The Servians have long dreamed and talked and written of a greater Servia, that should take in all the Servian race. They look back to the time of King Stephen Dushan, in the fourteenth century, when Servia was supreme in the Balkans and was nearly as advanced in civilization as the most advanced nations of Europe. The re-establishment of this ancient kingdom had become a pa.s.sion with the Serbs--not only with those in Servia, but with many in Hungary as well. Hence, their animus against Austria and Austrian rule, while Austria"s fight was, primarily, for the preservation and solidification of her heterogeneous dominions; secondarily, for revenge for the Archduke"s death. Incidentally, it may be mentioned that the Archduke Francis Ferdinand was a close personal friend of the German Kaiser.
THE SERVIAN ARMY
The Servian forces under General Radumil Putnik, consist of ten divisions, divided into four army corps, with a peace footing of 160, and a war strength of over 380,000. Most of the men called to arms against Austria were veterans of the two recent Balkan wars, and hence probably the most seasoned troops in Europe.
The rifle of the Servian army is the Mauser, model of 1899, with a caliber of 7 millimeters, but it is doubtful if Servia possessed enough of them to arm the reserves. The Servian field piece is a quick-firing gun of the French Schneider-Canet system. The army has some 350 modern guns.
At the outbreak of the war Servia had ten of the most modern aircraft, but she had not developed their efficiency to a degree at which they would be of much material benefit to her in the struggle.
The extremely mountainous nature of Servia and of the adjacent territory of Bosnia make military movements somewhat slow and difficult, especially for troops unaccustomed to mountain warfare. Compared with this mountainous region, the district of Agram, where one Austrian army corps had its headquarters, is easy country to operate in, while the plain of Hungary on the opposite side of the Danube made the task of concentrating troops an easy one for the Austrians.
Another Austrian army corps had its base at Serajevo in Bosnia. A railway to the northeast from this Bosnian capital touches the Servian border at Mokragora. To the north of this point lies Kragujevac, the new capital of Servia, to which King Peter, his court and the Government repaired from Belgrade just before the declaration of war. Southeast of the new capital is the important Servian city of Nish.
The western frontier of Servia follows the windings of the Biver Drina, a tributary of the Danube. The Danube itself forms part of the northern boundary and the former capital. Belgrade, is picturesquely situated on the south bank of the Danube at its junction with a tributary. Two Austrian fortresses command the city from across the Danube. On the plain of Hungary to the north is Temesvar, an important point at which another Austrian army corps was located.
CHANCES AGAINST SERVIA
At the outset the chances of war were heavily against Servia. Such artificial defenses as she possessed were on the Bulgarian frontier.
Many of her troops were engaged in endeavoring to establish Servian rule among the neighboring peoples in her new Albanian possessions. Austria was prepared to bring against her immediately the three army corps from Temesvar, Serajevo and Agram, and four more corps, from Hermanstadt, Budapest, Graz, and Kaschau, within a fortnight. Servians one hope appeared to be the difficulty of the country, otherwise she could not oppose for a moment the advance of 250,000 troops supported by pieces of artillery. Then, too, Austria had warships on the Danube and it was partly through this fact that it was decided by the Servian Government to evacuate Belgrade and to retire to Kragujevac, sixty miles southeast.
In spite, however, of the seeming futility of opposition, Servia, encouraged by Russian support, prepared for a strenuous campaign against the Austrian forces, and the first two months of the war ended without any decisive advantage to Austria. The Servians, on the other hand, claimed numerous successes. Their task was lightened by the Russian invasion of Austrian territory and the determined advance of the Czar"s host, which demanded the fullest strength of the Austrian forces to resist. As the Russians hammered their enemy in Galicia the spirits of the Servians rose and their seasoned soldiers gave a good account of themselves in every encounter with Austrian troops. They crossed the Drina and carried the war into Bosnia, putting up a stiff fight wherever they encountered the enemy, and while they sustained severe losses in killed and wounded during August and September, the losses they inflicted upon the Austrians were still heavier.
