However, two points stood out as the most probable. These were the two

already mentioned; the north, along the line from Obrenovatz to Belgrade

and to Semendria; or, the front Obrenovatz-Ratza-Losnitza-Liubovia. The

first possibility had the advantage to the Austrians of offering the

shortest route to the center of the country--the Morava Valley, their

natural objective. But it also necessitated a difficult crossing of the

Danube, which would have had to be preceded by the building of pontoon

bridges. This would have given the Serbians time to move up their main

forces. The second alternative, an invasion from the east, would have

entailed a longer journey, but the advantage of natural covering and

easy crossing made it a sounder plan.

On July 28, 1914, the Serbians concentrated their forces in anticipation

of either event. The outpost forces were stationed at or near Losnitza,

Shabatz, Obrenovatz, Belgrade, Semendria, Pozarevatz and Gradishte. But

their principal armies were centrally grouped along the line

Palanka-Arangelovatz-Lazarevatz, while weaker, though important,

detachments were stationed in the vicinity of Valievo, a branch railroad

terminus, and Uzitze. This narrowed the field down to such limits that

it was possible to march the troops from point to point, while the few

railway facilities available were utilized for food and ammunition

supplies.

CHAPTER XLVIII

AUSTRIAN SUCCESSES

On the morning of July 29, 1914, the day after war had been declared,

the residents of Belgrade were startled by a deep roar, followed by the

whistling shriek of a huge body, hurtling through the air, and a shell

burst over the battlements of the old Turkish citadel, doing no damage.

Immediately there came another deep shock; the Serbian guns were

responding. Thence on the cannonading along the Danube front continued

for week after week, with only now and then a lull.

The Austrian batteries bombarded not only Belgrade, but Semendria,

Gradishte and a number of other points along the river bank. Next they

were seen building a pontoon bridge out to one of the little islands in

the river, opposite the city and barges were towed alongside the

landings on the opposite shore, presently to be crowded with black

masses of Austrian troops. Naturally, the Serbian gunners made these

objects the targets of their fire. But these were mere bluffs, such

feints as the skilled boxer makes when he wants to get behind the guard

of his opponent. If anything, these demonstrations only served to deepen

the conviction of General Putnik that the real danger was not from this

quarter.

But where was the first great blow to strike? Naturally, not only the

General Staff, but the whole army and population waited in deep anxiety.

This tension lasted over the last days of July, into the first week of

August, 1914.

Then, on August 6, 1914, some Bosnian peasants, Serbs, appeared and

reported that they had seen great bodies of soldiers moving along the

mountain roads toward Syrmia, in northeastern Bosnia. Two days later,

early in the morning, two Austrian aeroplanes whirred over the River

Save and circled over Krupanie, Shabatz and Valievo. The last doubts

were then dispelled; the attack was coming from the east.

And finally, on August 12, 1914, the message flashed over the wires that

the outposts had seen boats in movement, full of soldiers, behind an

island on the Drina, opposite Loznitza. Near that town, and in fact

along the whole lower course of the Drina, the river has frequently

changed its channel, thus cutting out numerous small islands, which

would serve as a screen to the movements of troops contemplating a

crossing. Pontoon bridges could be built on the farther side of almost

any of these islands without being observed from the other shore. This

was exactly what the Austrians were doing.

[Illustration: Serbian Infantrymen on Their Way to the Front.]

Suddenly, on August 12, 1914, there came a burst of rifle fire and the

boom of heavy field guns, and a fleet of barges, under cover of this

fire, emerged from around both ends of one of these islands and made for

the Serbian shore. The two battalions of Third Reserve Serbians,

stationed there as an outpost, trained their old De Bange field guns, of

which they had two batteries, on the oncoming swarms and began firing.

But the Austrian fire became heavier and heavier; a blast of steel

pellets and shells swept through the cornfields and the plum orchards,

tearing through the streets of the village and crumpling up the houses.

The breastworks of the small Serbian detachment were literally the

center of a continuous explosion of shells.

When a full tenth of their number lay dead or disabled, the Serbians

began retiring across the cornfields and up the slopes leading to the

heights behind Losnitza. There, on higher ground, which offered more

effective shelter, they made a determined stand and continued their fire

on the Austrian masses.

Having crossed the river, the Austrians threw up defensive breastworks

and dug elaborate trenches, thus fortifying their crossing. Next they

built a pontoon bridge, and then the main Austrian army poured across; a

whole army corps and two divisions of a second.

Meanwhile, on the same day, August 12, 1914, a similar event was

happening at Shabatz, on the Save, where that river takes a sharp

southward turn and then swings up again before joining the Danube at

Belgrade. Here the country is a level plain, really the southern limit

of the great plain which stretches up to the Danube, past Belgrade and

so into Hungary. Here, too, the Austrians screened themselves behind an

island in the river, then hurled their forces across, driving the feeble

detachment of Third Reserve Serbian troops back across the plain up into

the hills lying to the southeast of Shabatz. Then the advance guard of

the Austrian Fourth Army occupied the town, strongly fortified it and

built a pontoon bridge across the river from their railroad terminus at

Klenak.

Further passages of a similar nature were forced that day, August 12,

1914, at other points by smaller forces; one at Zvornik and another at

Liubovia. In addition the Austrians also threw bridges across the river

at Amajlia and Branjevo. Thus it will be seen that the invasion covered

a front of considerably over a hundred miles and that six strong columns

of the enemy had crossed, all of which naturally converged on Valievo.

For Valievo was the terminus of a small, single track railroad which

joined the main line at Mladenovatz. Thus the Austrians would have a

convenient side door open into the heart of Serbia which was, of course,

their main objective. To this Belgrade was merely incidental. With this

line of transport and communication in Austrian hands, Belgrade would

fall of itself.

From Losnitza, where the main column of Austrians crossed the Drina to

Valievo, runs the River Jadar, along a level valley, which narrows as it

nears Valievo. On the left-hand side of the Jadar Valley rise the

southern slopes of the Tzer Mountains, covered with cornfields, prune

orchards, with here and there a stretch of thick timber. Continuing

southward, slightly to the eastward, up the Jadar Valley another range

rises, slightly smaller than the Tzer Mountains, forming a smaller

valley which branches off eastward. Along this runs the River Leshnitza,

parallel with the Jadar until it makes an independent junction with the

Drina. Still farther up the valley the foothills of the Iverak ridges

are lost in a series of fairly important summits which closely flank the

Jadar River.

To the south of the Jadar River the valley stretches into a rolling

plain, which rises abruptly into the giant Guchevo Mountains. It is this

range, converging with the Tzer and Iverak Mountains toward Valievo, and

forming the plain of the Jadar Valley, which was presently to become the

center of the first great battle between the Serbians and Austrians.

A military movement against Valievo, therefore, demanded complete

possession of these two ridges, which overlooked the line of march. This

the Austrians knew well enough, even before the first of their troops

had crossed the Drina. As is well known, the best maps, not only of

Serbia but of all the Balkan countries, have been made by Austrian

engineers. There was probably not a spur, not a fissure, certainly not a

trail, of these mountains that had not been carefully surveyed and

measured by engineers of the Austrian staff.

The Austrians knew the country they were invading quite as well as did

the native Serbians. All through it may be said that it was not through

want of accurate knowledge that the Austrians finally met disaster.

Rather was it because they misjudged the relative values of their facts.

And one of their first mistakes was in overestimating the effects of the

two Balkan Wars on the efficiency of the Serbian army. First of all, as

was obvious from the leisureliness with which they proceeded to occupy

the two mountain chains in question, that they vastly misjudged the

capacity of the Serbian troops to make rapid movements. Even as the

first shots were being fired across the Drina at Losnitza, the Serbian

forces were on the move, westward. Two army corps were at once rushed

toward the Valley of the Jadar; part of a third was sent to block the

advance of the Austrians from Shabatz. Meanwhile the Austrians took

their time. For two days they busied themselves fortifying the bridge at

Losnitza.

CHAPTER XLIX

THE GREAT BATTLES BEGIN

On August 14, 1914, began the first battle of the Serbian campaign. The

Austrians proceeded to storm the heights from which the small outpost

detachments had all the time been bombarding them with its old-fashioned

guns. The Serbians, though few in number, made a desperate resistance.

It was their business to hold back the enemy as long as possible, even

until the reenforcements should arrive.

Early in the morning of August 14, 1914, the Austrians advanced in a

great mass, then charged up the hillsides toward the Serbian position.

The Serbians waited until they were well up the steep slopes and the

rush of the enemy had subsided to a more toilsome climb. Then they sent

down volley after volley from every available weapon.

The Austrian soldiers, who had until then never experienced anything

more warlike than field maneuvers, lost their nerves; the first line

broke and ran at the first fire. However, that was likely to happen to

any troops under fire for the first time. Down in the plain they formed

again, and again they swept up the slopes. This time they did not turn

at the first volley. On they came, with fixed bayonets. And presently

the first line reached the top of the heights, and the fighting was

hand-to-hand. For a moment the Serbians, overwhelmed by numbers, were on

the point of fleeing. But these same men had been through many a

hand-to-hand encounter with both Turks and Bulgars; that experience

stood them in good stead. And again they swept back the attacking masses

of Austria-Hungary.

By evening, August 14, 1914, the Austrians had not yet taken the

heights. But the Serbians, most of them middle-aged and old men, had

spent their vitality. As the dark night lowered over the scene, they

fell back, until, at Jarebitze, they met the first advance guards of the

oncoming Serbian main army. And here they halted, and the united forces

proceeded to dig a trench on a ten-mile front, extending from north to

south, through the town and clear across the Jadar Valley. Nor did the

Austrians then attempt to follow up this first success. Thus the

Serbians were allowed to intrench themselves unmolested until, next day,

August 15, 1914, they were joined by the balance of their forces.

Now, by studying the map, it will be seen at a glance that it was only

the Tzer Mountains which separated the Austrian column crossing the

Drina at Losnitza and the column which had crossed the Save and had

occupied Shabatz. Should the Austrians from over the Drina get

possession of the Tzer ridges, they would thus effect a junction with

the forces in Shabatz, and so form a line that would cut off a large

portion of northwestern Serbia. Aside from that, they would have a solid

front. But should the Serbians possess themselves of the Tzer ridges

first, then they would have driven a wedge in between their two main

forces. This would make it difficult for either to advance, for then

they would be exposing a flank to the enemy, who would also have a great

advantage in position. Moreover, the Serbians would be in a position to

turn immediately toward either of the Austrians' columns, whichever

might need most attention.

Meanwhile, the Serbian cavalry had made a reconnaissance toward Shabatz.

They immediately sent back reports of overwhelming forces occupying the

town. It was out of the question to make any attack there for the

present.

