Battle of Trebeshina

Battle of Trebeshina
Part of the Greco-Italian War
Date 29 January – 17 February 1941 Location Mount Trebeshinë, Albania Result Greek victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of Greece	Italy
Commanders and leaders
Dimitrios Papadopoulos

The Battle of Trebeshina (Greek: Μάχη της Τρεμπεσίνας), or alternatively, the Battle of Mal Trebeshinë, was a series of engagements fought between the Greek and Italian armies in southeastern Albania during the Greco-Italian War. The twenty-day battle was centered on the strategic heights that made up the 26 kilometres (16 mi) long Trebeshinë mountain range - most notably Height 1923.

Following the Greek capture of the strategic Këlcyrë/Klisura Pass on 10 January, four Italian divisions and one Blackshirt division of the Italian "Chameria" Army Corps under Gen. Carlo Rossi attempted to recover the Trebeshinë mountain range by launching counter-attacks against the Greek II Army Corps (1st, 15th and 11th Infantry Divisions).

On 27 January 1941 the Greek III/4 Battalion under Major Ioannis Baldoumis captured Height 1923 and set up defensive positions in deep snow, while the I/5 Battalion under the command of Major Antonios Goulas captured Height 1620. Due to heavy snow and blizzards the Greeks were soon forced to abandon Trebeshina, which was subsequently occupied by two Italian Blackshirt battalions.

II Corps, reinforced with the Cretan 5th Division from III Corps, repulsed the Italian attack by 29 January and then went on to push towards the Trebeshina massif. Against stiff resistance, the Cretan Division captured Trebeshina on 2 February, and the 15th Division captured the village of Bubeshi. On 14 February, 1941 the 6th Infantry Regiment (3rd Division), under the command of Colonel Ioannis Theodorou, repelled an Italian attack on the Skutara line near Height 504. The attack aimed to dislodge the Greek defensive line in the coastal sector near the Albanian port city of Vlorë. The Greeks suffered 109 killed and wounded in the engagement.

Operations were completed by 17 February, when the entire mountain range was in Greek hands. However, it had proved particularly costly for the Cretan Division, which suffered 5776 killed, wounded or missing, and had effectively ceased to exist as a combat-worthy formation.

The Greek positions at Trebeshina were subject to the main force of the subsequent Italian Spring Offensive in early March, but they held until the Greek withdrawal south following the German invasion of Greece on 6 April.