The resistance in Albania became active after the defeats of the Italian forces in the war with Greece, which started on 28 October 1940. Originally the slogan of building the "Greater Albania", into which the Italians promised to incorporate a substantial part of Greek Epirus (Cameria), allowed collaborationist authorities to mobilise several thousand volunteers for the army (besides regular troops). The collapse of the Italian offensive in Greece caused a crisis among the regular troops, who refused to take part in further fights, as well as in volunteer units, which dispersed; some soldiers made for the mountains. Eventually, the number of combat groups and partisan detachments, reinforced by deserters from the army, had grown to dozens, with over 3,000 men. In November in Lezha, a town near the port of Shengjin on Adriatic coast, mutinous soldiers who refused further service in Italian units fought a battle with an Italian punitive expedition, killing 19 and badly wounding 30 Italians, before retreating to the mountains. In the same month a partisan detachment laid an ambush for an Italian transport column "en route" to Gjirokastra. Several Italians were killed. On 17 May 1941 in Tirana a young man called Vasil Laçi attempted to assassinate king Victor Emmanuel III by shooting at him. However he failed and was shortly after executed.