It was now learned, for the first time, that another of the enemy's

columns had crossed the Drina far down in the south, and was marching on

Krupanie, just below the Guchevo Mountains and on the way to the upper

part of the Jadar Valley. However, as the first report seemed to

indicate that this was only a minor force, a small force of third

reserve men was detached to hold this force back and prevent its

entrance into the main field of operations.

During the day and night of August 15,1914, the two opposing forces were

moving into position for battle: setting the pawns for the game of

strategy that was to be played. The Austrians at Losnitza were advancing

up the mountain slopes and took possession of the Tzer and Iverak

ridges, straddling the Leshnitza Valley.

Up in Shabatz, Austrian troops were pouring across the pontoon bridges.

A flanking column, coming from the Drina, had arrived at Slepehevitch.

Another force was stationed with its left and center on Krupanie, its

right spread out into the mountains north of Liubovia.

On the Serbian side the right wing of the Second Army, screened by the

cavalry division, were preparing to cut off the Austrian forces in the

north from their juncture with those advancing along the Tzer ridges;

the center and left was marching on the enemy on the Iverak ridges, in

conjunction with the right of the Third Army, then north of Jarebitze.

The center of the Third held the positions south of Jarebitze, while its

left, split into small detachments, had been directed to oppose the

invasion toward Krupanie and the advance from Liubovia.

Such were the positions of the various forces as dawn broke brightly on

the morning of August 16, 1914. As the growing light made objects

visible, the extreme right division of the Serbian front, which was

creeping northward to cut off Shabatz, discovered a strong Austrian

column moving along the lower spurs of the Tzer Mountains. Obviously

this body was clearing the ground for a general descent of the forces up

along the ridges; a whole army corps. This movement threatened to become

a serious obstacle to the Serbian plan of separating the Austrians in

Shabatz from those farther south. But the situation was saved by one of

those incidents which sometimes stand out above the savagery of warfare

and give to it a touch of grandeur.

A young artillery officer, Major Djukitch, of the Fourth Artillery

Regiment, asked permission to go out and meet this body of advancing

Austrians with but a single cannon. He would create a diversion which

would give the Serbians time to adapt themselves to the changed

conditions, though the chances were very largely in favor of his losing

his life on this mission. Permission was granted. Calling on volunteers

from his command, he advanced with his single cannon and took up a

position in the path of the approaching enemy. The moment he opened fire

the Austrians, naturally not realizing that only one cannon was opposing

them, and believing that a large Serbian force had surprised them, broke

into a panic. Half an hour after he had opened fire, the Serbian field

commander sent a messenger to Major Djukitch, ordering him to retire. In

reply he sent a message to the commander, describing the confusion he

had created in the Austrian ranks, and instead of retiring, he asked for

reenforcements. The balance of his own battery, a detachment of

infantry, and a cavalry division was sent him. The result was that the

Austrian column was temporarily driven back into the mountains. Hastily

re-forming, the Austrians now massed along a line extending from

Belikamen to Radlovatz, while the Serbians deployed along a front

running from Slatina through Metkovitch to Gusingrob.

At 11 a. m., August 16, 1914, the two opposing forces opened fire in

earnest, up and down the line. All day the cannon roared and the rifles

and machine guns crackled; now and again the Austrians would shoot forth

from their line a sharp infantry attack, but these were repulsed, with

more and more difficulty as the day advanced, for the Serbians were much

inferior in numbers. Toward evening their situation became very

critical. Yet every part of the line held out desperately, knowing that

reenforcements were being hurried forward from the rear as fast as men

could move.

And just before dark, along the roads from the eastward, came the

distant cheers from the advancing columns. An officer dashed up on

horseback shouting encouragement to the battered men in the trenches. A

cheer arose, which rolled up and down the line. Again it rose, then,

even before it had died out, with wild yells the Serbians sprang over

their breastworks and swept madly across the intervening space to the

Austrian lines; smashing through cornfields, over rocks, through the

tall grass of orchards. At their heels followed the reenforcing

soldiers, though they had that day marched nearly sixty miles. Over the

Austrian breastworks they surged, like an angry wave from the sea, their

bayonets gleaming in the sunset glow. It was the kind of fighting they

knew best; the kind that both Serbians and Bulgars know best, the kind

they had practiced most.

Small wonder if the inexperienced peasants from the plains of Hungary,

unused till then to any sight more bloody than a brawl in the village

inn, trembled before this onslaught. Their officers shouted

encouragement and oaths, barely audible above the mad yells of the

Serbians. Nevertheless, they gave way before the gleaming line of

bayonet blades before them. Some few rose to fight, stirred by some

long-submerged instinct generated in the days of Genghis Khan. But the

majority turned and fled, helter-skelter, down the sides of the

mountains toward the valleys, leaving behind guns, ammunition, and

cannon. One regiment, the Hundred and Second, stood its ground and

fought. As a result it was almost completely annihilated. The same fate

befell the Ninety-fourth Regiment. But the majority sought and found

safety in flight. By dark the whole Austrian center was beaten back,

leaving behind great quantities of war material.

CHAPTER L

FIRST VICTORY OF THE SERBIANS

The Serbians had made their first move successfully on that day of

August 16, 1914. More important than this mere preliminary defeat of the

enemy was the fact that the Austrians in Shabatz were now definitely cut

off from any possible juncture with the Austrians in the south. For the

present they were debarred from entering the main field of operations.

This freed the Serbian cavalry for action elsewhere. Meanwhile a portion

of the right wing of the Serbian line was detached to keep the Austrians

inside Shabatz.

Farther to the south the Serbians were not so decidedly successful. The

center of the Serbian Second Army, that directed against the southern

slopes of the Tzer Mountains and the Iverak ridges, had arrived at

Tekerish at midnight.

As dawn broke on August 16, 1914, they perceived a strong Austrian

column descending from above, coming in the same direction.

Unfortunately the Serbians were in the midst of bald, rolling foothills,

while the Austrians were up among the tall timber which clothes the

mountain slopes at this point. The Serbians deployed, extending their

line from Bornololye through Parlok to Lisena, centering their artillery

at Kik. The Austrians made the best of their superior position.

For some hours there was furious firing, then, at about eight o'clock

the Austrian gunners got the range of the Serbian left flank with their

field pieces, which was compelled to fall back. But just then timely

reenforcements arrived from the rear, and the Serbians dug themselves

in. By evening the Serbians had lost over a thousand men, though they

had succeeded in taking 300 prisoners and several machine guns from the

Austrians.

The left wing of the Second Army had, in the meantime, arrived against

Iverak. That this division was able to arrive at such a timely juncture

was due to its having made a forced march of fifty-two miles over the

mountain roads during the previous day. Yet before dawn on the morning

of August 16, 1914, it was ready to continue its march to Poporparlok.

But then came the news that the Austrians had driven back the left wing

of the Third Army from that position and had occupied it.

The situation in which this division found itself was by no means clear.

Nothing had been heard from Shabatz. The division operating along the

Tzer ridges had been badly hammered. The Third Army had lost

Poporparlok. The commander decided to stay where he was and simply hold

the ground against any advance of the enemy from Iverak. This division

was, therefore, intrenched along a line from Begluk to Kik, and a strong

advance was thrown out toward Kugovitchi. During the morning this

advance guard made a strong attack against Kugovitchi, drove the

Austrians out, and established themselves there.

At dawn, August 16, 1914, the left flank of this division, at Begluk,

was shelled by the Austrian artillery, which was followed by infantry

attacks. These were easily repulsed during the day. But then the enemy

was reenforced, and late that night they came on again in great masses.

The Serbians allowed them to almost reach their trenches: then, emptying

the magazines of their rifles at them, they piled themselves over their

breastworks and into them with bayonets and hand bombs. This was too

much for the Austrians; they fled in wild disorder.

Least encouraging was the experience of the Serbian Third Army, which

was defending the territory south of the Iverak Mountains. Here the

Austrians developed a vigorous and persistent offensive, hoping to turn

the Serbian left and thus capture the road to Valievo.

The attack on the positions at Jarebitze commenced at daybreak on August

16, 1914. Here the Serbians held good ground: rocky summits, but so

limited in extent that there was room only for a few companies at a

time. On the other hand the ground before them was broken up into

hollows screened by growing corn. This enabled the Austrians to deploy

their lines beyond the Serbian flanks unseen. They did execute just such

a movement, and attempted to circle around toward the Serbian rear.

At the same time the Serbians here were attacked from in front by

another hostile column which had come from across the plain on the south

side of the Jadar valley, where hollows, sunken roads, and fields of

corn again formed ample screening. However, in spite of all these

movements, the Serbians were able to hold their own. The Austrian

attacks were all beaten back. Their position might have been held

indefinitely, but developments to the south were taking on a threatening

form.

It will be remembered that an Austrian force had been reported

approaching from the south, moving on Krupanie, and that it had seemed

so insignificant that a small detachment of third reserve troops had

been sent to hold it back. But this enemy force now developed into three

mountain brigades.

Reenforcements of infantry and mountain artillery were hurried down to

support the retaining force, but the Austrians were able to force their

way on toward Zavlaka. Seeing Valievo thus threatened, the Serbians

retired from their position at Jarebitze and took up a new position

along a line from Marianovitche to Schumer, thus enabling them to face

both the enemy columns. This retreat was fortunately not interfered with

by the Austrians, though in executing it the Serbian artillery, which

had been in position on the right bank of the Jadar, was obliged to pass

along the Austrian front in single file, in order to gain the main road.

Early the next morning, August 17, 1914, the Serbians were in position

and had extended their line to Soldatovitcha, whence the detachment from

Krupanie had retired. Summing up the day's fighting, and considering it

as a whole, it will be seen that the Austrians had pretty well held

their own, except on their extreme left, where they had failed to get in

touch with their forces in Shabatz.

After the defeat of the Austrians at Belikamen on August 16, 1914, the

cavalry division was reenforced by some infantry and artillery, then

sent on the delicate mission of driving a wedge in between the Austrians

in Shabatz and those along the Drina. Spreading out across the Matchva

plain, its left wing up against the slopes of the Tzer Mountains, and

its right wing within reach of Shabatz, it advanced as far as Dublje in

the north. At the same time it was able to assist the column advancing

along the Tzer ridges by playing its artillery on the Austrian position

in the mountains at Troyan. Throughout all the fighting this cavalry

division rendered notable service by its dismounted action.

On the morning of August 17, 1914, the extreme right of the Serbian

front now turned toward Shabatz. Though only half the number of the

forces they were proceeding to engage, they continued onward. But on

closer approach it became apparent that they could do nothing more than

hold the Austrians inside the town. So well and so thoroughly had the

Austrians fortified themselves that it was hopeless for so small a force

to attempt an attack. Thus this section of the Serbian front settled

down to wait for reenforcements.