AUSTRIANS BOMBARD BELGRADE
The Austrian troops on the banks of the Danube became active soon after war was declared. In the first few days they seized two Servian steamers and a number of river boats. Belgrade was bombarded from across the river and many of its public buildings, churches and private residences suffered damage.
The hostile armies came into contact for the first time on the River Drina, between Bosnia and Servia, and Vienna was compelled to admit defeat in this preliminary engagement of the war. The Servians forced a pa.s.sage through the Austrian ranks, but only at the cost of many killed and wounded.
When Crown Prince Alexander of Servia began the invasion of Bosnia in earnest, in the middle of August, Austria found herself at a disadvantage because of the necessity of ma.s.sing most of her forces against the Russians. Roumania and Montenegro were then preparing to join the Servians in the field against Austria.
Later in August the Servians captured several of the enemy"s strongholds in Bosnia. After a four-day battle on the banks of the Drina the Austrians were defeated with heavy loss, a large number of guns and prisoners being captured by the Servians. The Montenegrin troops repulsed an Austrian invading force and took several hundred prisoners in an all-day battle on the frontier.
Early in September a heavy engagement was fought by the Servian and Austrian armies near Jadar, resulting in Servian victory. It was claimed that the Austrians left 10,000 dead on the field of battle. The Servians also successfully defended Belgrade, which had been bombarded on several occasions. Fifteen or twenty miles west of Belgrade on the Save River, an Austrian force was decisively defeated by the Servians, who then seemed to be duplicating the successes of the Russian army against Austria.
The att.i.tude of Turkey was being closely watched at this time, Greece and Bulgaria being prepared to enter the war against the Ottoman Empire if the latter decided on belligerency, but on September 5 Turkey again declared her intention to remain neutral.
SERVIANS CAPTURE SEMLIN
Crossing the Save River into Hungary, the Servians scored a brilliant stroke in the capture of Semlin, an important Austrian city. They also reported continued successes in Bosnia. Reports of wholesale desertions of Slavs from the Austrian army were received daily and probably had considerable foundation in fact. It was said that the Servians were being received enthusiastically by the people of Hungary.
These Servian triumphs led to the reorganization of the Balkan League, including Servia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Greece.
On September 20 the Servian Government announced that an Austrian attacking army which attempted to cross the frontier near the Sabatz Mountains had been routed with a loss of 15,000 killed and wounded. The Servian losses in this and other engagements were claimed to have been small in comparison with those of the enemy.
Continuing their forward movement into Hungary, the Servians inflicted further losses on the Austrians near Noviapazow, while the Montenegrins reported a victory in the mountain slopes over their border.
On October 1 it was reported that the Servians had again repulsed an Austrian attempt at invasion and had driven the Austrians back across the Drina with loss. They had also checked another Austrian attempt to take Belgrade. The Servian war office claimed that the combined Servian-Montenegrin armies had made material progress in their invasion of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and that they were within striking distance of Serajevo, which they expected to capture. This, however, was denied by the Vienna ministry of war, which claimed that the Servian situation was entirely satisfactory to Austria.
On October 5 Servian troops were reported to have begun a northeast advance from Semlin, to effect a junction with two Russian columns advancing southward in Hungary. One of these columns was then a.s.saulting a fortress in Northwest Hungary, sixty-six miles southeast of Olmutz, while the other was descending the valley of the Nagyan against Huszt in the province of Marmaros. This latter province or county, which the Russians invaded through the Carpathian pa.s.ses, lies in the northeast of Hungary, bordering on Galicia, Bukowina and Transylvania. There was a legend that the eastern Carpathians are impregnable, but this legend was destroyed by the Russian invasion.
Before attaining Uzsok pa.s.s, in the Carpathians, the Russians successively captured by a wide flanking movement three well-masked positions which were strongly defended by guns. Each time the Russians charged the enemy fled and the Russians followed up the Austrian retreat with shrapnel and quick fire, inflicting heavy losses.
