Operation Valuable

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Operation Valuable
Part of the Cold War

Top left: American forces recruiting paramilitary soldiers in Munich, Germany
Top right: US Colonel F. H. Dunn inspecting the anti-communist Company 4000 during training in Hohenbrunn, Bavaria in November 1950
Bottom left: The Sigurimi with a captured CIA agent
Bottom right: Josip Broz Tito with US General John C. H. Lee, charged to take down fellow communist ruler Enver Hoxha
Date1949–1956
Operation Valuable:
1949–1954
(5 years)
Operation BG/Fiend:
October 1950–May 1956
(5 years and 7 months)
Location
Albania
Result Communist Albanian victory
Belligerents
Hoxha's regime:
Communist Albania

Western Bloc:
United States
United Kingdom
NATO

Separatists
:
Northern Epirus KEVA

Yugoslavia
Commanders and leaders
People's Socialist Republic of Albania Enver Hoxha
People's Socialist Republic of Albania Mehmet Shehu

United States Dean Acheson
United States Frank Wisner
United States Franklin Lindsay
United States James G. McCargar
United Kingdom David Smiley
United Kingdom Julian Amery

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito
Units involved

Albanian People's Army

United States Army

British Army

Italian Navy

UDBA
Strength
People's Socialist Republic of Albania Unknown

Initial operation:

C-47 aircraft
United States 80 landing craft assault boats
United States
6 landing craft utility
Northern Epirus 7,500 commandos

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Unknown
Casualties and losses
None

1949–1954
United States/United Kingdom 300 agents dead[3]
NATO 961 agents and paramilitaries killed or captured[4]

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 33 Yugoslav agents of the UDBA were captured or executed[5]
60 agents killed [b] [6]
400 civilians executed

Operation Valuable was a failed covert operation conducted during the Cold War by the United Kingdom and the United States in collaboration with other Western Bloc nations. The operation aimed to overthrow the communist regime of Albanian ruler Enver Hoxha as part of broader efforts to counter communist influence around the world and install pro-Western leaders. It involved strategic military actions, incorporating air, naval, and ground assets in pursuit of its objectives.[7]

As part of the operation, MI6 and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) launched a joint covert operation using Albanian expatriates as agents. Other anti-communist Albanians and Europeans from other nations worked as agents for Greek and Italian intelligence services, some supported by MI6 and the CIA.

Many of the agents were caught, put on trial, and either shot or condemned to long prison terms of penal labor.[citation needed]

Background

Albania was in an unenviable position after World War II,[8] as Greece claimed Albanian lands.[8] The Western Allies recognized neither King Zog I nor a republican government-in-exile, nor did they ever raise the question of Albania or its borders at major wartime conferences.[8] No reliable statistics on Albania's wartime losses exist, but the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration reported about 30,000 Albanian dead from the war, 200 destroyed villages, 18,000 destroyed houses, and about 100,000 people made homeless.[8] Albanian official statistics claim higher losses.[8]

British plans for the overthrow of Hoxha and the communist regime in Albania had existed since 1946.[9] The Russia Committee, established in 1946 by the British Foreign Office, was created to oppose the extension of Soviet control by promoting civil strife in Russia's western border nations.[10]

Operational plans

United States involvement in
regime change
19th century
20th century
21st century
Participants of the conference, US Secretary Dean Acheson, proposes an intervention of communist Albania. Harry S. Truman and the NATO alliance agree

On 6 September 1949, when NATO met for the first time in Washington, Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom Ernest Bevin proposed that "a counter-revolution" be launched in Albania. US Secretary of State Dean Acheson was in agreement. NATO, established as a defensive military alliance for Western Europe and North America, was now committed to launching offensive covert operations against a sovereign nation in the Balkans. The US and UK, joining with their allies, Italy and Greece, agreed to support the overthrow of the Hoxha regime in Albania and to eliminate Soviet influence in the Mediterranean region. Bevin wanted to place King Zog on the throne as the leader of Albania once Hoxha was overthrown.[11] The plan called for parachute drops of royalists into the

counter-revolutions throughout the Eastern Bloc.[citation needed] The chief of MI6, Stewart Menzies, was not enthusiastic about the paramilitary operation but saw it as a way to appease the former SOE "stinks and bangs people." [citation needed
]

