SERBIANS RETAKE THE CITY—END OF THIRD INVASION

As the sun rose on December 15, 1914, the Serbian cavalry, accompanied by King Peter, swept down from the heights of Torlak and entered the streets of the capital. A volley from the remnant of a Hungarian regiment met them. The cavalrymen dismounted and began driving the Magyars down the streets, from one square to another. And while this fight, an armed riot rather than a military action, was going on, finally to end in the practical slaughter of all the Hungarians who would not surrender, the king entered the cathedral of his capital to celebrate a Mass of thanksgiving for the deliverance of his kingdom from the hands of the enemy. And even as the Mass ended, stray shots echoed through the streets of the city still.

Two hours later the Crown Prince Alexander, accompanied by his brother, Prince George, a strong cavalry escort, and the British military attachÉ, approached Belgrade. They were met on the outskirts by a crowd of women and children who, with a few exceptions, were all of the inhabitants that remained, the Austrians having carried the others off with them the day before. They had collected masses of flowers, and with these they bombarded and decorated the incoming soldiers. The girls brought the embroidered scarfs and sashes, which they had worked in preparation for marriage, and these they hung about the cavalrymen's necks until they looked as though they were celebrating at a village wedding. Huge tricolor streamers now hung from the houses and buildings, while bits of dirty bunting fluttered from the cottages.

In the streets of Belgrade the Austrians left 5 cannon, 8 ammunition wagons, 440 transport wagons, and 1,000 horses. Some 150 junior officers and 10,000 men also found their retreat suddenly cut off; among them were few officers of high rank. In one of the officers' headquarters the evening meal was still spread on the table, the soup half consumed, the wine half drunk.

So ended the third Austrian invasion of Serbia. Of the army of 300,000 men who had crossed the Drina and Save rivers, not over 200,000 returned. During the last thirteen days of the operations the Serbians had captured 41,538 prisoners, including 323 officers, and enormous quantities of war material; 133 cannon, 71 machine guns, 29 gun carriages, 386 ammunition wagons, 45 portable ovens, 3,350 transport wagons, 2,243 horses, and 1,078 oxen. The Austrian killed and wounded numbered not far from 60,000.

The Austrian occupation of Belgrade had lasted just fourteen days. The invaders had evidently not counted on the disaster that was so soon to come to them. Under the guidance of their late military attachÉ in Serbia they had established themselves in the best available buildings, began to repair the streets, which they themselves had ripped open by shell fire, and set up the semblance of a city administration. But it was still evident that no central authority from above had as yet been able to assert itself. The personality of each commander, was represented by the marks left behind in his district. The buildings occupied by one military authority remained cleanly and intact, even the king's photograph being left undamaged. In others, furniture was destroyed and the royal image shot and slashed to pieces. Entire sections of the town escaped pillage. Other quarters were plundered from end to end. While the cathedral and other churches were not seriously damaged, the General Post Office was completely wrecked. The furniture in the Sobranje, the house of the national assembly, was destroyed and broken, and the Royal Palace was stripped from floor to ceiling, the contents being carted off to Hungary in furniture vans, brought especially from Semlin for that purpose.

With the army of occupation came 800 wounded soldiers from the other theatres of operations. Most of them were immediately turned over to the American Red Cross unit established in Belgrade, already caring for 1,200 wounded Serbians. As the fighting continued in the interior these numbers were constantly augmented, until the American hospital sheltered nearly 3,000 wounded men.

When the evacuation began the Austrians left their own wounded, but took with them the Serbian patients, to swell the number of their prisoners of war. Several hundred of the non-combatant citizens were also taken into captivity.

In the importance of its influence on the war as a whole, the achievement of the Serbians in repelling the three Austrian invasions will probably be found, when the later history of the war is finally written, to take very high rank. For had Serbia fallen, the Teutonic Empires would have been united with little delay to their Turkish allies. Austria might then have been able to hold off the Russians by herself, while the Germans would thereby have been so much stronger for pressing their campaigns in Belgium and East Prussia; with what results can only be guessed. The Austrians themselves were astounded by the extraordinary power of little Serbia. Their last disaster, indeed, so roused their anger that they began preparing again for another attempt to conquer this stubborn little nation.