German troops joined the Austrian forces in Hungary and at some points succeeded in repulsing the invaders, though their general advance was not decisively checked and they continued the endeavor to effect a junction with the Servians to the south. Advices from Budapest, October 6, declared that the Russians had captured Marmaros-Sziget, capital of the county of Marmaros, necessitating the removal of the government of that department to Huszt, twenty-eight miles west-northwest of Sziget.
A second Russian column was reported to be threatening Huszt and Austro-German reinforcements were being hurried up to check the Russian advance.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "BY ALLAH, I MAY HAVE TO INTERFERE IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY"
--Kessler in the New York _Evening Sun_.]
CHAPTER XIV
STORIES FROM THE BATTLEFIELD
_Thrilling Incidents of the Great War Told by Actual Combatants --Personal Experiences from the Lips of Survivors of the World"s Bloodiest Battles--Tales of Prisoners of War, Wounded Soldiers and Refugees Rendered Homeless in Blighted Arena of Conflict_.
HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING
Cavalry fighting on the banks of the River Marne in the year 1914 was almost identical with the charge in the days when Hannibal"s Numidian horse charged at Romans at Lake Trasimene, or when Charles Martel and the chivalry of France worsted the Moors and saved Europe on the plains of Tours.
A good description of a cavalry charge was given by Private Capel of the Third British Hussars, a veteran of the Boer war, who took part in the fighting beginning at Mons and was separated from his regiment in a charge at Coulommiers, in the battle of the Marne, when his horse fell.
"You hear," said he, "the enemy"s bugles sounding the charge. Half a mile away you see the Germans coming and it seems that in an instant they will be on you. You watch fascinated and cold with a terror that makes you unable to lift an arm or do anything but wait and tremble.
"They come closer and still you are horrorstruck. Then you feel your horse fretting and suddenly you start from your daze, and fear changes suddenly to hate. Your hand goes to the saber hilt, your teeth clinch and you realize that you must strike hard before the enemy, who is now very close, can strike. Every muscle tightens with the waiting.
"Before your own bugles have sounded two notes of the charge you find yourself leaning forward over the neck of your galloping horse. All the rest is a mad gallop, yells of the enemy and your own answer, a terrible shock in which you are almost dismounted, and then you find yourself face to face with a single opponent who, standing up in the stirrups, is about to split your head. You notice that you are striking like a fiend with the saber.
"After that madness pa.s.ses it seems almost like a complex maneuver and soon you find yourself riding for dear life--perhaps to escape, perhaps after the Germans. You then realize that you have been whipped and that the charge has failed, or you see the backs of the fleeing enemy, feel your horse straining in pursuit and know that you have gained a victory."
FRIGHTFUL MORTALITY AMONG OFFICERS
The official reports of the loss of life in the battles in France tell of the large number of officers killed. Sharp-shooters on both sides have had instructions to aim at officers. These sharpshooters are often concealed far in advance of their troops. Their small number and their smokeless powder make their discovery most difficult. This lesson was learned at great cost to the British during the Boer war.
Dispatches from Bordeaux stated that letters found on dead and captured German officers prove the truth of reports regarding the terrible mortality in the German ranks, especially among officers. In the Tenth and Imperial Guard Corps of the German army it is said that only a few high ranking officers escaped being shot, and many have been killed.
The German officers have distinguished themselves by their courage, according to the stories of both British and French who fought them.
An officer of an Imperial Guard regiment, who was taken prisoner after being wounded, said:
"My regiment left for the front with sixty officers; it counts today only five. "We underwent terrible trials."
A German artillery officer wrote:
"Modern war is the greatest of follies. Companies of 250 men in the Tenth Army Corps have been reduced to seventy men, and there are companies of the guard commanded by volunteers of a year, all the officers having disappeared."
SAYS GEBMANS FOUGHT EVERY DAY