The British wanted the

US State Department's Policy and Planning Staff (PPS) and Frank Wisner, who was the head of the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC), and other US intelligence officials such as James McCargar and Franklin Lindsay. McCargar was assigned to liaise with Philby on joint operational matters. Unbeknownst to the MI6 and CIA, Philby was a communist and a spy for Soviet foreign intelligence, and has subsequently been blamed for the failure of the operation.[12]

Anti-communist Albanians were recruited from

Legaliteti and the rest from other Albanian factions.[13]

Valuable Project/Fiend

See also:
"Free Albania" National Committee

A dozen Albanian

Albanian Army
.

British and US naval officials were concerned that the USSR was building a

Mediterranean
region. Bevin wanted to place King Zog on the throne as the leader of Albania once Hoxha was overthrown.

This time a better quality of

"Free Albania" National Committee was created by American diplomatic and intelligence officials for political cover to a covert paramilitary project, with British concurrence. The British made the first organizational move, hiring on as chief trainer Major David Smiley, deputy commander of a cavalry (tank) regiment stationed in Germany. The leaders of the Balli Kombetar, an exile political group whose key policy was to replace the Albanian communist regime with a non-royalist government, had already agreed with McLean and his cohort, Julian Amery
, to supply 30 Albanian émigrés, some veterans of World War II guerrilla and civil wars, as recruits for the operation to penetrate Albania

Fort Binġemma, where Albanian recruits were trained.

In July 1949, the first group of recruits, were transported by British special operations personnel to

SIS, they spent two months training as radio operators, intelligence gatherers, and more sophisticated guerrillas than they had been as members of cetas (guerrilla bands) during World War II. On 26 September 1949, nine Pixies boarded a Royal Navy trawler which sailed north; three days later, a Greek style fishing boat, known as a caïque
and named Stormie Seas, sailed from Malta.

With a stop at an Italian port, the two vessels sailed 3 October, rendezvoused at a point in the Adriatic Sea, and transferred the Albanians to the caïque. Hours later that same night, the Pixies landed on the Albanian coast, some distance south of Vlora, which was the former territory of the Balli Kombetar, others further north. Albanian government security forces soon interdicted one of the two groups on commandos. The Communists killed three members of the first group, and a fourth man with the second group. The first three deaths and disappearance of a fourth man to join his family wiped out one group, while the surviving four from the covert landing exfiltrated south to Greece.

For two years after this landing, small groups of British-trained Albanians left every so often from training camps in Malta, Britain, and West Germany. Most of the operations failed, with Albanian security forces interdicting many of the insurgents. Occasionally, the Albanian authorities would report on "large but unsuccessful infiltrations of enemies of the people" in several regions of the country. Some American agents, originally trained by Italian or Greek officials, also infiltrated by air, sea, or on foot to gather intelligence rather than take part in political or paramilitary operations. The most successful of these operatives was Hamit Marjani, code name Tiger, who participated in 15 land incursions.[13]

The last infiltration took place a few weeks before

Captain Branica and radio operator Tahir Prenci, were guided by veteran gendarme and guerrilla fighter Matjani and three armed guards to the Mati region northeast of Tirana. Albanian security forces militia were waiting for them at their rendezvous point, a house owned by Shehu's cousin, a known supporter of Zog. The militia forced Shehu's operator to transmit an all clear signal to his base in Cyprus. The operator had been schooled to deal with such situations, using a fail-safe drill which involved broadcasting in a way that warned it was being sent under duress and therefore should be disregarded. But the militia seemed to know the drill. The all clear signal went out and, nearly a year later, four more top agents, including Matjani himself, parachuted into an ambush at Shen Gjergj (Saint George), near the town of Elbasan
. Those not killed were tried in April 1954.

