Circular bronze medal with integral bar for ribbon suspension; the face with the head and shoulders of King Vittorio Emanuele III in military uniform looking left, circumscribed ‘VITTORIO EMANUELE III RE D’ITALIA E DI ALBANIA IMP. DI ETIOPIA’ (Vittorio Emanuele III, King of Italy and of Albania, Emperor of Ethiopia), signed ‘E. CRIPPA’, maker’s mark ‘SJ’ (for Stefano Johnson of Milan); the reverse with a double-headed Albanian eagle, lightning bolts in its claws, imposed on a fasces, circumscribed ‘ALBANIA REDENTA VII • APRILE • XVII’ (Albania Recovered 7 April 17); on original age-faded ribbon.
The Medal was instituted on 7 March 1940 to be awarded to military and civilian participants in the Italian occupation of Albania.
By 1939 Italy dominated all aspects of Albania life but in the minds of Mussolini and Ciano, German triumphs in Austria and Czechoslovakia demanded an Italian response. This came in the form of the invasion of Albania by an overwhelming Italian force that met no resistance and suffered negligible casualties, the Italians having bribed the tribal chieftains in advance.
The year ‘17’ refers to the number of years of fascist rule in Italy.
This example is of type ‘B’ of the medal by Stefano Johnson of Milan.
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