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.[Back to Contents]
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.