ALBANIA• 9the localSecret Intelligence Servicestation commander,Kim Phil-
by, who discounted his value and reported everything he said to his
Soviet contacts. Akhmedov subsequently went to Europe, and finally
to the United States, where he still lives, having written his memoirs,
In and Out of Stalin’s GRU, in 1984. In 1953 he gave evidence, using
the name Ismail Enge, to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judi-
ciary.ALBANIA.The Albanian subsection ofSpecial Operations Execu-
tive(SOE) inCairoestablished a forward base, designatedForce
266 , at Bari, Italy, in 1944 to run operations into Albania. The coun-
try had been under Axis occupation since Easter 1939 when Mussoli-
ni’s troops had invaded, forcing King Zog and his family to flee to
Greece. After that,Julian Ameryhad plotted from Belgrade forSec-
tion D, and Fanny Hasluck had formed the nucleus of an Albanian
Section by teaching a handful of volunteers about the country and its
fiercely tribal people. Since the German invasion of Yugoslavia and
the loss of theSecret Intelligence Service(SIS) station in the British
Legation in Belgrade, there had been no news from Tirana, Albania’s
capital.
The first mission to Albania wasconsensusin April 1943, in
whichBilly McLeanandDavid Smileyparachuted into northern
Greeceintending to walk across the frontier; they were accompanied
by Lieutenant Garry Duffy of the Royal Engineers, who was a demo-
lition expert, and a wireless operator, Corporal Williamson. Their in-
terpreter, an Albanian named Elmaz, decided at the last minute to
abandon the mission. Despite this setback,consensuslanded safely
in Epirus, linked up with John Cook of SOE’s Greek Section and
then undertook a trek across the mountains into Albania where, on
the second attempt late in June 1943, contact was made with Enver
Hoxha, the Communist leader of the local partisan guerrillas. Once
relations had been established with him, by a series of airdrops to
equip his men, permission was granted for the installation of a British
Military Mission.
The main British military liaison officer, BrigadierTrotsky Da-
vies, parachuted into Albania with a full headquarters team, dropped
from two aircraft based at Benina, to a reception committee orga-
nized byconsensus; a couple of nights later,Alan Harearrived