The center and left of the Second Army now prepared to advance along the

Tzer and Iverak ridges. The Austrians in this section, who had suffered

so severely the day before at Belikamen, were now concentrated around

Troyan, the most easterly and the second highest peak of the chain.

At dawn on August 17, 1914, the Serbians located the Austrians.

Immediately they began a heavy artillery fire on this position, then

proceeded to infantry attack. Two regiments hurled themselves up the

slopes, and with bayonets and hand bombs drove the Austrians back. After

that no further progress was possible that day, the Serbians having to

wait for their artillery to come up. The Austrians now began intrenching

themselves on the heights of Kosaningrad, the loftiest portion of the

Tzer range.

Along the Iverak ridges the Austrians made a determined advance. The

situation of the Serbian troops in this section, the left wing of the

Second Army, was extremely dangerous, for their left flank was becoming

exposed by the continued retreat of the Third Army. The only hopeful

aspect of their situation was that the Austrians were also having their

left flank exposed by the retreat of the Austrians along the Tzer

ridges. Evidently the opposing forces realized this fact, for they made

a fierce attempt to drive back the Serbians opposing them, so that their

danger from the north might be lessened. Half an hour later they were

severely repulsed. But heavy reenforcements came up to the Austrians

just then, and again they attacked, this time more successfully.

By noon, August 17, 1914, the Austrians had extended their line over to

the Serbian right wing.

Unfortunately, at about that time the Third Army again called for

assistance, and this hard-pressed division was compelled to send it. The

result was that it was compelled to withdraw gradually to the heights of

Kalem. The retirement was executed in good order, and the Austrians

satisfied themselves with occupying Kugovitchi. Intrenching themselves

in their new position, the Serbians awaited further attacks. Only an

ineffectual artillery fire was maintained by the enemy. Meanwhile came

the good news of the success of the Serbians along the Tzer ridges, so

preparations were made for another advance on the following day, August

18, 1914.

As has already been stated, the extreme south wing of the Serbian front,

the Third Army, had retreated the day before so that it could present a

solid front against not only the forces opposing it, but also another

column coming up from the south, whose advance had been inadequately

covered by third reserve men. Here the Austrians attempted to pierce the

Serbian line in the extreme south and come out at Oseshina. But though

vastly outnumbered, the Serbians held their ground stoutly until late

afternoon, when, as already shown, they were compelled to ask the

division operating along Iverak for assistance. When this help came they

were able to resume their defense.

Thus ended the second day of the general battle. On the whole the

Austrians had suffered most, but the general situation was still

somewhat in their favor. The Austrian center, along the Tzer ridges, had

been pushed back. To retrieve this setback the logical course for the

Austrian commander in chief was to curl his wings in around the Serbian

flanks. That he appreciated this necessity was obvious, to judge from

the furious onslaughts against the Serbian Third Army in the extreme

south. But to weaken the Serbian center by these tactics it was also

necessary to free the Austrians in Shabatz, or, at least, it was

necessary that they should assume a strong offensive against the

extreme right of the Serbians, and, if possible, flank them.

But the Serbians anticipated the plans of the Austrians. Additional

reenforcements were sent to the extreme right with orders to spare no

sacrifice that would keep the Austrians inclosed within their

fortifications around Shabatz.

And true enough, next morning, August 18,1914, shortly after the hot

summer sun had risen over the eastern ridges, the Austrians emerged from

Shabatz and attacked the Serbians. The Austrian onslaught was furious,

so furious that, step by step, the Serbians, in spite of their

reenforcements, were driven back. Fortunately toward evening the

Austrian offensive began losing its strength, and that night the

Serbians were able to intrench along a line from Leskovitz to Mihana.

This obliged the cavalry division, which had been cooperating with the

Serbian center and was driving the Austrians toward Leshnitza, to retire

along a line from Metkovitch to Brestovatz. Naturally the advance of the

Austrians from Shabatz was endangering its right flank. Moreover, a

reenforced column of Austrians also appeared before it. But this

opposing force did not press its advance.

Meanwhile, on the same day, August 18, 1914, the Austrians were

reenforcing their position on the Tzer ridges. They had also strongly

fortified the height of Rashulatcha, which lay between the heights of

Tzer and Iverak, whence they could direct an artillery fire to either

field of activities.

But the difficulties which the Serbians operating along the Iverak

ridges were meeting also hampered the Serbians who were attempting to

sweep the Austrians back along the Tzer ridges. If they advanced too far

they would expose their flank to the Austrians over on Iverak. As a

general rule, it is always dangerous for any body of troops to advance

any distance beyond the general line of the whole front, and this case

was no exception. However, though delayed, this division did advance.

Oxen were employed in dragging the heavy field pieces along the trails

over the rocky ridges.

With savage yells the Serbian soldiers leaped over the rocks, up the

jagged slopes of Kosaningrad. Again they had fallen back on their

favorite weapons, bayonets and hand bombs. The Austrians put up a stout

resistance, but finally their gray lines broke, then scattered down the

slopes, followed by the pursuing Serbians. Having gained possession of

Kosaningrad Peak, the Serbian commander next turned his attention to

Rashulatcha, which, in conjunction with the Serbians over on Iverak,

could now be raked by a cross artillery fire. He had previously left a

reserve force behind at Troyan. This he now ordered to reenforce his

left, which had been advancing along the southern slopes of the Tzer

range. This force he now directed against the heights, but the movement

was not vigorously followed up.

Over on Iverak the Serbians had succeeded in making some headway.

Forming into two columns, this wing marched out and attacked the

Austrians at Yugovitchi and succeeded in driving them from their

trenches. But immediately the Austrian artillery on Reingrob opened fire

on them, and they were compelled to dig themselves in. And late that

night, August 18,1914, the Austrians delivered a fierce counterattack.

But night fighting is especially a matter of experience, and here the

Serbians with their two Balkan campaigns behind them, proved immensely

superior. They drove the Austrians back with their bayonets.

During that same day, August 18, 1914, the Austrians had renewed their

pressure on the Third Army and the Third Ban men. Soldatovitcha was

their first objective. During the day reenforcements arrived and the

commanding general was able to hold his own, retaking Soldatovitcha

after it had once been lost. Thus ended the day of August 18, 1914, the

third day of the battle.

Early next morning, on August 19, 1914, the Austrians in Shabatz renewed

their efforts to penetrate the Serbian lines to the southward. So

determined was their effort that finally the Serbians in this sector

were driven back over on to the right bank of the River Dobrava. All day

the fighting continued, the Serbians barely holding their position,

strong as it was.

This success of the Austrians hampered the cavalry division, which had

not only to secure its flank, but had also to keep between the Shabatz

Austrians and the Serbians operating on Tzer, whom they might have

attacked from the rear.

Along the Tzer ridges, however, things were going well for the Serbians.

At noon they had taken Rashulatcha, which left the column free to

continue its pursuit of the fleeing Austrians along the ridges. From the

heights above the Serbian guns fired into the retreating Austrians down

along the Leshnitza River, turning the retreat into a mad panic. By

evening the advance guard of this division had arrived at Jadranska

Leshnitza.

In the early morning, August 19,1914, the Serbians over on the Iverak

ridges had attacked in deadly earnest. Naturally the huge success and

rapid advance of the Serbians over on the Tzer ridges were of great

importance to them. Here the Austrians were put to rout too. At 11 a. m.

the Serbians stormed Velika Glava and took it, but here their progress

was checked by a strong artillery fire from the west of Rashulatcha.

Then rifle firing broke out along the whole line from Velika Glava to

Kik. Near Kik the Austrians were massing in strong force, and the Third

Army was reported to be again in danger, this time from a hostile

turning movement. Fortunately general headquarters was able to come to

the rescue with reenforcements. This lessened the danger from Kik.

Whereupon the advance along Iverak was continued. By the middle of the

afternoon, when the Austrians were driven out of Reingrob, the Serbians

controlled the situation. The defeat of the Austrians was complete.

The Third Army was again in trouble during this day, August 19,1914. Its

left flank continued its advance from Soldatovitcha, but the Austrians

attempted to pierce their center. But finally this sorely tried section

of the Serbian front emerged triumphant. Before evening the Austrians

were driven back in scattered disorder, leaving behind them three

hospitals filled with wounded, much material, and 500 prisoners.

Here ended the fourth day of the bloody struggle--August 19, 1914. In

the north around Shabatz the Austrians had made some advance, but all

along the rest of the line they had suffered complete disaster. The two

important mountain ridges, Tzer and Iverak, which dominated the whole

theatre of operations, were definitely in the hands of the Serbians. And

finally, the Third Army had at last broken down the opposition against

it.

Next morning, August 20, 1914, dawned on a situation that was thoroughly

hopeless for the Austrians. Even up around Shabatz, where they had been

successful the day before, the Austrians, realizing that all was lost to

the southward, made only a feeble attack on the Serbians, who were

consequently able to recross the Dobrava River and establish themselves

on the right bank.

The cavalry division, whose left flank was not freed by the clearing of

the Tzer ridges, hurled itself against the Austrians in the plains

before it and threw them into wild disorder. First they shelled them,

then charged. The panic-stricken Magyars fled through the villages,

across the corn fields, through the orchards.

"Where is the Drina? Where is the Drina?" they shouted, whenever they

saw a peasant. A burning, tropical sun sweltered over the plain. Many of

the fleeing soldiers dropped from exhaustion and were afterward taken

prisoners. Others lost themselves in the marshy hollows and only emerged

days later, while still others, wounded, laid down and died where they

fell.

In the Leshnitza similar scenes were taking place. From the ridges above

the Serbian guns roared and poured hurtling steel messages of death down

into the throngs of retreating Austrians. Some few regiments, not so

demoralized as the others, did indeed make several attempts to fight

rear-guard actions, to protect their fleeing comrades, but they again

were overwhelmed by the disorganized masses in the rear pouring over

them.

In the Jadar valley another disorganized mob of Austrians was fleeing

before the Serbians up on the Iverak ridges, who also were pouring a hot

artillery fire into their midst. Presently the Third Army joined in the

mad chase. And now the whole Austrian army was wildly fleeing for the

Drina River.

There remained only one exception during the early part of the day,

August 20, 1914. This was the Austrian forces on Kik, to the northwest

of Zavlaka. The Serbian reenforcements which, it will be remembered, had

originally been directed toward Marianovitche, had been afterward sent

westward, and at dawn on August 20 they approached Kik in two columns.

The left column occupied Osoye without resistance, but in descending

from that position, the Austrian artillery opened fire on it.

An hour later the right column came up and opened an artillery fire, and

under cover of this bombardment a Serbian regiment reached the foot of

the mountain. As was afterward learned, the Austrians at this point had

had their machine guns destroyed by the Serbian artillery fire, and by

this time their own artillery had been sent back, in preparation for the

retreat. Consequently they were only able to receive the Serbian attack

with rifle fire.

