Serbian Army

“ Down there the commander of the Serbian troops says: “I have been for seven years with my soldiers, and when we marched through Serbia we passed before our own houses, and not a single man entered his own home, but on they went, according to orders.... The Serbian army has been at war since 1912, and yet it passed in front of its home, its little fields, its women, its children, went on and never stopped.” They come, they come for conquest, and our men do not defend what is their own. How they must hate us, our land and our race which has sunk so low! ”

“ In every village deserters from the Bulgarian Army, who were Serbs enrolled by force, were discovered, and now rejoined the Serbian Army. When the latter reached Serbia proper, these increases in strength were even more considerable, because there were many Serbian soldiers who had remained hidden in the mountains during the Bulgarian occupation of the country, and who, the moment they saw the liberating army of their brothers arrive, also joined in the pursuit of the enemy. ”

“ Not even Serbia, properly speaking, has been destroyed as a fighting force, for at least half of the splendid Serbian Army is intact, and will take the field again as soon as it has rested and secured fresh equipment. ”

“ Just before the fourth invasion actually began, the Serbians held their frontier along the Danube and the Save with three armies, consisting of nearly eight divisions, or half of all their (p. 263) available men. On the west the First Serbian Army, of three divisions, commanded by General Mishitch, occupied the angle formed by the Save and the Drina, with its headquarters at Shabatz, the scene of such bloody fighting a year before. ”

“ The order said: "Take your column at once to Petch (near the Montenegrin frontier) via Valorno Han, Kievo, Lapushnik, and Dresnik, and don't halt till you get to Dresnik." That was, I knew, the temporary death sentence of the Serbian nation. It meant that our backs, the backs of the Serbian Army, would now be turned to hope, Allies, and victory, and we must face—better not think of what we might have to face. Thoughts and energies must be concentrated in saving all we could of the Serbian Army, for future effort. ”

“ By November 1st the whole of Serbia was free of the enemy, except the north-west territory; but out of this, too, they were soon driven by the II Serbian Army, which then spread over into Bosnia and Montenegro. The remnants of the German and Austrian Divisions, exhausted and without supplies, recrossed the Danube and the Save. The whole of Bosnia arose in favour of the Yugoslav State, and also in Croatia and Slavonia there were demonstrations in the same sense. ”

“ They had been outnumbered, and attacked simultaneously on three fronts, but they had never lost heart or hope, because, though the men who fought the physical battles might be killed, the ideal for which they fought would never die; the spirit of Serbia was unconquered; the Serbian Army was saved, and in the Serbian Army, whether conquered or defeated, the Serbian spirit lived, immortal. ”

“ In military life the Bulgarian would supply incomparable infantry, the Serbians be superior in artillery and cavalry. In social life the Serbian is convivial and hospitable. Whilst the Bulgarian wishes to go to bed early that he may get up early and push the road he is making along a little farther, the Serbian will keep you at his dinner-table drinking and singing until far into the morning. He is not troubling about a road.
When the Serbian army came to help the Bulgarians in the siege of Adrianople, the contrast between the two armies and the two camps was great. ”

“ If the Serbian army was able to escape from Serbia, the weak contingents of Montenegro, exhausted by the superhuman efforts of their long and desperate, but effective resistance, and by privations of all kinds, were not able to seek refuge on friendly territory. ”

“ Sondermayer, chief of the medical service of the Serbian army.
"She is to go wherever she wishes to," was the command delivered to the Colonel.
And so we started out in a somewhat rattly automobile and went upward into the mountains, passing a continuous stream of soldiers—French going to Kisova and Serbians to Dobrpolje. Ammunition trains and convoys of wounded rumbled over the roads day and night. They were the back currents, the eddies of the war we were traversing.
As we passed a stone post at the side of the wheel-rutted road one of the officers said: "We are now in Serbia. ”

“ We were routed out long before dawn, and after a cup of Turkish coffee in the kitchen all turned out into the main street of the village of Struga. In the bitterly cold grey dawn we stood around in black, churned-up mud, shivering, hungry, and miserable. The discouraged soldiers trailed along the road, in the half-light of a winter morning, and altogether we looked the most hopelessly forlorn Army imaginable, setting our faces towards the dark, hard-looking range of snow-capped mountains which separate their beloved Serbia from Albania. ”

“ The situation of the Serbian armies up in the north was now truly desperate. The combined Austro-German and Bulgarian lines, beginning at Vishegrad, north of Montenegro, swept in a straight line across the heart of Serbia to Nish, where it curved downward to Vranya, then swept into Veles and down to where the French army prevented it from reaching the Greek frontier. ”

“ The Army High Command was ordered to reinforce the troops in Serbia by one infantry division, armored trains, captured tanks, and further security forces; other captured tanks and security troops were to be sent to Croatia. Another infantry division from the Eastern Front was to be transferred to Serbia when it became available. The Hungarian, Romanian, and Bulgarian forces could be called upon to assist in the operations with the permission of the Armed Forces High Command; the use of Croatian forces available in the German zone of interest adjacent to the Serbian border was approved. ”

