Operation Valuable

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Operation Valuable
Part of the Cold War

Top left: American Forces in Munich Germany, Recruiting Paramilitary Soldiers
Top right: U.S. Colonel F. H. Dunn inspecting the anti-communist "Kompania 4000" during training at Hohenbrunn in Bavaria in November 1950.
Bottom left: The Sigurimi with a captured CIA agent.
Bottom right: Tito gives green light to U.S General John C. H. Lee to take down fellow communist ruler Enver Hoxha.
Date1949–1956
Operation Valuable:
1949–1954
(5 years)
Operation BG/Fiend:
October 1950–May 1956
Location
Albania
Result

Communist Albanian victory

Belligerents
Hoxha's regime:
 Communist Albania

Western Bloc:
 United States
 United Kingdom
NATO

 Yugoslavia

Separatists:
Northern Epirus KEVA
Commanders and leaders
People's Socialist Republic of Albania Enver Hoxha
People's Socialist Republic of Albania Mehmet Shehu
People's Socialist Republic of Albania Kadri Hazbiu
Vlado Popović
West GermanyKonrad Adenauer
Units involved

Albanian People's Army

United States Army

British Army

Italian Navy

UDBA
Strength
People's Socialist Republic of Albania unknown Initial invasion:
C-47 aircraft
United States 80 landing craft assault boats
United States 6 landing craft utility
Northern Epirus 7,500 commandos[9]
Casualties and losses
unknown 1949–1954
Western Agents were killed[c] [13]
400 civilians executed

The Anglo-American intervention in Communist Albania, codenamed Operation Valuable, was a significant Cold War military conflict conducted by the United Kingdom and the United States, in collaboration with Western allies. This covert operation aimed to overthrow the government led by Enver Hoxha. The intervention sought to counter Communist influence and reinstate a leadership aligned with the Western powers. The operation involved strategic military actions, incorporating air, naval, and ground assets in pursuit of its objectives.[14]

CIA launched a joint subversive operation, using Albanian expatriates as agents. Other anti-communist Albanians and many nationalists worked as agents for Greek and Italian intelligence services, some supported by the Anglo-American secret services. Many of the agents were caught, put on trial, and either shot or condemned to long prison terms at penal labour. [citation needed
]

Background

Albania was in an unenviable position after World War II.

King Zog nor a republican government-in-exile, nor did they ever raise the question of Albania or its borders at major wartime conferences.[15] 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.[15] Albanian official statistics claim higher losses.[15]

British plans for the overthrow of Hoxha and the Communist regime in Albania had existed since 1946.[16] 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.[17]

Operational plans

United States involvement in
regime change
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, 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.[18]
The plan called for parachute drops of royalists into the
counter-revolutions throughout the Eastern Bloc.[citation needed] The chief of SIS, 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 U.S. intelligence officials such as James McCargar and Franklin Lindsay. McCargar was assigned to liaise with Philby on joint operational matters. Unbeknownst to the SIS and CIA, Philby was a communist and a spy for Soviet foreign intelligence, and has subsequently been blamed for the failure of the operation.[19]

Anti-communist Albanians were recruited in the Displaced Persons camps in

Legaliteti and the rest from other Albanian factions.[20]

Valuable Project/Fiend

See also:
"Free Albania" National Committee

A dozen Albanian

Albanian Army
.

British and U.S. 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.[20]

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 or Raids on the Albanian coastline in 1950 involved a conflict between Albanian Hoxhaist secret forces (Sigurimi), and multiple British teams supported by MI6.[21][20]

1950 Albanian coastline ambushes
Part of Operation Valuable
DateSeptember and November, 1950
Location
Albania, Albanian Coastline
Result Communist Albanian victory
Belligerents
Albania Communist Albania  United Kingdom
Supported by:
CIA
United States Air Force
Commanders and leaders
Albania Kadri Hazbiu United Kingdom Peter Dwyer
Air Support:
United States Roman Rudkowski
Units involved
Sigurimi United Kingdom MI6
Strength
Albania Unknown United Kingdom three British teams
Casualties and losses
Albania none United Kingdom All British troops were captured or killed

In preparation for the landing of British SIS troops, several

CIA and ex-Polish Air Force colonels. The British Chief Peter Dwyer was in charge of the British SIS during the raids.[22][19]

It was one of the most disastrous parts of the covert operation as all of the British agents were killed or captured.[21]

Aftermath

See also: Company 4000

Operation Valuable was a failure, with 300 MI6 and CIA agents killed during its duration.[23]

See also

Notes

  1. Company 4000
  2. ^ Agency support and recruiting soldiers
  3. ^ Mainly the agents were Yugoslav, Greek, Italian, British and American

References

  1. ISBN 978-1-4389-4163-9
    . The operations failed, primarily
  2. ISBN 978-1-349-24947-3
    . The attempts by both the US and British failed
  3. ISBN 978-1-6680-0069-4
    . The MI6-CIA attempt to liberate Albania was, however, a dramatic failure.
  4. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  5. ^ "Attlee's secret war with Stalin". HistoryExtra. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
  6. ^ "Disaster in Albania: The CIA's First Covert Mission". coldwarhistoryblog. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
  7. ^ "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.
  8. ^ "Country Plan Albania" (PDF). Central Intelligence Agency. 97 (39). 1949.
  9. ^ "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.
  10. ^ "BBC World Service - World Update, The CIA's Secret Failure in Albania". BBC. 18 August 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
  11. ^ "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.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. 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.
  14. ISBN 978-1-84162-246-0
    .
  15. ^
    Wikidata Q100997825. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain
    .
  16. ^ "Οι προσπάθειες ανατροπής του Ενβέρ Χότζα από Βρετανούς και Αμερικανούς και ο ρόλος της Ελλάδας". www.himara.gr. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  17. ISBN 9781628723946
    . Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  18. ^ "Albanian Dossier: CIA and British MI6 in Albania" (PDF). Albanian Canadian League Information Service. 8 (6). 2007.
  19. ^
    ISBN 9780313319556
    . Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  20. ^ a b c Prados 2006, p. 63.
  21. ^
    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 SIS agents and almost all of them were killed or captured.
  22. ISBN 978-0-313-31955-6
    .
  23. ^ "BBC World Service - World Update, The CIA's Secret Failure in Albania". BBC. 18 August 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2023.

Sources

Media
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