At the height of this skirmish the extreme left of the Serbians on

Iverak, which had remained to guard against attack from this quarter,

moved over against the Austrians. The cross-fire was too much for them;

they turned and fled, leaving behind over six hundred dead, the Serbians

in this affair losing only seven killed. Jarebitze was now occupied; the

rest of the Serbians joined in the general pursuit.

That night, August 20, 1914, the Austrians swarmed across the Drina,

fleeing for their lives. By the next day the whole river bank was

cleared of them. Serbian soldiers lined the whole length of the frontier

in this section. There remained now only the Austrians in Shabatz to

deal with. The whole Serbian army was now able to concentrate on this

remaining force of the enemy left in Serbian territory.

Early on August 21, 1914, the attack began, and the Austrians here

fought stoutly. Indeed, all that day they held the Serbians off from

behind their intrenchments. On August 22, 1914, the Serbians made a

general assault. Fortunately they found a weakness in the fortifications

on the western side of the town. To create a diversion, the Austrians

delivered a counterattack along the road toward Varna.

By the morning of August 24, 1914, the Serbians had brought up a number

of heavy siege guns. But when the general bombardment had already

commenced, it was found that the Austrians had evacuated the town during

the night, and retreated across the river. And so the first Austrian

invasion of Serbia came to its disastrous end.

PART V--THE AUSTRO-SERBIAN CAMPAIGN

CHAPTER LI

RESULTS OF FIRST BATTLES

Though described as a punitive expedition in the Vienna press, this

campaign cost the Austrians very dear, not only in material and in

lives, but in prestige. Just what the Austrian casualties were cannot be

definitely stated at this time, but at least 6,000 were killed outright

on the field of battle, while at least 35,000 were wounded. And another

4,000 fell into the hands of the Serbians as prisoners. In material the

Serbians report that they captured 46 cannon, 30 machine guns, 140

ammunition wagons, and a great mass of rifles, hospital paraphernalia,

ammunition, stores, and other incidentals.

The Serbian losses were heavy: 3,000 dead and 15,000 wounded. That they

were so much less is not extraordinary, for not only were they on the

defensive, but an army in flight, as were the Austrian, always loses

heavily.

The first onslaught of the Austrians in August, 1914, had been driven

back. A disorganized mob, the soldiers of Franz Josef had fled back

across the Drina and the Save, leaving thousands of dead and prisoners

behind. And for over a week the little Serbian army lay panting.

Military science says that a victory should always be followed up

closely, for a beaten army is almost as helpless as a herd of cattle.

But military science must also take into account the limitations of

human muscles and nerves. The Serbian reserve forces had been moving

back and forth along the fighting front, strengthening a defense here,

supporting an attack there, and some of them had covered from fifty to

sixty miles a day. There were no fresh troops to pursue the Austrians.

The Serbians needed rest. And so the Austro-Hungarian soldiers were

allowed to continue their northward flight unmolested.

Thus for twelve days after the Battle of Shabatz, or from August 23,

1914, there was quiet along the Austrian and Serbian frontier. The

remnants of the Austrians had definitely retired northward. And at about

that time the Russians were driving hard at the Galician front. The

Austrians were being beaten there, too. Altogether the situation looked

extremely serious for Austria at that time. But, finally, encouraged by

the Allies, the Serbian General Staff decided to send an expedition over

into Austrian territory.

Not much over twenty miles north of Shabatz is a range of mountains,

called the Frushkagora. A fairly strong force holding these rocky ridges

would be in a position to prevent the Austrian general from reenforcing

his armies in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the east. It would also afford

a better protection to the northern frontier of Serbia than would a

force of the same size stationed within Serbian territory along the Save

River. The chief thought of the Serbian general was, however, to gain

control of this natural position and hold it while another Serbian force

was invading Bosnia, in conjunction with the Montenegrin troops. What

made this first objective the more tempting was the known fact that

between the frontier and the Frushkagora range the Austrian forces

amounted only to about a dozen regiments.

To the First Army, General Putnik assigned the execution of this

expedition. That was now composed of two divisions, and the cavalry

division, which had rendered such excellent service on the Matchva Plain

during the first invasion. The left wing of this expeditionary force was

to be supported by a division in Matchva, while the "Detachment of

Belgrade" was to operate on the right. A second reserve division was to

hold Obrenovatz.

Another glance at the map will show that, almost halfway between Shabatz

and Belgrade, the Save takes a peculiar little loop into Serbian

territory, forming a narrow strip of Austrian territory projecting into

Serbia. Naturally, this little tongue could be commanded by the Serbian

guns without first crossing the river, since the Austrians could only

operate here by marching down in a narrow column between the two sides

of the loop formed by the river. Such a force, however, could be

immediately flanked by the Serbians from their side of the river. This

peculiar peninsula, known as the Kupinski Kut, was chosen as the point

at which the first crossing should be made.

CHAPTER LII

SERBIAN ATTEMPT TO INVADE AUSTRIAN TERRITORY

It was the night of September 5, 1914. So secretly was this movement

planned and begun that the Serbian field officers did not themselves

know what was to be undertaken when their forces arrived on the banks of

the river at the Kut on the nights of September 5 and 6. The marches

were made at night, to hide the movement as long as possible from the

Austrian aeroplanes, which occasionally whirred their flight over

Serbian territory.

At one o'clock in the morning of September 6, 1914, the first troops of

the invading expedition embarked on the barges lined up along the river

bank. A screening force having been ferried across, to protect the ford

against possible attack, the construction of a pontoon bridge was begun

at Novoselo, while farther up some flour mill floats were utilized for a

second bridge.

It was an ideal place for a crossing. Farther up, at the neck of the

isthmus, was an old river bed, where the Save had once cut a straight

channel. This was now full of stagnant water, while between it and the

ford the ground was covered with thick timber. The stagnant water, while

not very deep, afforded somewhat the same protection that a wire

entanglement would, and the woods served as a screen to the advance

guard of the Serbians stationed there to guard the crossing. Not far

distant, farther up in Austrian territory, was a small town, Obrez.

After the Serbian army had crossed safely, it set to work clearing the

timber away, it being no longer necessary to screen themselves from

view, and a strong line of trenches was thrown across the neck of the

isthmus, thus effectually protecting the ford for retreat, should that

be necessary.

At this moment two regiments of infantry and a battery of artillery of

the enemy appeared and attempted to oppose the further advance of the

Serbians, but when the Serbian guns began shelling the forest opposite,

this force fled in the direction of Obrez. Then the left of the Serbian

force worked its way around toward the town itself and, after firing

some dozens of shells, entered it and drove the Austrians still farther

on.

The cavalry division now came up to secure possession of the town. The

two divisions then set to work to intrench themselves. Meanwhile the

Serbian right, advancing toward the northeast, encountered another force

of the enemy, consisting of one regiment and two batteries, and, after a

short skirmish, drove it back and occupied the two villages, Kupinovo

and Progar. Thus the Serbian operations in this section fared well.

But at another point, on the extreme left, at Mitrovitza, they did not

encounter such good fortune. The division operating here was to occupy

and fortify Mitrovitza and with it a bridge, after which it was to

advance and worry the enemy's flank. The actual point chosen for the

construction of the bridge was a customs station at Jasenova Grada,

between Mitrovitza and Jarak.

The column here had arrived at the river bank at midnight of September

5, 1914, and at early dawn had begun building the pontoon bridge.

Meanwhile a steady artillery and rifle fire was kept up, sweeping the

opposite bank, to keep back the enemy. The Serbian commander of this

force had received instructions to the effect that as soon as he had

moved his troops across safely, he was to send two regiments forward:

one to the right, the other to the left, and the whole line was to

advance and cover the territory between Mangjeloskabara and Shashinshi,

the object being to push back any movement of the Austrians from Jarak.

As at Novoselo, an advance guard crossed in barges before the bridge had

been thrown across. Immediately a heavy fire began from the enemy,

hidden in the opposite forest. Many of the Serbians threw themselves

into the river, and either swam or waded the rest of their way across.

Finally three barge loads had effected a crossing. While waiting for the

rest to follow, sixty of the Serbians threw themselves over against the

Austrians and, by their very boldness, drove them out of their trenches

and took twenty prisoners.

Some delay in the building of the bridge followed, but more barge loads

of soldiers were sent across, and the fighting with the Austrians was

pushed vigorously. But meanwhile the enemy was also being reenforced,

more rapidly for not having a river behind him. By evening the Serbians,

who had crossed, found themselves tremendously outnumbered and fighting

on the defensive. At that time, one of the Serbian Regiments, which had

advanced as far as Shashinshi, found itself isolated, with both flanks

exposed.

After two hours of stubborn fighting the regiment managed to draw back

to the river bank, carrying with them a mass of wounded comrades, hoping

there to find the support of the main body of their army. But the

pontoon bridge had not yet been completed. Of the 400 yards across the

river, only twenty remained unbridged. Seeing their advantage, the

pursuing Austrians redoubled their attack furiously. The Serbian

regiment, with half its men down, and only 60 feet of water between

itself and the main corps, turned, with its back to the river, and

fought back with equal fury.

With frantic haste, the Serbian engineers attempted to finish the

building of their bridge, so that the main body of the troops might rush

across and relieve the situation of the regiment defending itself

against overwhelming numbers on the opposite bank. But before this could

be accomplished, the wounded began throwing themselves into the pontoon

nearest their side of the river. The mooring lines parted and the barge

drifted away from the end of the bridge, down the river, loaded with

wounded soldiers. The same happened to the next barge. To add to the

disaster, the barges were old and leaky, and soon one of them filled

with water and began sinking. Presently it sank, throwing the wounded

into the river, where most of them were speedily drowned.

The Serbians on the Austrian shore, now seeing their last hope of

support or escape cut off, continued fighting desperately until all

their ammunition was gone. Then the handful of survivors surrendered. By

this time it was already dark. The only one to escape across the river

was the regimental surgeon who, carrying the regimental flag between his

teeth, swam across the river and reached the main body of his countrymen

safely.

Fortunately, the recklessness which led this attempted crossing to

disaster did not characterize the movements of the main body which had

crossed at Novoselo. The advance continued under carefully thrown out

screens of cavalry, and was kept up until the trenches at the landing

could be abandoned and a wider circle of defensive works could be thrown

up, including within their line the villages already mentioned. Thus the

three Serbian bases were strongly protected by a semicircle of field

works, radiating from Kupinovo. Having secured this position, General

Boyovitch, the Serbian field commander, advanced his cavalry in fanlike

formation to the north and west. One division followed the cavalry on

the right; another took a northeasterly direction.

