After his retirement from military service he was sent to the Berat region. He was there contacted by communists who in July 1943 proposed him to be the General Commander of Communist-dominated Albanian National Liberation Army (ANLA). He had the merit of turning the dispersed and not very well organised Albanian resistance forces into a regular army. Under his military leadership the ANLA was able to withstand two major offensives of the Germans in the winter of 1943-44 and in June 1944, while at the same time keeping the Germans under constant attacks; to win the war against the nationalist forces who opposed the ANLA, such as Balli Kombëtar, Legaliteti and others; and to liberate the country on November 29, 1944, Albania being the only country in Europe to have done so without the participation of Allied forces.