Calling the Germans to their aid, they began in January, 1915, to collect a new army, 400,000 strong, which was ranged along the Serbian frontier. But the pressure from the Russians on the Carpathian front presently became so heavy that this body of troops was needed there, and so Serbia was left in peace for the time being.

Thenceforward only insignificant fighting took place between the belligerents on each side of the river, such fighting being mostly in the nature of artillery actions. Belgrade was not again, during that period at least, subjected to bombardment. An arrangement was made between the Serbian and Austrian commanders whereby the Serbians refrained from firing on Semlin, and the Austrians spared Belgrade.

There was, however, some activity on the river itself. Belgrade was now garrisoned by a mixed force of Serbians, British, and French, the British being mostly gunners, who had been detached, together with some big naval guns, from the British navy. For some time before they arrived the Austrian monitors and picket boats had again been patrolling the Danube and annoying the Serbians, but the Belgrade garrison put an end to the activities of these vessels with their big guns. The British sailors especially rendered good service by means of a small picket boat commanded by Lieutenant Commander Kerr. Though armed with only a single machine gun, this small boat was so persistently troublesome to the enemy that it earned for itself the name "Terror of the Danube." Of dark nights it would poke its way into creeks and passages, alarming the Austrians constantly and causing them no little loss. Once it even succeeded in persuading one of the monitors to pursue it into a carefully prepared mine field, over against the Serbian shore, with the result that the monitor was permanently put out of action. But these operations were of minor importance just then. For now Serbia was called on to face a new enemy, in some of its aspects much more terrible than the Austrians, for it demanded a sort of fighting in which the Serbians were not so well trained. The Austrians had, indeed, left behind them an ally that was to accomplish as much mischief almost as they themselves had caused the Serbians.

Not long after the final defeat of the third invasion an epidemic of typhus appeared among the Serbian soldiers. Run down physically, as they must have been, their vitality sapped by the hardships of the campaigns they had just passed through, they fell victims to this scourge by the thousands. Not knowing how to attack or to defend itself against such an enemy, the little kingdom sent forth a cry for help, which was heard and responded to by the United States, Great Britain, France, and even Russia. Organizations were formed with the purpose of assisting Serbia in this extremity, and private persons also came forward with offers of money and service. The Red Cross also did what it could under the emergency, but its resources were already being taxed to their full extent by demands in all the battle fields of Europe. Sir Thomas Lipton sailed his yacht, the Erin, to Saloniki, loaded with supplies of medical stores, and carrying a full passenger list of doctors and nurses. Lady Paget, Lady Wimborne, and other women of rank in Great Britain also devoted their whole energies to the cause. A society of women physicians, an offspring of the Scottish Federation of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, did noble work in Serbia. After sending two hospital units to France, this women's organization dispatched a third to the Balkans, where it was received with the deepest gratitude, Serbia agreeing with enthusiasm to pay the salaries of its members and the cost of its maintenance. It was stationed at Kragujevatz, where it was given a hospital of 250 beds.

But meanwhile the epidemic had spread over the country. There were thousands of serious cases; men, women, and children were dying everywhere, unattended and under the most distressing circumstances. Hardly had the first of the foreign aid arrived when the immensity of the task required was recognized, and telegrams and cables were sent all over the world calling for further assistance. To this second appeal no country responded more nobly than the United States.

Owing to the virulent character of the disease that raged in every district the mortality was frightful. In many localities the death rate was over 50 per cent. All during the spring and summer of 1915 the need of Serbia was extreme. In July there were in the country 420 British doctors alone, aside from the French, Russian and American medical men, all working at the highest pressure and doing with very little sleep, yet unable to cover the ground. Many were the stricken patients who must be satisfied with floors instead of beds; many more who could not even be admitted into the hospitals. Nor were the Serbians the only sufferers; from among the foreigners who had so nobly come to help the Serbians in their distress there were not a few who succumbed to the fatal disease.[Back to Contents]