By the evening of September 7, 1914, the enemy had been driven back to a

line reaching from Detch to Nikintzi. No serious encounters occurred for

some days, the Austrians evidently not desiring to make any serious

opposition until they should have sufficient backing. But on the morning

of September 9, 1914, the Serbian right came in contact with strongly

intrenched Austrians at Detch and Surchin. During the first invasion the

fighting had been under a tropical sun. Now the weather was cooler,

almost cold at nights, which rendered the enthusiasm and the fighting of

the men on both sides correspondingly more spirited. It was, therefore,

with some vim that the Serbians threw themselves into an attack against

Detch. After a determined resistance, the Austrians were forced out.

Next Surchin became the center of battle, but here the Austrians held

out stoutly, driving back the Serbian charges again and again.

All that day of September 9, 1914, the Serbian advance was checked, but

the following morning, being reenforced, they charged into Surchin again

and finally drove the Austrians out at the point of the bayonet. The

Serbians then turned north and captured Dobranovtsi. And at this

junction the Serbians stationed at Belgrade crossed the river there and

advanced on Semlin.

On September 11, 1914, General Boyovitch moved his whole front forward,

with the object of driving all of the enemy westward into the

Frushkagora Mountains and gaining full possession of the plain. This

would have left the two divisions and the cavalry free to advance

against the mountain range itself. Having once gained that stronghold,

the Serbians would then have under their control the whole district of

Syrmia with its friendly population of Serbs.

The Serbians were now extended along a front from Hrtkovtsi to Pazova

Nova while the Austrians were intrenched along a line from Jarak to

Pazova Stara. The following morning the Serbian left occupied Pechintsi

and advanced north to the Romer Canal, where they met a heavy fire and

were compelled to intrench themselves. Farther west, however, the

Serbians rushed the town of Jarak and took it by means of bayonets and

hand bombs.

Such was the situation on September 12, 1914, when a bright, clear

morning had dawned and a cool breeze swept over the plain. Off in the

distance rose the blue ridges of the Frushkagora Mountains, streaked

with the green of vegetation along their lower spurs. With tingling

blood and renewed vitality the Serbians looked forward to the word of

command which should send them onward, driving the Austrians before

them.

But that word of command seemed long delayed. Finally, indeed, it came,

but only to the cavalry. The horsemen were sent ahead, up and down the

line, screening the men in the trenches. And then suddenly came the

word to the men in the trenches.

"March!"

They did fall in and begin to march. But not forward. The heads of the

columns turned toward the rear, back toward Serbia. Presently the whole

Serbian army, just as further victories seemed all but won, was on the

retreat. Behind them they heard the fire of their own cavalry,

protecting their rear. The retreat was orderly and the river was

recrossed without loss or confusion. Even more concerned and

disappointed were the Serb peasants of the villages through which they

passed, for these simple folk had thought the Magyars permanently beaten

and that King Peter's men were now moving onward to take Vienna. They

had, therefore, shown unmeasured enthusiasm and had showered gifts of

chicken, milk, eggs and other rural dainties on their brother Serbs from

Serbia, to the full extent of their slender resources. A few days later

they had to pay dearly for this manifestation of their sympathies. When

again the Magyars came down into their territory they became so

oppressive toward these poor villagers that a Croatian regiment, whose

members were racially akin to the Serbs, broke into open revolt and

attacked the Magyars, the result being a pitched battle in which not

only rifles, but machine guns and cannon were employed. Presently word

was passed back and forth among the rank and file of the Serbian army

explaining the disappointing retreat.

"The Austrians are swarming across the Drina again," their officers

whispered. "There will be plenty of fighting yet, but it will be the

same old battle ground."

Thus ended Serbia's brief invasion of Austrian soil.

CHAPTER LIII

AUSTRIA'S SECOND INVASION

The second Austrian invasion of Serbia began September 7, 1914. Had the

Serbian General Staff known what mighty efforts the Austrians were to

put forth at this second attempt to invade the country, it would never

have undertaken the expedition into Syrmia. After the failure of the

first invasion the Austrian staff placed at General Potiorek's

disposition a force of 300,000 men, with a reserve of another 150,000 to

draw upon, should the necessity become strong enough. Fortunately for

the Serbians the Russian pressure in Galicia became so strong, later on,

that this reserve force was sent through the Carpathians, and when the

critical moment did arrive, General Potiorek was unable to avail himself

of its assistance.

It may be well to know how the Austrian forces were disposed just before

the second invasion. There were five whole army corps; one was stretched

out from Klenak to Bosut; another from Bosut to Bijeljina; another from

Janja to Kosluk and another from Kosluk to Zvornik. Aside from this

force there was part of another corps lined up from Zvornik to Liubovia

and one and a half divisions held the front from Semlin to Weisskirchen.

Four battalions were kept busy by the Montenegrins.

It will be remembered that when the expedition into Syrmia began the

bulk of the Serbian army was sent to the western frontier along the

Drina, to be ready to invade Bosnia when the success of the Syrmia

expedition should be assured. But so well is Bosnia wooded in this

section that the Serbians had not been able to observe the concentration

of troops that was going on before them across the Drina.

Suddenly, on the morning of September 7, 1914, the whole frontier along

the Drina, from Jarak south, became alive with Austrian soldiers. North

of Loznitza the fighting took on a very bloody and deadly character. All

day the battle line swayed back and forth with a succession of attacks

and counterattacks. Several times the Austrians almost broke through,

but in the end their whole line was driven back across the river. In the

Matchva district, however, they succeeded in holding a triangular patch

of swamp land, bounded by Ravjne, Tolich and Jarak. But even here they

were checked along a line from Ravjne to Tolich, where both sides

intrenched and came to a deadlock for the time being. Here the two

opposing lines continued their trench warfare without much spectacular

demonstration, but with a tremendous loss of life to both sides and an

expenditure of ammunition which the Serbians could little afford.

Along the line south of Loznitza the fighting was not so favorable to

the Serbians. The forces stationed here had been weakened in the Syrmia

expedition. And then, too, the country being extremely mountainous, they

had overestimated the strength of their positions.

Here, on the morning of September 8, 1914, the Austrians began a general

advance, beginning at Liubovia. At first they were successfully held

back, but when they came on again with greatly augmented numbers, the

Serbians were finally compelled to retire to a line of hills running

from Guchevo, through Jagodina and Proslop to Rozani, where they

intrenched themselves and prepared to resist any further advance.

The Austrians, however, continued to attack. Around Krupanie below

Loznitza, the Serbians made a stubborn defense and succeeded in holding

the heights of Kostainik. But their southern, or left, wing continued to

be driven back.

By September 11, 1914, the Austrians had advanced as far as a line drawn

from Shanatz to Petska. At this critical moment, however, one of the

divisions of the force that had been recalled from Syrmia arrived and

the combined forces were ordered to advance against the Sokolska

Mountains, whose ridges were occupied by the Austrians.

The Serbians rushed the heights with their customary elan. The Austrians

resisted stubbornly. They, in their turn, had been tasting the first

draughts of victory, and were not so prepared to give in as on previous

occasions. For a long time the fighting was hand to hand. The men even

hurled big rocks at each other, grappled together in each other's arms

and fought with knives and teeth. But finally some of the Austrians

broke and scattered and presently all of them fled. Their trenches and

ground on both sides of them, however, were covered with dead, Serbians

and Austrians promiscuously mingling together.

So complete was the Serbian victory that their troops were now able to

advance and form a new line from Shanatz to Brodjanska Glavitza, with

the cavalry patrolling clear down to the Drina at Liubovia.

Further north, however, the Austrians were still in possession of

Matchko Kamen (Cat Rock). Here the fighting had been most terrific, the

heights having been taken and retaken no less than eight times. This

position dominated all the country around within artillery range. By

taking this strategic point the Serbians would have had complete

possession of a chain of heights which begin with Guchevo on the north,

and would have constituted a natural frontier which could have been held

with a minimum force of troops and expenditure of ammunition. But this

move was not carried out. Both sides were literally tired out. The

Serbians were unable to advance any farther, while the Austrians were

content with not being driven back any farther. They were, also, no

doubt worried by the fact that down in the southern section the Serbians

had succeeded in not only driving the Austrians across the river, but

had even advanced some distance into the Bosnian hills.

CHAPTER LIV

END OF SECOND INVASION--BEGINNING OF THIRD

Thus the second Austrian invasion was checked. The strategy was,

perhaps, not so spectacular as in the first invasion, but the losses to

both sides had been much heavier. In killed, wounded and prisoners the

Austrians lost fully 30,000 of their men. There now followed a

situation somewhat similar to that up in northern France; both sides

were deeply intrenched and in some parts faced each other over only a

few yards of neutral ground. Again and again the Austrians delivered

attacks, attempting to break through the Serbian positions. All the arts

of trench warfare were employed by the Austrians to overcome the Serbian

resistance, but the Serbian engineers showed themselves at least their

equals in such maneuvers. At one time they successfully mined over a

hundred yards of Austrian trenches and blew 250 of its defenders into

the air.

As for the Serbians, their attempts to break through the Austrian

positions were fatally hampered by a shortage of ammunition. At one

point they did, in fact, succeed in breaking through and then suddenly

the ammunition supply came to an end and the Serbians had to retire

again, leaving the Austrians to return to the trenches from which they

had just been ejected.

Up in the northwest the Austrians also held a narrow strip of Serbian

territory, along the Drina from Kuriachista up, but with this small

exception they were confined to their side of the river until the

triangular tract in the northeast of the Matchva Plain was reached,

previously mentioned.

Along the Save from Parashnitza to Shabatz they had also attempted a

southward movement, where they were supported by five river monitors.

During the period of comparatively little activity which now followed

the Serbians were much worried by these monitors, which patrolled up and

down the river at night, throwing their searchlights on and exposing the

Serbian trenches. Then, too, they could hurl bombs into the Serbian

positions with almost absolute impunity, for whenever the Serbian shells

struck the heavy armor of these river fortresses they rolled off

harmlessly.

On the night of October 22, 1914, the Serbians sent some mines floating

down the river, one of which struck a monitor and sank it in deep water.

For nearly six weeks through November, 1914, this deadlock continued.

But during all this time, the Austrian General Staff was quietly

preparing for another grand drive through Serbia. It was then that the

150,000 reserve, previously mentioned, was assigned to General

Potiorek's disposal, while his first line was also materially

strengthened.

Nor did the third invasion begin with any dramatic effort. The pressure

was applied gradually, little by little, until the Serbs were finally

face to face with the necessity of shortening their lines, if they were

not to be broken through. Other causes besides the increasing pressure

from the Austrians contributed to the general causes.

Winter was coming on in earnest now. The low bottom lands in the Matchva

Plain were becoming waterlogged; it was impossible to keep the trenches

from filling. The Serbians had, in the first place, made a mistake in

attempting to hold these Matchva levels. On such battle grounds, the

Magyars, from their own level plains, were too nearly their equals. On

level ground, too, the defenders have less the advantage, unless they

are in equal number, and the Serbians were everywhere in smaller number.

