"Napoleon's Balkan Army," myth or reality? A book in Croatia about the Albanian "pandour" of the imperial troops
Along their history, the Albanians, renowned for their virtues of good fighters, served as foreign armies. The phenomenon is not unknown to us: the gentlemen and princesses of the Romanian lands hired them as troops of protection and guard, and in folk tradition they remained as arnauts, a name passed through the Turkish language.
Their confidence and devotion recommended them to the great commanders of the hosts; the historical springs show us as auxiliary troops in the armies of ancient Rome, then in the Ottoman, and not to mention modern and contemporary times, when Albanian detachments fought alongside Greeks, Serbs, Italians and others. But the French.
200 years ago, when Napoleon Bonaparte was at the height of glory, and the French armies underwent almost all of Europe, three thousand Albanians fought shoulder to shoulder with the imperial grenadiers. Albanian battalions operated across the Balkan Peninsula, from Croatia to Greece, with the aim of preventing English from infiltrating the region. Croatian historian Vladimir Brnardici takes up this historic fact in his book "Napoleon's Balkan Army," and details the participation of Albanians as mercenaries in battles in the Balkans against English forces. The above-mentioned work also talks about the reasons why Bonaparte appealed to Albanian mercenaries, as well as about his intention to form a special Albanian unit, which he embraced in the Imperial Guard, which eventually failed. About the French rule of the Balkans (in the Ionian islands, Dalmatia, Istria and the Illyrian provinces) was extremely small, although it was recorded in an appreciable period of about 16 years (1797-1814). However, the French influence in the area was quite significant. It has been established that at Napoleon's campaigns in 1812 eleven battalions from the ilir lands, ie about eight thousand fighters, participated. In fact, the French imperial army had in its composition several Balkan units, in which the Albanians were distinguished not only by an unanimously recognized anarchic spirit but also by devotion and manhood.
"Albanian Pandurii" - bodyguards for imperialists
After having secured the Kataro Bay, on the southernmost coast of the Dalmatian coast, the French constituted the Battalion "Pandours du Cattaro" on June 1, 1810, whose mission was to defend the territory newly conquered by the attacks of the Montenegrin neighbors. The battalion consisted of six companies of about 50 fighters each, but the total number of units never exceeded 200 soldiers. On November 8, 1811, this battalion was increased to eight companies, changing its name to the "Albanian Battalion". Later, the unit was renamed in the "Albanian Pandurii" (Pandours d'Albania). The battalion participated in the battles against the Montenegrins, whose troops caught by surprise the French positions in the area, but also the defense of the Dalmatian coast against the Austrian attacks in 1813. The many desertions weakened the force of this military unit. The reasons were economic, but also personal, so at the end of 1813, the battalion ceased its existence and was dissolved.
Ilire units participate in the Russian campaign
At the beginning of 1810, Vladimir Brnardici writes in his work, Napoleon Bonaparte wanted to establish a military unit to enlist troops in areas not directly engaged in the "ilirica" war: Croatia, Rijeka, ex-austrian Istria, Karinthia, Gorizia and Trieste. This regiment was established on 16 November 1810 and was officially constituted at Liubliana at the end of the same year. Subsequently, the unit was sent to Turin, Italy, to be properly endowed and equipped. In 1811, the five-battalion regiment was incorporated into the French army. In fact, some of the officers were French, the rest Belgian and Austrian, and the commander had been named Colonel Nikola Schmit. Among them, there were also several graduates from the areas where the recruitment had taken place. The Illyrian Regiment took part in the Napoleonic campaign in Russia, namely in the battles of Minsk, Kovno, Valentino-Gora and Krasnoi, near Moscow. Losses in soldiers and officers were particularly high. A battalion of this regiment, attached to the Army Corps of Marshal Oudinot, took part in the great Battle of Leipzig in 1814. Apart from this regiment, the French Army also had "Les troupes Septinsulaire", units with Greek, Albanians and Italians from the seven islands of the Ionian Sea: Corfu, Kefalonia, Zakinthos, Paksos, Lefakada, Itaka and Tzerigos. Because they came exclusively from the Dalmatian coastline, they were called "illicit troops", and the officers and non-commissioned officers were mixed: French, but also commanders and local bosses. The band was dissolved in 1814.
Napoleon's Albanian Regiment
The French military authorities have also set up a one-percent Albanian regiment. It originated a special unit formed by the Russians in 1799, then given to the French in 1807, when they reclaimed the Ionian islands. On October 12, 1807, Napoleon decreed the recruitment of three thousand Albanians, most of the refugees in the way of Ali Pasha de Janina. These military forces regrouped and constituted the Albanian Regiment on December 12, 1807, consisting of three battalions, each with three companies. In spite of massive recruitment, the regiment never reached 3254 soldiers, as stated in the founding document. At the same time, the French formed a battalion called "Chasseurs a pied grecs", which was also made up of Albanians from the Ionian islands. This unit consisted of 951 fighters.
The Albanian Regiment has been deployed in several garrisons set up in the Greek islands. Because fighters were volunteers, and discipline was not their strong point, soldiers and officers often disappeared from units left either to their families or around to "get" what they needed. The most significant confrontations with the English forces took place in October 1809, when the Albanian fighters showed admirable bravery. Another part of the regiment, stationed in Corfu, was not engaged in direct fights.
On November 6, 1813, the regiment was reorganized with a new command and a band consisting of 470 officers and non-commissioned officers and 1204 fighters, to which were unofficially added 1036 women and children, 1426 goats, 36 horses, asses, cows saddle The suggestion that some of them join the Naples army, and five hundred Imperial Guards, was unsuccessful. Only three knights, equipped and armed according to the Albanian tradition, managed to reach Paris and obtain the approval of the French Minister of War to join the Guard in the battles of 1814. Finally, after the withdrawal of the French troops from the Ionian Islands, the Albanian Regiment entered under the supervision of the English Command, and then officially dissolved on 21 June 1814.
According to Vladimir Brnardici, Marshal Marmont proposed to Emperor Napoleon that Albanian troops should be equipped with the French light infantry uniform, a proposal to which the sovereign would have opposed. Finally, an outfit was chosen close to the popular Albanian people in southern Greece and northern Greece, different from soldiers to officers. The weapon was the beginning of the 19th century. In addition, the wealthy embroidered the oriental hanger adorned with ornaments and precious stones, which distinguished them from the rest of the band and attracted admirative curiosities of the imperial grenadier.
Originally Posted by Yetos
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