Corfu Channel incident

Corfu Channel incident
	Part of the Cold War
	; Corfu Channel Incident
Date	1946
Location	Corfu Channel39.77°N 19.97°E
Result	World Court case concluded in 1949 Albania ordered to pay UK£843,947 (£24.4 million in 2019) in compensation to the United Kingdom, but they did not pay.; Albania agreed to pay US$2,000,000 in reparations to the United Kingdom in 1992.;
Belligerents
Albania	United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Enver Hoxha; Mehmet Shehu	Winston Churchill; Clement Attlee
Units involved
Albanian Naval Force	Royal Navy
Casualties and losses
none	84 killed; 42 wounded; 2 destroyers damaged (one of them beyond repair)

The Corfu Channel incident consists of three separate events involving Royal Navy ships in the Channel of Corfu which took place in 1946, and it is considered an early episode of the Cold War. During the first incident, Royal Navy ships came under fire from Albanian fortifications. The second incident involved Royal Navy ships striking mines; and the third occurred when the Royal Navy conducted mine-clearing operations in the Corfu Channel, but in Albanian territorial waters, and Albania complained about them to the United Nations.

This series of incidents led to the Corfu Channel case, where the United Kingdom brought a case against the People's Republic of Albania to the International Court of Justice. The Court rendered a decision under which Albania was to pay £844,000 to the United Kingdom. This is equivalent to £31.7 million in 2015 terms. Because of the incidents, Britain, in 1946, broke off talks with Albania aimed at establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries. Diplomatic relations were only restored in 1991.

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