In the situation of chaos in which Albania was soon after the outbreak of the war, Italy was interested in preventing that the eastern bank of the Otranto canal passed under the control of a great Power; for that reason it occupied the islet of Saseno and Valona on 29^th December 1914, by disembarking the 10^th Bersaglieri Regiment and a mountain artillery. The Austro-Germans started an offensive against Serbians on 8^th October 1915, with the help of the Bulgarians. The landing of a first Franco-English contingent at Salonicco was not sufficient for maintaining an open way for the Serbian retreat so that they were forced to escape towards the Albanian harbours.

Italy decided to protect the Serbian retreat and the embarkation of the other parts of their Army. For that reason a Corps for the occupation of Albania was created with a division in three brigades: one of them had to move towards Durazzo; the other two would have guaranteed the possession of Valona. From 3^rd to 9^th December 1915 the Savona Brigade reached Durazzo from Valona after a difficult march and it was deployed there to defend the reorganization and the embarkation of Serbians (the operation ended on 9^th February 1916). From 23^rd to 26^th February the Savona Brigade, that had blocked the Austrians for two weeks, boarded under the protection of fleet units. The bay of Valona remained under Italian control. The Italian forces in Albania were gradually increased, reaching the consistence of an Army Corps (16^th) of about 100 000 men in three divisions. Meanwhile, the expedition Corps​ allied with Salonicco (the Orient Army pushed towards the West) and the Albanian troops constituted with it a unique front from the Adriatic sea to the Aegean sea. In the second half of 1917, the Austrian actions against the Italian positions were repelled; in May 1918 a combined action, performed by Italian units with French units​ to the right of Ossum and towards Tomoritza, made the road Erseke-Salonicco safer. On 6^th July 1918 four Italian columns, that supported the French Army on its right side, launched an attack against the two wings of Malakastra. The attack succeeded on the left side, the Italian cavalry reached the aviation camp of Fieri and all troops could move forward occupying Berat and arriving to the Plain of Semeni. An Austrian counteroffensive determined a partial retreat on the defensive positions of Malakastra. At the end of September, with the offensive of the Orient Army, the 16^th Army Corps resumed the advance, occupying Durazzo on 14^th October, Tirana on 15^th, Scutari on 31^st and Dulcigno and Antivari on 3^rd November.

After the constitution of the Orient Army at the end of 1915, the allied Government asked repeatedly the Italian Government for sending troops in Macedonia. On 9^th August 1916 the 35^th division (2 infantry brigades and 4 mountain groups) started its embarkation in Taranto and on 25^th August it was deployed on Krusa-Balkan, a front of 48 km. In October it was reinforced with a third brigade, becoming then an Army Corps. After having participated to a counteroffensive action in September, the division moved to Monastir sector where, thanks to an action of the Cagliari Brigade through Baba Mounts, on 16^th November it opened the way towards Monastir to the French-Serbian troops. At the beginning of 1918 the 35^th Division passed to the sector of Cerna, substituting two French divisions and one Serbian division on the line: in this sector the Italians had to face the Germans and not the Bulgarians. After eight German attacks in two months, in May there was an inter-allied offensive attempt but it failed and about 3 000 Italians died. On 15^th September the Orient Army launched an offensive and broke the enemy front. The 35^th Division drove away the Germans from M. Kalabach, it reached Kruscevo through Baba Planina and on 29^th September it assaulted the position of Sop where Italians took 8 000 Bulgarians with 11 cannons.

In November 1917, after the shortage in Italy of different materials due to the 12^th battle of the Isonzo, General Dallolio was sent to Paris in order to negotiate the assignment of war material. The French Government adhered to it but, as exchange, it asked for sending 10 000 Italian workmen for the loading of the artillery bullets. The contingent was composed of soldiers permanently unfit for the efforts of a war or that were born before 1879; it was organized in 70 “centurias” (the basic unit of a Legion) and it did an excellent service in the establishment of the French Ministry of Weapons and War Fabrications. Later the French Government asked the Italian Government for the concession of 50 000 men to assign as worker in the defensive arrangements. The Italian Government adhered to it and in January 1918 the contingent requested left for France. In that way the Italian Auxiliary Troops in France (T.A.I.F.) were constituted: headed by a supervisor General, they were organized in 4 groupings, 20 units and 200 companies. They were employed for the building of defensive woks, the arrangement of aviation camps, the building and the arrangement of roads in the operation field, the building of railways, for the telephone lines on the battlefields, for the installation of artillery and engineer parks. In April Italy sent to France the 2^nd Army Corps on two infantry divisions, an artillery grouping, a cavalry squadron and a service unit. The divisions were sent to the line at the west of Verdun, between Avocourt and Boureilles. Between 11^th and 19^th June the 2^nd Army Corps was deployed to the west of Reims. On a front 12 km long, over Ardre, in order to bar the most direct way to enter Epernay. Between the end of June and the beginning of July there were the first conflicts against the Germans in the area of the “Bligny Mountain”. On 15^th July the Germans launched their last offensive; to the west of Reims they attacked between Vrigny and Jaulgonne, running over the 2^nd Italian Corps and the 5^th French Corps. After two days of fighting, the Italian troops managed to stop the German attack on the second lines. On 21^st July the German Command ordered its troops, that had crossed the Marna to the west, to retreat turning around the Ardre where the battles against the Italian troops continued until 24^th July. In August the 2^nd Corps, that had lost other 22 000 soldiers, was sent to Argonne but in September it came back at the dependencies of the 5^th French Army, in order to take part in the offensive against the salient of Laon. It was deployed in the sector of Aisne, to the east of Soissons. On 26^th September the allied offensive started and the 2^nd Italian Corps participated to it at the dependencies of the 5^th, the 10^th and the 3^rd French Armies. After having conquered the great position of Chemin des Dames and reached and passed the Ailette, on 14^th October the Italian troops arrived to the swampland of Sissonne. On 4^th November, when the war against Austria ended, the 2^nd Corps​ resumed the advance against the Germans, that became later a pursuit. On 11^th​​ November it reached the Mosa where the Italian flag was raised while the hostilities were finishing.