The Story of the Great War (Vol. 1-8). Various Authors
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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 élan. 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