This inferiority, too, made it less possible for the Serbian soldiers to

obtain periods of rest away from the constant vigilance necessary in the

first line trenches. The result was that they were under a more severe

strain. They were subjected to all the drawbacks of trench warfare at

its worst, without the respite that is usually accorded to men under

these conditions on other fronts. The nerve-racking strain thus imposed

became finally more than ordinary human beings could endure. Small

wonder that the correspondents with the Serbian army reported many cases

of insanity among the men in the trenches.

Finally the order came to withdraw from the Matchva Plain, to the

foothills of the Tzer Mountains and the heights along the right bank of

the Dobrava River. This retreat, made in the face of no specially strong

attack, did not a little to depress the Serbian rank and file. It was

beginning to feel that its strength was sapping away.

It was soon obvious that a more general retirement would now become

necessary. Complete command of the Tzer Mountains could not be attained

without the expenditure of more energy and ammunition than the Serbians

could afford at this time. So a general withdrawal was ordered, along

the whole line. The Austrians, many of them fresh troops, unused to

defeat, followed up in the footsteps of the retreating Serbians with

enthusiastic vigor, from Shabatz to Liubovia. And presently Valievo, the

railroad terminus and the first objective of the Austrians, became

untenable.

On November 11, 1914, the Serbians were compelled to evacuate this city.

Its capture was the first step in the progress of the Austrians toward

Kragujevatz, Nish and a junction with the Turks near Constantinople.

Still, as later events will show, the Serbians were by no means the

beaten rabble described by the Vienna press. The score or more of cannon

which the Serbians were compelled to abandon on account of the bad

condition of the mountain roads were hailed as evidence of a hardly won

campaign, and the stragglers captured were accepted as signs of a

demoralization which had as yet not set in.

On the other hand, whether this first success was real or not, it did

serve to inspire the Austrian troops with an enthusiasm which they had

hitherto not possessed.

The Serbians had not yet been driven back on the line along which they

had originally intended to make their first stand against the invaders.

During the period between the first mobilization and the beginning of

the first invasion on August 12, 1914, what are referred to as the

Kolubara and Lyg positions had been strongly intrenched. But it had not

proven necessary to fall back on these positions; the Austrians had been

driven back at once. But now, after the fall of Valievo, the Serbians

decided to make no further resistance to the Austrian advance until this

line was reached.

The Kolubara River itself is not of sufficient width to hold back an

advancing army long, but in places its banks rise so high and steep that

it serves very much the same purpose as a moat before a castle. In such

places comparatively few men could hold back a large number of the

enemy. A little south of Lazarevatz the line of intrenchments left the

Kolubara and followed the Lyg River, where the country was even more

rugged. From the source of the Lyg the Serbians had fortified the Jeljak

and Maljen ridges, which control practically all the roads leading to

Kragujevatz and, proceeding in a southwesterly direction, they threw up

earthworks on the Bukovi, Varda, Jelova, Bukovic, Miloshevatz and Leska

Gora ranges, which defended an advance toward the Western Morava Valley.

CHAPTER LV

PRELIMINARY AUSTRIAN SUCCESSES

It was along this line that in November, 1914, the Serbians determined

the decisive battle of the campaign should be fought. At Obrenovatz was

stationed a strong brigade, known as the "Detachment of Obrenovatz."

Further south, at Konatiche, on the Kolubara River, the cavalry division

cooperated with the Second Army, which held the line from Volujak to

Cooka and the ridges farther to the left. The Third Army occupied the

right bank of the Lyg River from Barzilovitza to Ivanovchi. The First

Army stretched itself out from Gukoshi to Ruda and along the Jeljak

ridges to Maljen. And finally the "Army of Uzitsha," which had fought so

brilliantly before in the southern section and penetrated into Bosnia,

was assigned the protection of the base at Uzitsha and the Western

Morava; it intrenched itself from a point southwest of Yasenovatz,

through Prishedo, along the Jelova crests, after which it crossed over

to the heights of the Leska Gora to Shanatz.

This new line, much shorter than that previously held, enabled the

Serbians to contract. Moreover, all the country was favorable to

defense. Nowhere was it so screened that an approaching enemy could

surprise them. Here, certainly, one defender was equal to two invaders.

Apparently the Austrian commanders realized that they had genuine

obstacles to overcome, for they did not proceed with any impetuous

haste. It was six weeks before they had advanced so far as to come into

real contact with the new Serbian line. During that interval they had

been preparing for this kind of mountain warfare, by bringing up special

mountain artillery and men who had had experience in just such a country

on the Italian front.

It was mid-November, 1914, before the Austrians were ready to deliver

their first assaults. Almost every garrison in the town of Bosnia had

been drawn on to swell their numbers and the troops brought up from the

Italian front amounted to a whole army corps. All in all, there were

about 250 battalions of infantry, in addition to cavalry, artillery and

engineer corps.

One feature of this third invasion, which had not attended the first and

second, was the vast number of refugees who now came fleeing through the

Serbian lines. Their ox carts and their flocks blocked the roads, old

men and women and children thronged the trails in their mad haste to get

away from the advancing Austrians. Their reports of the vast numbers of

the enemy that they had seen may not have helped to encourage the

Serbian soldiers, but, on the other hand, they gave reports, somewhat

exaggerated, perhaps, of such hideous atrocities committed by the

Magyars that henceforth the Serbians were to fight with an added

bitterness and hatred.

Allowing for a certain amount of exaggeration, there still seems to be

solid foundation for the reports of atrocities committed by the

Austrians in Serbia. But this seems to be a circumstance inseparable

from any war. And, naturally, the invaders are necessarily always the

guilty ones. The Serbians did not commit atrocities for the very simple

reason that they never had the opportunity to come in among the enemy's

villages. Had they invaded the Hungarian plains there would undoubtedly

have been atrocities committed on both sides. An army like the Austrian,

composed of so many different nationalities and races, would naturally

be more susceptible to such excesses.

Whatever their reasons for waiting so long before their next general

attack, the Austrians had, at any rate, played into the hands of their

enemy to the extent that they had allowed him to accumulate a plentiful

supply of ammunition. Moreover, more was coming, sent by the Allies and

this had a cheering effect on the men.

On the morning of November 15, 1914, the Austrians began their first

attack. It developed principally against the Second Army, south of

Lazarevatz, and against the Uzitsha detachment in the direction of

Kosjerichi. For five days the Austrians sent successive waves dashing

against the Serbian walls, but each was repelled, hurled back, with

comparatively little effort. How determined the Austrians were may be

judged from the fact that the Serbians now took more prisoners than they

had during all the previous operations.

Meanwhile the Austrians were also making a determined effort to take

Belgrade; an effort, as will be described later, which was also to have

an initial success. But, considering the unfamiliarity of even the best

informed with the Serbian country, it will, perhaps, be wiser to take

each theatre by itself. The operations before Belgrade, anyhow, were not

closely connected with those in the interior of the country.

It seemed as though during those first five days of fighting the

Austrians were merely testing the relative strength of the various

sections of the Serbian line. On November 20, 1914, a powerful force of

Austrians advanced and took possession of Milovatz, in close contact

with the right flank of the First Army. Another column drove at its

center at Ruda and successfully stormed the heights of Strazhara. The

next day these movements developed into a mighty assault on the Serbian

positions in this section. All day the Serbians held their ground, but

toward evening the center weakened, then caved in, collapsed. The result

was that the whole First Army was beaten back with heavy loss, until it

was finally able to make another stand along the line from Babina Glava

to Rajac.

The fire of the renewed attack flared up and down the front. The Third

Army of the Serbians succeeded in holding its ground. Between the

Uzitsha detachment and the Austrians the fighting was especially bloody,

but neither side gained any distinct advantage.

But the retirement of the First Army from its strong position from Ruda

to Gukoshi was disastrous, not only from a purely military aspect, but

also in that it sent a wave of depression up and down the whole line of

Serbians. This loss might be retrieved by an effective artillery

support, but again the Serbians were feeling a shortage of ammunition.

Armed Bulgarian bands entering Serbia from Bulgaria had finally

succeeded in interrupting railroad traffic, and the supply of ammunition

had been abruptly broken off.

Fortunately for the Serbians, the Austrians showed their usual

disinclination of following up their success immediately. Their center

rested while their mountain brigades delivered a rather feeble attack on

the Serbian extreme left, on the line from Varda to Gruda.

It was November 24, 1914, before the Austrians came on in force again.

This time the Second Serbian Army was forced back; to a line running

from Galvitza to Smyrdlykovatz and the heights of Cooka were taken. The

Uzitsha army was also forced to retire, on to the Goinjagora Mountains,

at the head of the Western Morava Valley. The Austrians now also

attempted to outflank the extreme left of the Serbian line. With this

object in view they shot their mountain brigades down along their right,

until the threatened Serbian flank was compelled to swing back to

protect itself from an enveloping movement.

Finally, on November 28, 1914, the Uzitsha Army was able to make a

determined stand along the heights from Kita to Markovitza.

In the south the Serbians had suffered a serious setback. Counterattacks

were of little avail. How desperately the Serbians resisted may be

judged from the fact during one of their counterattacks, made at

Salinatz, they took prisoner seven officers and 1,580 men. In general,

however, they were forced back, step by step. One by one, each

succeeding ridge fell into the hands of the invaders. And finally the

dominating ridges of the Suvobor Mountains were in complete possession

of the Austrians.

In the north the Serbians had made a better showing. Along the Kolubara

River the fighting had been especially heavy. One Austrian division had

even succeeded in penetrating as far as Progon, on November 24, 1914,

but it was finally driven back by the cavalry division with heavy loss.

The result of this stage of the fighting was that the Serbians had again

been compelled to lengthen their lines; their front now extended from

Tchatchak to Belgrade, almost seventy miles.

CHAPTER LVI

CRISIS OF THE CAMPAIGN--AUSTRIAN DEFEAT

We have now arrived at the critical point, not only of the third

Austrian invasion, but of all the military operations in the Serbian

theatre. If the Austrians should now again be driven back, it would be

practically impossible for them to make another invasion unaided, at

least so long as they were engaged with Russia. And, on the other hand,

if the Serbians lost now, the whole country was lost. The climax was at

hand. For this reason it may be well to define again the position and

the strength of the two opposing lines.

On November 28, 1914, the Serbian units were disposed as follows: The

Second Army, from Vechani to Vagan; the Third Army, from Kalanjevchi to

Kelja; the First Army, from Silopaj to Galich; the Uzitsha Army, from

Kita to Markovitza.

The Austrians had four mountain brigades in the direction of the Western

Morava Valley; about one and a half army corps on the road along Valievo

to Milanovatz; an entire corps against Lazarevatz and two corps moving

eastward against the Serbian line from Belgrade to Mladenovatz.

