Battle of Ponte Perati

The Battle of Ponte Perati (19–22 April 1941), popularly known as Highway of Death,^[8] took place near Perati Bridge in the Albania-Greek border during the Italian Second Spring Offensive under the Italian commander-in-chief in Albania, General Ugo Cavallero.

It was a clear, windy day on 13th April 1941. The forward elements of General Carlo Geloso's Italian 11th Army were approaching Korçë by late evening. On the first day of operations, Italian forces in Albania reported having taken around 1,000 Greek prisoners of War and approximately 12 pieces of artillery in the Lake Ohrid area. The Italian 9th Army, commanded by General Alessandro Pirzio Biroli, also experienced stiff resistance, including roadblocks and minefields. However, the formations of General Carlo Geloso continued to press forward, taking the town of Bilisht on 15th April and then moving on to Ersekë 2 days later.^[9]

Deteriorating weather on 14 April resulted in rain and Italian General Staff Chief Ugo Cavallero's warning to Pirzio Biroli that success depended on rapid action.^[10] He believed that Greek forces were trying to withdraw to Greece through deteriorating weather, so Cavallero ordered continuous aerial attacks to disrupt those withdrawals. The bridge was the major target at Perati. Picchiatelli dive-bombers were supposed to bomb and strafe the crossing with cannons.^[11] The 9th Army was to seize the area, but due to increased fighting, Tridentina, Parma, and Piemonte divisions bogged down and did not advance as fast as originally planned. Aerial bombing began on 14 April and continued largely as planned in spite of the intense anti-aircraft fire. There was one Picchiatello shot down on 16 April.^[12]

The occupation of Korçë by divisions of the Italian Ninth Army greatly weakened the British, Australian and New Zealand Forces' defensive positions in Greece. On April 18, the Italian high command reported that large formations of the Italian Eleventh Army had earlier that day, after heavy fighting, breached the Greek defensive line and captured Klisura. On the fifth day of the offensive, the Casale Division and the Ferrara Division captured Porto Palermo. In order to continue applying pressure to the enemy as they retreated, the commander of the Eleventh Army, General Carlo Geloso, executed a maneuver using different elements of the Eleventh Army to wheel around to the east and advance toward Klisura Pass. The Bari Division, as part of these operations, captured Përmet, which took the Greek forces in the area by surprise and inflicted large casualties.^[13]

Airborne operations by the Aeronautica Nazionale played an important part in the ground fight due to their success in disrupting the Greek forces and establishing air dominance for the Italian forces. The Greek commanders expected the Royal Air Force to also provide air support but instead did not have any support aircraft over the battlefield. The Royal Air Force did have aircraft intercepting Italian aircraft in Albania on 14 April, including 1 Fiat G.50 claimed as destroyed and a number of others that were damaged around Korçë, and also attacked the port at Vlorë. However, the Royal Air Force rarely flew over the battlefield again.^[14]

On 20 April, the 4th Bersaglieri Regiment engaged a Greek division and reported that it was destroyed within a few hours of fighting. By nightfall, the 5th Alpini Regiment and 8th Alpini Regiment entered the battle and inflicted damage on the rearguards of the Epirus Army. Italian forces continued to press forward and captured prisoners, which confirmed the previous intelligence assessment that the forward Italian forces were facing the elite Sentinels. The Sentinels held their position for over 24 hours before their lines were finally broken. Reports indicate that the Bersaglieri used flamethrowers to penetrate heavily fortified Greek defensive positions, resulting in many casualties among the defenders. Additional remaining Italian units, including the Edolo Battalion, 59th Alpini Regiment, 26th Bersaglieri Motorcycle Battalion and 17th Milan Lancer Regiment, received orders to move quickly to block the retreat of Greek units so they could not repair the bridge and escape the encirclement.^[15]

The Italian command reported significant further accomplishments made by Italian Fighter/Bomber Aircraft that same day. Specifically, they reported that hundreds of trucks, carrying Army's troops and equipment, were destroyed. In addition, it reported that Italian forces (three Divisions; Brennero; Julia; and Modena) made advance movements using roads between Gjirokastër, Libohovë, and Delvinë, with continued air superiority over the operational area. The final movement involved the rapid advance of two Additional Italian Divisions (Bari and Taro) toward the Crossing Site at Perati to intercept retreating Greek Forces.^[16]

The seventh day of fighting continued into the eighth without interruption. During this stage of the operations, the Italian high command reported that forward elements of the Bersaglieri and Alpini had advanced to the point where the Albanian–Greek frontier was almost completely sealed.

