by the 25th Brigade. All three brigades in question were incorporated in the 5th Division.
Having opened a very wide front, the partisan forces of the 5th Division kept pounding the German troops who offered stubborn resistance in order to withdraw their main forces from the Balkans. The battles waged by the partisan forces of our Army at this time were really bloody encounters, particularly, along the Sjenica-Milošev Do-Prijepolje and Nova Varoš-Prijepolje roads. Our partisan forces freed a number of villages and towns of the Sandžak and came as far up as Prijepolje which they liberated too.
Immediately following the liberation of Shkodra, forces of the 6th Division also crossed the boundary pursuing the enemy towards Podgorica. Detachments of this division waged bloody battles and on December 2, 1944, liberated Tuzi and by the second half of the month of December had liberated Podgorica. The partisan brigades of this division launched their attacks against enemy troops and, inflicting on them great damage in lives and material, compelled them to withdraw from Montenegro and from many towns and villages in Bosnia and Herzegovina up to the city of Višegrad for the liberation of which Yugoslav partisan forces took also part in fighting. The fighting here lasted over one month.
In Yugoslav territory our divisions fought under very adverse conditions, in mid-winter, on rugged grounds against an enemy greater in numbers, armed to the teeth and behind strong fortifications. But here too, just as in former battles, the men and women partisans of our divisions showed a high revolutionary spirit, determination and unparalleled heroism in overcoming difficulties and achieving victory. It is this that accounts for the fact that our forces overcame the vicissitudes of bitter winter, of lack of provisions and in no way encroached upon public property, taking from no one at any time as little as a potato, at a time when they had had nothing to eat for days at a stretch. They never entered a private house unless invited by the owner or accompanied by members of the council even if they were in danger of freezing to death when the temperature out-of-door’s dropped to 15 or 20 degrees below zero.
The exemplary conduct and hard fighting of our forces in Yugoslav territory were an eloquent proof of the work which our Party had done in imparting to the partisans the spirit of proletarian internationalism, the devotion and respect for other people, the lofty conscience of considering other people’s emancipation as a sacred duty of theirs. It was this that prompted our partisans to fight with such resentment against invaders beyond the boundaries of our Homeland.
The heroism of our partisans in the field of battle and their correct conduct towards the people won for them the admiration of the population wherever they came to in Yugoslavia. The people welcomed with open arms the brave fighters of the Albanian people and, though economically crushed, did all in their power to come to their aid.
The Albanian partisans went through all these hardships in the name of proletarian internationalism, of love and brotherhood of peoples, just as our Marxist-Leninist Party and Comrade Enver Hoxha had trained them. The memory of 350 martyrs who laid down their lives in the common struggle for the liberation of the peoples of Yugoslavia will live forever with our two peoples. A Sjenica mother’s words will always sound so fresh when she said, as she saw the Albanian partisans off: “Tell the mothers, wives and sisters of those who laid down their lives for the liberation of the Sandžak that the sun of our mountains will warm the place where their beloved ones fell just as the sun of your mountains. That spot will be revered by us with the same love and respect as by them themselves.”
But the communiqués of the General Staff of the Yugoslav army spoke very little of the bitter battles waged by our divisions in Yugoslav territory and said practically nothing about the sacrifices of the Albanian partisans, about their valour and manliness, for it pursued hostile ends against Albania and its people even as early as that.
Their sinister aims are also corroborated by the denial and distortions which the Yugoslav revisionist pseudo-historians make of the fighting of our divisions in Yugoslav territory. We find these denials and distortions also in the album which the Institute of Yugoslav Military History published in 1957 under the heading “The Historical Atlas of the War of the Yugoslav People (1941-45).” Nothing is said in this album about the fighting of our divisions. Mention is only made of the participation of the 1st and 2nd Brigades of the Albanian National Liberation Army in the battles for the liberation of Kosova, a thing which does not correspond with facts for both of these brigades were assigned to other military duties at that time.
A little later, in 1958, in a book entitled “The National Liberation War of the Yugoslav People, 1941-45” published by the same Institute, we read that the city of Prijepolje was liberated by the 2nd Army corps of the Yugoslav National Liberation Army, while nothing is said of the forces of the 5th “S” Brigade of our army which took part in liberating the Sjenica district, the city and surroundings of Prijepolje and other regions of the Sandžak. Similarly, this book makes mention only of the battles waged by the forces of our 6th Division against the Hitlerite fascist troops at Tuzi and its surroundings, whereas it says nothing about the great battle which the partisans of this division waged for the liberation of Podgorica, Lovka, Rijeka Crnojevića, Medun and other districts of Montenegro and Bosnia, and especially, for the liberation of Višegrad.
All of these falsifications of the Yugoslav revisionist pseudo-historians aim at denying the participation of our people in the battle for the liberation of Yugoslavia. They intend at the same time to quell the sentiments of friendship between our two peoples.
Our people and our army will remember with pride the fighting of our two divisions in Yugoslav territory. They are deeply convinced of Comrade Enver Hoxha’s words that “there will be no force strong enough to turn to water the blood of our heroes,” who, as true internationalists, laid down their lives helping the people of Yugoslavia in their liberation struggle against our common enemy.
(Steeled in the Heat of Battle, The “Naim Frashëri” Publishing House, Tirana 1966)