On the night of November 29, 1914, to shorten this long line the

Serbians decided to withdraw from Belgrade. A redistribution of the

Serbian forces was then made as follows: the troops from the Kolubara

retired to the heights about Sibnitza and the Belgrade detachment was

thrown astride the Belgrade-Nish Railroad along the summits of

Varoonitza in the east and Kosmai in the west. Elsewhere the positions

remained practically the same as before. Apparently General Putnik felt

that the retreat of the First Army, which had caused the general

retirement of the Serbian front, had not been absolutely necessary, for

the commander of that force was now relieved and in his place was

appointed General Mishitch, a member of the General Staff. How wise this

change was may be judged from the later behavior of the First Army,

which was destined yet to retrieve itself.

To the trained military observer, the strategic plan of the Austrians

would by this time have become apparent. With the Suvobor Mountains as a

central pivot, they had strengthened their wings and attempted to swing

around in the north by Mladenovatz and south down the Western Morava

Valley. Had this movement been safely accomplished the mass of the

Serbian army, together with their arsenal at Kragujevatz, would have

been rounded up, after which the new Serbian capital, Nish, would have

followed easily and Serbia would have been completely in Austrian hands.

On December 2, 1914, this was the plan which the Austrians were putting

into execution, in rather a leisurely way, when the Serbians, having

drawn in their breath for a final effort, began their great

counterattack. Nor can there be any doubt that the Austrians were

completely surprised by this sudden renewal of the Serbian strength. It

is only necessary to read the press dispatches from Vienna, issued

during the few days previous, to be convinced that General Potiorek had

reported the Serbians as completely defeated. Not only the Austrians,

but the whole world was surprised by the startling change that now took

place in the Serbian theatre.

Under the command of General Mishitch, the First Army hurled itself

against Suvobor and, after a bloody three days' struggle, took the

heights and pushed in the Austrian center, driving its forces in this

section in a disorganized flight toward Valievo. The days that ended the

first invasion were renewed. Nor was this flight a mere sudden panic; it

had, in fact, risen in a crescendo, from a small beginning, until it

developed into a veritable debacle.

At first the Austrians had attempted an orderly withdrawal, as testified

by their effort to take with them all their heavy artillery. The scene

that occurred near Gorni Toplitza will serve to illustrate the whole

retreat. Here, where the road winds around a commanding bluff, which

overlooks a valley, the Austrians had planted a battery of field guns,

right on the edge of the cliff. In the road leading up to this height

were placed a score of ammunition wagons from which little two-wheeled

carts were employed to carry the ammunition up to the guns. Deployed on

the flank of this position, the Serbian gunners had suddenly covered it

with a terrible enfilading fire and men, horses, carts, and wagons lay

in a mangled heap. There were dead horses in the shafts of the carts,

whose bridles were still clutched by the hands of dead men. Some few had

tried to escape the avalanche of flying steel and as they ran they

hurled from them caps, ammunition, haversacks and rifles only to be

raked down before they could reach the shelter of a neighboring ravine.

And this was merely one little corner of the general scene. All along

the road to Valievo the ground was strewn with material, even to the

rations of the soldiers, jolted out of the knapsacks as they were cast

down by their fleeing owners.

During that first day of fighting the First Army captured twelve

officers, 1,500 men, five mountain howitzers and four machine guns, then

advanced, until by nightfall it was able to take up a position along a

line from Kostuniche to Vranovicha. During this time the Uzitsha Army

was fiercely attacked in its position on both sides of the Western

Morava Valley, but it succeeded in driving back the assaults. The Third

Army had also advanced slowly toward Lipet, taking over 500 prisoners

and two machine guns. The Second Army met desperate opposition, but

finally began surging ahead and soon sent in its share of captured war

material and prisoners.

In the north an important force of the Austrians was making toward

Belgrade, to lead a triumphal entry. Reconnoitering parties, sent out

from the flank of this body, were seen in the direction of Slatina and

Popovitch.

The decided successes of this first day's fighting acted as a powerful

stimulant on the previously depressed Serbian rank and file, though they

still realized that there was many a hard fought attack to be driven

into the vitals of the ponderous body of the enemy before he could be

finally hurled back across the frontier. The Austrians still remained in

possession of mountain positions of great natural strength, which could

only be taken at the point of the bayonet. But the Serbians had

recovered their _morale_; again they were fighting with that energy and

vigor which had characterized their assaults during the first and second

invasions. And they were amply rewarded.

By December 5, 1914, the First Army had retaken the dominating heights

of the Suvobor Mountains and the summit of Rajatz. The Third Army, after

buckling back a stubborn resistance, advanced as far as Vrlaja during

the day. During that same night the Austrians were driven from Lipet,

leaving 2,000 of their own number behind as prisoners. The Second Army,

on its part, had pushed steadily on and by night it reached Kremenitza

and Barosnevatz. The Uzitsha Army, opposed by greater numbers, was

unable to participate in the general forward movement, but, on the other

hand, it held its own during the day's fighting. During that night it

hurled itself at the enemy, and by morning he was retreating toward

Zelenibreg.

There was now no longer any doubt that the chances of success for this

third invasion of Serbia were beginning to assume very slender

proportions. The three army corps in the Austrian center and right had

been completely broken and were now retreating in mad, disorganized

flight toward Valievo and Rogatitza. Even should the Serbians fail to

follow up this section of the enemy's forces with full vigor; even

should it have a few days for re-forming, the loss of so much war

material made such a possibility very difficult. There would hardly be

time, under any circumstance, to draw fresh supplies from over the

frontier before the Serbians could come up with them.

On December 7, 1914, the Uzitsha Army reached Pozega. The First Army,

after storming and taking the heights of Maljen, advanced and formed a

line between Maljen and Toplitza. The Third Army made a strong push

forward and reached the line from Milovatz to Dubovitza, making a great

haul of guns and prisoners. Only the Second Army failed to make any

headway. Obviously, the Austrian field commander realized that the

situation in the center was lost; this would account for his attempted

diversion in the north. Here two Austrian corps held their ground

successfully and they not only were able to check the advance of the

Second Army, but they advanced to an attack against the detachment of

Belgrade at Kosmai and Varoonitza.

On the whole, however, the fortunes of war had, during that day, rested

decidedly with the Serbians. They had captured 29 officers, 6,472 men,

27 field guns, 1 mountain gun, 15 gun carriages, 56 wagons loaded with

artillery ammunition and between 500 and 600 ordinary transport wagons.

Above all, the situation in the south, where it had at first seemed most

hopeless, was now retrieved beyond question and the Austrians in that

section were fleeing helter-skelter before a lively Serbian advance, led

by the Serbian Generals Yourishich and Mishitch.

The next day, December 8, 1914, began with hard fighting around Uzitsha,

but the division here (the Uzitsha detachment), was not to be pressed

back on its very own home soil; the Austrian lines wavered, broke, then

scattered, the soldiers fleeing for the frontier. The First Army

continued triumphantly, as it had done the day before, advancing and

sweeping all in its way before it. It ended the day by storming and

entering Valievo.

The Austrians holding Valievo had carefully prepared for its defense,

for this town they were reluctant to give up. The approach by the main

road had been heavily intrenched and the guns were in position. But the

main force of the Serbians circled around in the hills and flanked the

position of the Austrians, taking them completely by surprise. They

broke and ran, and while the fugitives hurried off toward Loznitza and

Shabatz, a rear guard of Hungarians on the hills to the northwest put up

a rather indifferent fight before they, too, fled in mad disorder. The

last of them were caught by the Serbian artillery and, while running

over a stretch of rising ground, over a hundred were shot to pieces by

shrapnel. When the Serbians arrived the ground was literally covered

with mangled forms; here and there sat a few wounded.

The Third Army likewise shared in the general triumph. It reached the

Kolubara, at its junction with the Lyg. Throwing out one of its

divisions eastward, it threatened the right flank of the enemy on Cooka,

then permitted the Second Army to carry that position. By this movement

the Serbians succeeded in driving in a wedge and completely cut off the

three beaten and fleeing corps in the south from the two in the north,

which were still showing some disposition to hold their ground.

The operations in the west and northwest now resolved themselves into a

wild, scrambling foot race for the frontier. The worst of the fighting

was now over; indeed, the Austrians now fought only when cornered. Most

of them were by this time unarmed, thinking of nothing but how to reach

the frontier before the first of the pursuing Serbians.

Only a powerful literary pen could paint such a picture as was now

spread over the land of Serbia. Wounded warriors, now resolving

themselves into helpless, suffering farmers, simple tillers of the soil,

save for the tatters of their blue and gray uniforms which alone

indicated what they had been, lay by the roadsides and along mountain

trails, abandoned by their comrades. Others lay mangled, their forms

beaten out of all recognition. Scattered over all, wherever road or

trail passed, lay guns and cartridges, sometimes in heaps, where they

had been dumped out of the fleeing wagons. And further on lay the wagons

themselves, some thrown over on their sides, where the drivers had cut

the traces and continued their flight on the backs of their horses.

Later in the day, December 8, 1914, the scenes along the highways took

on a different character. The main columns of the pursuing Serbians had

passed on, but straggling files of those too tired or too weak to be in

the fore of the chase still continued onward. More slowly followed a

steady stream of returning refugees, their oxen, in various stages of

life and death, yoked up to every conceivable manner of springless

vehicle, piled high with odds and ends of furniture and bedding which

had been snatched up in the mad hurry of flight. On top of the bundles

lay sick and starving children, wan with want and exposure. Beside the

wagon walked weary women or old men, urging their animals on with weird

cries and curses, returning to the devastated remains of what had once

been their homes.

Later still, from opposite directions, came processions of Austrian

prisoners, sometimes thousands of them, guarded by a handful of Third

Ban Serbian soldiers, still wearing their peasant costumes. Among the

prisoners were smooth-faced youths and old men, some in the uniforms of

soldiers, or of Landwehr, or Landsturm. All types of that hodge-podge of

nationalities and races which the flag of Austria-Hungary represents

were there; Germans, Magyars, Croats, Czechs, Moravians, Slovaks,

Rumanians, Lithuanians, and Bosnian Musselmans.

In between the convoys straggled men of the Serbian army who had fallen

out of the chase by the way, most of them Third Ban men, too advanced in

years to keep up the pace set by the younger men. Nowhere moved anything

but suffering, bleeding humanity.

On this scene the sun, a glowing disc of copper, finally set, and the

struggling figures merged into the deepening dusk, and presently only

black, halting shadows were creeping along the dark trails and roads.