1950 Albanian coastline ambushes

The 1950 Albanian coastline ambushes involved clashes between the Albanian secret police (Sigurimi) and multiple teams of MI6 agents.[14][13]

In preparation for the landing of the agents, several

C-47 aircraft and boats were used, the planes were piloted by CIA and ex-Polish Air Force colonels. Dwyer was in charge of the MI6 agents involved in the raids.[15][12] It was one of the most disastrous parts of the covert operation as all of the MI6 agents were killed or captured by Albanian forces.[14]

Aftermath

See also: Company 4000

Operation Valuable was a failure, with 300 MI6 and CIA agents killed during its duration.[9]

See also

Notes

  1. Company 4000
  2. ^ The agents were mainly Yugoslavian, Greek, Italian, British and American

References

  1. ^ "Country Plan Albania" (PDF). Central Intelligence Agency. 97 (39). 1949. Present OPC plans for operations in Albania envisage the recruiting and training of an additional guard company, making a total of two (500 agents), and the infiltration of 50 agents by 30 June 1952. Given the widespread although at present uncoordinated opposition to the regime, it should be possible to recruit initially at least 2,000 guerrillas from opposition elements now awaiting outside assistance.
  2. ^ "Country Plan Albania" (PDF). Central Intelligence Agency. 97 (39). 1949.
  3. ^ "BBC World Service - World Update, The CIA's Secret Failure in Albania". BBC. 18 August 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
  4. ^ "Η άγνωστη αποτυχημένη προσπάθεια ανατροπής του Ενβέρ Χότζα από Βρετανούς και Αμερικανούς (1949 – 1958) και ο ρόλος της Ελλάδας". www.protothema.gr. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  5. ^ GazetaSot. "Dokumenti i CIA zbardh të vërtetën e operacionit BGFIEND kundër regjimit të Enver Hoxhës, si hidheshin agjentët amerikanë dhe britanikë në Shqipëri dhe roli i agjentëve shqiptarë të stërvitur në Gjermani". sot.com.al. Retrieved 11 July 2023. Radio Tirana raportoi më 27 tetor se 33 spiunë jugosllavë u kapën ose u vranë nga forcat shtetërore të sigurisë. Asnjë prej tyre nuk ishte agjent i OPC. Këto tre lajmërime tregojnë për suksesin e forcave qeveritare në ndalimin e infiltrimeve nga jashtë. Aktualisht, vetëm dy grupe të OPC janë operativë në Shqipëri, por meqënëse ende nuk është vendosur kontakti radio, statusi i operacioneve nuk njihet. (Albanian) Radio Tirana reported on October 27 that 33 Yugoslav spies were captured or killed by state security forces. None of them were OPC agents. These three announcements show the success of government forces in stopping infiltrations from abroad. Currently, only two OPC groups are operational in Albania, but since radio contact has not yet been established, the status of operations is unknown.
  6. ISBN 978-3-8258-0650-7
    . The next OPC team was parachuted in October 1951, just when in Tirana British, American, Greek, Italian and Yugoslav agents captured at different times were on trial. In general, during 1951, 60 Western agents were parachuted into Albania. None of them survived.
  7. ISBN 978-1-84162-246-0
    .
  8. ^
    Wikidata Q100997825. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain
    .
  9. ^ a b "Οι προσπάθειες ανατροπής του Ενβέρ Χότζα από Βρετανούς και Αμερικανούς και ο ρόλος της Ελλάδας". www.himara.gr. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  10. ISBN 9781628723946
    . Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  11. ^ "Albanian Dossier: CIA and British MI6 in Albania" (PDF). Albanian Canadian League Information Service. 8 (6). 2007.
  12. ^
    ISBN 9780313319556
    . Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  13. ^ a b c Prados 2006, p. 63.
  14. ^
    ISBN 978-3-8258-0650-7
    . Despite the above development, in September and November 1950 three more British teams landed on the Albanian beach. The results were disastrous. The Albanian Security Service, Sigurimi, ambushed the MI6 agents and almost all of them were killed or captured.
  15. ISBN 978-0-313-31955-6
    .

Sources

Media
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