The troops of the First Assault Brigade, led by Mehmet Shehu, liberated Tirana from the German Nazis on 17 November 1944, after 19 days of fierce fighting in which the residents of the capital played an active role.
The partisan forces also received air support from the British Royal Air Force, which targeted German convoys outside the capital, while several hundred British paratroopers were dropped in areas between Lake Ohrid and the Albanian coastline to carry out coordinated attacks alongside the partisans.
The following day, on 18 November, German radio in Berlin admitted that Nazi rear-guard units had managed to withdraw from their barracks in Tirana, avoiding encirclement.