“During yesterday (April 20th) our troops were forced to fight hard in beating back the Greek retreating forces, who were offering a tenacious resistance in their fortified positions along the Albanian frontier. Embittered fights took place, in one of which the Fourth Bersaglieri Regiment particularly distinguished itself. All the localities along the Albanian frontier have been reoccupied by our troops.”^[17]

On 20 April, Salivaras recorded in her diary that Greek forces in Albania were facing heavy pressure from enemy air attacks. She noted that the opposing air force had attempted to strike Greek positions at two locations, but that the attacks were repelled with significant losses before the aircraft withdrew behind their own lines. At the same time, as the Bari Division and Taro Division approached the Ponte Perati area, the Bari Division encountered strong resistance. Greek defenders opened heavy machine-gun and artillery fire on the advancing troops, inflicting considerable casualties.^[18]

Although fierce fighting continued on 19, 20, 21 and 22 April, word soon got around that the Greeks in the area had had enough. Under a white flag, a Greek officer approached the Milan Cavalry Regiment and a parley took place.^[19]

By nightfall the division, though having suffered heavy casualties, had succeeded in overcoming strong enemy resistance.^[20] The Bari Division, which had played a major role in the fighting around the Ponte Perati crossing, later reported losses of about 30 officers and roughly 400 enlisted men killed or wounded during the action.^[21]

On April 21, the Pusteria Division was ordered to move to Lake Ioannina in Greece, requiring the Alpini units to cross the lower parts of the Pindus Mountains.^[22] An officer in the division, Lt. Antonio Ferrante di Ruffano later described the march as difficult, because they had to go a long distance, over large parts of terrain and due to lack of supplies they'd have difficulty eating while on the trek. On that same day, Lt. General Georgios Tsolakoglou, Commanding General of Greek Forces in Western Macedonia, began negotiating the surrender of his troops to the Italian 9th Army. ^[23]Tsolakoglou also wanted to avoid directly surrendering to individual Italians if possible; thus, he had already approached Josef "Sepp" Dietrich the previous day and offered to surrender the entire Greek Army operating in Albania and Greece.^[24] The terms of the proposed negotiations were that hostilities between Germany and Greece would cease immediately and, on Dietrich’s assurance, that hostilities between Greece and Italy would soon cease. Greek Forces would be allowed to withdraw to the pre-war Greek–Albanian border within a period of ten days after which they would demobilise, return to their homes and turn over their weapons to Italian authorities; while Greek officers would have their side arms returned to them for this type of honourable basis.^[25]

According to news reports, Greek commanders were shocked at how great the force of the attack was, while the Regia Aeronautica (Italian Air Force) performed continuous heavy bombing missions against the city of Ioannina, and therefore surrendered to General Alberto Ferrero, the Chief of Staff, Italian Army Albania. Numerous accounts provide evidence that throughout the period of these attacks, Ioannina, as the Capital of Epiros, was continually hit by bombs. One account stated that several bombs had hit the operating room of the 1st Army Hospital as well as reports of bomb hits on the Air Force Base that was East of the city. Additionally, Airstrikes had taken place in Sectn of the Town of Arta in the Northern Half of Albania.^[26]

April local time with the Italian high command reporting that:

“The enemy Army of the Epirus and Macedonia has laid down its arms. The capitulation was made at 9.45 last night by a Greek military delegation to the command of the Italian Eleventh Army on the Epirus front.”^[27]

In less than two weeks, the Italian troops in Albania were able to push back against the well-thought-of Greek mountaineer units that had many heavy machine guns and good artillery support. Earlier in the campaign, Badoglio (the Italian commander) made estimates that it would take potentially twenty Italian divisions to defeat the 150,000 soldiers of the Greeks who had a significant advantage in the number of MGs they possessed.^[28] The Italian commanders were impressed with the determination and accuracy of the artillery of the Greek soldiers even though some regions had superior numbers of Italians than Greeks, and therefore, should have been able to defeat them.^[29] The Greeks were limited in the number of mortars (very few per division) that they had available when compared to what the Italian invaders had available.^[30]

On 21 April, the Greeks were again forced to sign a surrender agreement, which was much stiffer than the first.^[31] Under the new agreement, all Greek soldiers would be turned over to the Italians as POWs, however, all Greek officers may still keep their sidearms. Mussolini approved the new agreement two days later.^[32][33]

After six months of most sharp fighting, the enemy has laid down his arms. The victory consecrates your bloody sacrifices, especially severe for the land forces, and illuminates your flags with new glory. The fatherland is proud of you as never before”

Close to 6,000 Italian soldiers were killed or wounded in the Second Spring Offensive, a significant number of them during the fighting for Perati Bridge. Nevertheless, Benito Mussolini took great pride in avenging earlier defeats.^[34]