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 dÉbÂcle. 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.[Back to Contents]