CHAPTER LVII

THE FATE OF BELGRADE

During all this time a separate drama was being enacted in and around

Belgrade, the Serbian capital. Unfortified and not especially adapted

for defense, except for the breadth of the Danube flowing along its low

front, it was the cause of a general, world-wide wonder that it should

not have fallen almost immediately into Austrian hands. Quite aside from

military values, the capture of an enemy's capital always makes a

strong, moral impression, on both sides.

Beginning with the early morning of July 29, 1914, when a detachment of

Serbian irregulars beat off a river steamer and two troop laden barges

which were attempting to approach the shore just below Belgrade, there

followed a period during which the citizens of the city had their full

share in experiencing the horrors of warfare. The booming of heavy siege

artillery and the screaming of shells at first startled them, then

became so commonplace as barely to attract their attention. The attacks

and counterattacks on mid-river islands became incidents of daily

occurrence. Ruined buildings, wrecked houses and dead bodies in the

streets became an unmarked portion of their everyday life.

For the greater part of this period Austrian cannon, planted across the

river, poured shell, shrapnel, and incendiary bombs into the city, with

intent to batter down its modern buildings and to terrorize the

inhabitants. Over 700 buildings were struck by bombs, shells, or

shrapnel, and of these sixty were the property of the state, including

the university, the museum, foreign legations, hospitals, and factories.

The foundries, bakeries and all the factories along the Serbian shore of

the river were razed to the ground. Austrian howitzer shells dropped

through the roof of the king's palace and wrecked all of the gorgeous

interior. The university was riddled until the building, with its

classrooms, laboratories, library, and workshops, was entirely

demolished. Even the cellars were destroyed by great shells, which broke

down the walls, pierced their way into the very bowels of the earth and

there exploded. As the result of a steady fire to destroy the state

bank, one street, running up from the water's edge, was ripped up from

curb to curb. Missiles pierced the wood paving and its concrete

foundations by small holes, passed along underground for some distance,

then exploded, throwing particles of the roadway to all sides.

Many of these shells were fired from the Austrian batteries stationed

over near Semlin, but presently there also appeared a fleet of river

monitors, so heavily armored that no Serbian shell could pierce their

sides. These would parade up and down the river channel with impunity,

adding their share to the general destruction.

Finally, in the beginning of November, 1914, there arrived in Belgrade

two big 14-centimeter cannon, sent by the French Government by way of

the Adriatic, together with French gunners and 20,000 rounds of

ammunition. These were put into position above the city and on November

8, 1914, the French gunners sent their first message over into Hungary.

The damage inflicted so impressed the monitors that they did not again

venture into range. Moreover, spies, of whom there were probably a

number in Belgrade, had doubtless notified the Austrians that measures,

were now being taken to mine the river effectively. In fact, many

measures for a more effective offensive were being undertaken when the

trend of operations in the interior forced the Serbian General Staff to

order the evacuation of the capital.

It will be remembered that the Serbians had been beaten back from their

main line of defense and that a rearrangement of the Serbian forces had

thereby become necessary, in order that the line might be shortened.

This included the abandonment of Belgrade on November 29, 1914. The

order was carried out during the night. But before retiring, the French

gunners, who saw that they were going to lose their two big guns,

determined to bid the enemy across the river a hearty good-by. In the

early morning they fired off their stock of 240 rounds of ammunition and

in a little more than half an hour deposited some twelve tons of

melinite on the enemy's forts at Bezania, with such terrifying effect

that the garrison abandoned it. Thus it came to pass that the two

strongholds, having snarled and barked at each other across the dividing

waters for nearly five months, were both evacuated at the same time.

As will be remembered, the right wing of the Serbian lines, now joined

by the garrison of Belgrade, swung back and stretched across the

Belgrade-Nish railroad, along the ridges of Varoonitza in the east and

Kosmai in the west. The Austrian left, composed of two army corps,

immediately covered the ceded territory and, of course, entered

Belgrade. Then followed the strong Serbian counterattack against the

Austrian center along the Suvobor ridges and the complete demoralization

of the Austrian forces from the center south.

The northern wing of the Austrians, however, which held the country

around Belgrade succeeded in holding its own, though it was presently

cut off from the rest of the Austrian forces. But this was all according

to the plans of General Putnik. Being much outnumbered he could not

spare the forces necessary to rout the enemy's strong northern force.

Having broken the center of Potiorek's front, the Serbian commander gave

his chief attention to capturing the Austrian southern wing, operating

in the Western Morava Valley.

On December 8 and 9, 1914, the Serbian right wing had been hard pressed

along the line from Kosmai to Varoonitza, but the completeness of the

Austrian defeat in the other theatres enabled General Putnik to

rearrange his troops. He therefore dispatched the left wing of the Third

Army against Obrenovatz, attached the rest of the Third Army and the

cavalry division to the Second Army and placed this new combination of

forces, together with the garrison of Belgrade, under the command of

Voivode Stepanovitch, he who had made so brilliant a record at the first

battle on the Tzer ridges.

CHAPTER LVIII

ATTEMPTS TO RETAKE BELGRADE

On December 10, 1914, General Stepanovitch immediately began a movement

against Belgrade which had now been in the hands of the Austrians since

the first of the month. At this time the Third Army was pressing on

toward Obrenovatz, the cavalry division held the left bank of the

Beljanitza River, the Second Army was holding a line from Volujak to

Neminikuchir, the Belgrade detachment still maintained the ridges along

Kosmai and Varoonitza and a detachment, which had come up from

Semendria, occupied Pudarchi. The troops thus formed a crescent, with

one horn touching the Save and the other the Danube, Belgrade being the

star in the middle.

The Austrian main positions stretched from Obrenovatz up the right bank

of the Kolubara to Konatitche and then across to Grooka through Boran,

Vlashko and Krajkova Bara.

There now followed what was probably the most stubborn fighting of the

third invasion: either the Austrian soldiers composing this northern

army were better material, or the Austrian commanders were especially

animated with the necessity of holding Belgrade.

On the morning of December 11, 1914, the Serbian advance began. As

possession of the railroad was of first importance, the center pushed

rapidly ahead until it reached Vlashko heights. Again and again the

Serbians charged up the slopes of this eminence, only to be beaten back.

But finally, toward evening, the Austrians fell back and the summit was

taken, thereby giving the Serbians control of the railroad at Ralia; the

terminus of the line, in fact, for a tunnel several miles farther north

had been blown up by the Serbians on the day they had evacuated

Belgrade.

Early the next day, December 12, 1914, the advance was continued and the

left wing of the Third Army reached Obrenovatz and its right occupied a

line from Konatitche to Boshdarevatz. The Second Army occupied the

summits designated as Hills 418 and 287 and the Belgrade detachment

advanced to a front from Koviona to Krajkova Bara.

Thus, with astonishing swiftness, and in spite of the stubborn

resistance, the crescent was contracting and the Austrians were being

squeezed back into Belgrade. But they continued their desperate

resistance, fighting over every foot of ground before surrendering it.

By December 13, 1914, the enemy had been routed from all the territory

lying between the Save and the Drina, but with such desperation did the

Austrians cling to Belgrade that they delivered repeated counterattacks

upon the Serbian positions at Koviona and Krajkovo Bara before they

finally retired north.

The triumphant Serbians, though they had suffered severely, followed up

the retreat vigorously, pressing along the banks of the Topchiderska

River on the left and up the main road on the right. The left wing had

advanced up the Kolubara River toward its junction with the Save, which

was eight miles behind the Austrian front. The enemy had to draw back

for fear of being suddenly taken in the rear. Two monitors were sent up

the river to check the Serbian cavalry division, which was trying to

work its way around the marshes and thus cut off the Austrian force

entirely. But this movement of the left wing was merely a feint; it was

intended simply to make the Austrian line waver. While the Austrians

were maneuvering in answer to this feint, the Serbian center was pushing

its advance.

The Austrians had attempted to check the Serbian advance by intrenching

heavy rear-guard forces in several strong positions, the nature of the

country being especially suited to such tactics. The hills along the

road north of Ralia are, indeed, strategic points of immense military

value. But the Serbians, their capital now almost in view, pressed on

with frantic vigor.

The Austrians fought manfully, giving them one of the best fights they

had yet been through. Instead of merely clinging to their hill

intrenchments, they made fierce and determined efforts to pierce the

Serbian line. It was in one of these counterattacks, near the central

height, where the railroad entered a tunnel, that the resistance of the

Austrians was broken. After the Serbian riflemen, with their machine

guns, had thrown back the enemy, the Serbian artillery caught the

retiring masses of blue and gray clad soldiers of the Dual Empire.

This produced a panic in the densely packed retreating column, whereupon

the Serbian infantrymen leaped out of their trenches and dashed forward

in pursuit, forming two pursuing columns, one on either flank of the

fleeing Austrians, like wolves worrying a wounded buffalo. And as these

streams of Serbians ran uphill more rapidly than the blue-gray flood

moved, the Austrian rear guards, composed of heavy forces, turned to

check the pursuit.

On the morning of December 14, 1914, the Serbians approached the

southern defenses of Belgrade, where the Austrians must make their last

stand; along a line from Ekmekluk to Banovobrodo. Here General Potiorek

had constructed a system of earthworks, consisting of deep trenches with

shrapnel cover and well-concealed gun positions, with numerous heavy

howitzers and fieldpieces. Evidently he hoped to withstand an indefinite

siege on this fragment of Serbian territory, holding Belgrade as a

bridgehead for another advance toward the main Morava Valley, when the

next effort to invade Serbia should be made. He would, at the same time,

preserve at least a semblance of his prestige from all the calamities

that had befallen his armies, enabling him to represent the campaign as

a reconnaissance in force, similar to Hindenburg's first advance against

Warsaw.

But his troops had been so terribly punished that they could not

garrison the siege defenses. The Serbians, now drunk with their many

victories, and absolutely reckless of death, as they drove on toward

their capital, with their old king, grandson of Black George, moving

through their foremost ranks, charged up into the ring of hills.

The last fight, on December 14, 1914, which definitely broke the back of

the last effort of the Austrians to maintain a footing on Serbian soil,

took place on the central height, Torlak. Two battalions of Magyars were

defending this point. And just as the sun was setting over in the

Matchva swamps in a glow of fiery clouds, the foremost Serbians leaped

up to the attack.

Long before the fight was over darkness set in. The Serbians, driven

back again and again, came back like bounding rubber balls. Finally they

gained the trenches, and one general, horrible melee of struggling,

shouting, furious combatants set in. The shooting had died down; they

were fighting with bayonets and knives now. Finally the tumult died

down. But nearly every Austrian on that height died. Few escaped and not

very many were taken prisoners. Then, under cover of the night, the

Serbians spread over the other heights and captured the whole line of

defense works.

No Serbian slept that night. They tugged and dragged at their heavy guns

through all the dark hours, up toward the city, and placed them on

heights commanding the pontoon bridges that had been thrown over the

Save from Semlin.