Draft:MS Probitas (1919)

Background Negotiations for Italian armistice on 3 September 1943 between the Allies and the Badoglio government were conducted in great secrecy, thus the abrupt capitulation of Italy caught both Italian and German commanders by surprise. The immediate German reaction was to put Operation KONSTANTIN (seizing control of the Italian-occupied areas) into effect, and to disarm those Italian units that refused to continue the war on the German side. The capture of Foggia, with its great air base, and the adjacent ports in Italy by the Allies on 17 September made it imperative for the Germans to secure control of the Albanian coast and ports without delay. Unable to advance farther in Italy for the moment, the Allies might well attempt a crossing of the Adriatic in force.

The opportunity to procure much-needed weapons and equipment was not lost by the guerrillas, who immediately called upon the Italian garrisons to surrender. Fearful of guerrilla vengeance, however, many Italian units waited in place to be disarmed by the Germans, and the situation developed into a race between Germans and guerrillas to reach them. Italian forces in Albania consisted of the six divisions of the 9th Italian Army (General Dalmazzo); the headquarters of Army Group East (General Rosi) was in Tirana. Left without clear orders, Italian commanders showed indecision and insufficient fighting spirit; on the contrary, German forces (Superior Command "Kroatien" with two Jäger divisions, and one mountain division, and part of the 1st Panzer Division) acted swiftly and with great aggressiveness. In the morning of 11 September, the command of Army Group East was surrounded and General Rosi was immediately captured along with his officers, while General Dalmazzo did not react to the German attacks, did not issue any order of resistance and started negotiations with the Germans, hastening the disintegration of his forces.

The 11th Infantry Division "Brennero" (whose commander, General Princivalle, kept an ambivalent behavior), 38th Infantry Division "Puglie", 49th Infantry Division "Parma" and 53rd Infantry Division "Arezzo" handed over their weapons and were dissolved (most men of the Brennero Division however managed to return to Italy by sea, while a considerable part of the men of the Arezzo Division escaped and joined the partisans), while the 41st Infantry Division "Firenze" (General Arnaldo Azzi) and the 151st Infantry Division "Perugia" (General Ernesto Chiminello) tried to resist. The Firenze Division faced the Germans in battle but was defeated near Kruja, after which the Division was dissolved and its men joined the partisan formations; the Perugia Division retreated to Porto Edda after a fighting retreat and some of its men managed to embark on ships headed for Italy, but most of the division, weakened by the exhausting march through the Albanian mountains and the continuous attacks, was surrounded and surrendered on 22 September, after which General Chiminello and 130 officers were executed. Some survivors joined the partisans, forming the Antonio Gramsci Battalion.

Over 15,000 dispersed Italian soldiers were sheltered by the population; the 21st German Mountain Corps established its headquarters in Tirana already on 10 September. Overall, about 90,000 Italian soldiers were captured in Albania, whereas a further 45,000 evaded capture and dispersed around the country; some of them were sheltered by the population in exchange for their labour, while many others succumbed to cold and starvation (British documents estimated mortality among Italian soldiers in Albania at about one hundred deaths per day in the winter of 1943–1944)

Rescue mission Transport ship “Probitas" together with two other Italian units the motor ship Salvore and the ship from Dubac transport was sent from Brindisi as a rescue convoy to help on the retreat and repatriation of the Perugia Division from Porto Edda. On September 24, 1943, due to a breakdown, Probitas was forced to remain in port in the Saranda harbor leaving the rescue convoy to which it belonged. Salvore and Dubac transport although under attack by the German Stukas, albeit with a lot of damage and almost 300 victims in total, manage to return to Italy. Probitas forced to moored at the dock, was instead sunk, in the afternoon of the September 25th, 1943 by the German Ju 87 aircraft.

Probitas wreck easily accessible in the bay of the port of Saranda, depth from 25 meters up to 3 meters from the surface. The motor ship PROBITAS (former ANSALDO SAN GIORGIO PRIMO former ANSALDO SAN GIORGIO I), was built in the shipyard of the same name at Muggiano. Completed in March 1919, with construction number 162, it had a tonnage of 5084 tons, a length of 115.2 meters and a width of 15.7 meters.