“ With your automobiles for the wounded, you have transported during the fighting with the Germans, about 650 wounded officers and men, and all who have seen you work, agreed with the favourable opinion about you. And when the Serbian Army started the first difficult retreat through Montenegro and Albania, you did not abandon your hospital and Division, but, riding on horseback and at the head of your Hospital Unit, you remained as part of the Division till the arrival in Scutari, going through all difficulties. ”

“ And another 4,000 fell into the hands of the Serbians as prisoners. In material the Serbians report that they captured 46 cannon, 30 machine guns, 140 ammunition wagons, and a great mass of rifles, hospital paraphernalia, ammunition, stores, and other incidentals.
The Serbian losses were heavy: 3,000 dead and 15,000 wounded. That they were so much less is not extraordinary, for not only were they on the defensive, but an army in flight, as were the Austrian, always loses heavily. ”

“ They realized that they must give way at the first contact; that the Austrians would undoubtedly advance quite some distance within Serbian territory before enough Serbian forces could be brought up against them to make the opposition effective.
Realizing this, it was decided to place fairly strong advance guards at all probable points of invasion with orders to resist as long as possible; until, in fact, defensive tactics could be adapted to the situation and the main Serbian army could be brought up to offer battle. ”

“ For the retreat in which we took part was the retreat, not only of the Serbian Army, but of the Serbian nation. This meant that thousands of women, children, and old men, driven from their homes by the advancing enemy, were, in ever-increasing numbers, as we progressed southwards, adding to the difficulties of the safe retreat of the Army, by mixing with the columns of artillery, cavalry, infantry, engineers, field hospitals, and swelling the procession. ”

“ The Serbian army continued steadily to retreat, until on November 8th, advancing Franco-British troops almost joined with them, presenting a line from Prilep to Dorolovo on the Bulgarian frontier. At this time the Bulgarian army suffered a defeat at Izvor, and also at Strumitza. The Allied armies were now reported to number three hundred thousand men. The Austro-Germans by this time had reached the mountainous region of Serbia, and were meeting with strong resistance.
On November 13th, German despatches from the front claimed the capture of 54,000 Serbian prisoners. ”

“ But, it must be remembered, to the everlasting credit of the Serbian Army, that though the retreat continued for nearly three months, the Army did not content itself with retreating, but fought rearguard actions all the time. Military experts will appreciate the wear and tear to body and mind entailed in such a performance. We, of course, also, throughout that time, put up our hospital tents, and received and evacuated the wounded. Colonel Terzitch looked in on his way to new Headquarters ”

“ King Peter found an asylum in Italy; Belgrade and Nish were occupied by Austrians and Germans, and the Bulgarians halted at the Greek border. The small British and French forces in Serbia, greatly outnumbered, retired before the enemy's advance from north and east, but saved the Serbian army from total annihilation by protecting its retreat to the southern frontier. Then the British and French retreated across the Greek border to Saloniki, where they were largely reinforced and proceeded to fortify themselves against possible German or Bulgarian attacks. ”

“ At the same time the Austrians were to strike south to the west of Belgrade, and while these two movements were in progress Bulgaria was to fall upon Serbia from the east. The little Serbian army was to be taken in front and in flank at nine different points by forces which outnumbered it by at least three to one. The invaders were furnished with huge guns and vast supplies of ammunition, against which the Serbians could not hope to stand. ”

“ In his ten years’ reign King Peter has gone far to restore to Serbia her ancient glories. During his reign her politics have become more settled at home and abroad. Agriculture, trade and industry have improved and expanded. Literature and art have made miraculous strides, so that Serbia may fairly consider herself the equal of the Western nations; and the Serbian army has now demonstrated its excellent organization and great military value in three successive wars. ”

“ He should either not have fought, or he should have fought meaning to win.
And now, when we set foot upon that steppe, it seemed that those 500 years that had passed since the first Kossovo day, had been expunged. For the Serbian Army, now defeated by the allies of those same Turks, was still, like a ghost from the past, [212] fleeing across the silent plain. ”

“ The Bulgars invaded from the east, the Greeks did not come in, and the Austrians poured in from the west. The Serbian army shortened the enormous line they had to defend, but they could not stand against the long-distance German guns, and so began the retreat.
[168]
‘“What is coming to Serbia?” said a Serb to me, “we cannot think.” And then, hopefully, “But God is great and powerful, and our Allies are great and powerful too.” Strong men could hardly speak of the disaster without breaking down. They looked at one so eagerly. “When are your men coming up? They must come soon.” ”

“ The Royal Serbian Government have summoned the Skupshtina to meet on July 27 at Nish, whither all the ministries with their staffs are proceeding this evening. The crown prince has issued, in the name of the king, an order for the mobilization of the army, while to-morrow or the day after a (p. 398) proclamation will be made in which it will be announced that civilians who are not liable to military service should remain peaceably at home, while soldiers should proceed to their appointed posts and defend the country to the best of their ability, in the event of Serbia being attacked. ”

“ Serbian soldier, more than anyone else I have ever come across, can excel as a “passive resister” when he is under an unpopular officer; while all the time keeping himself just within the bounds of discipline, he will contrive to avoid doing anything he does not wish to do, while he is extraordinarily “clannish” and loyal to one whom he likes. ”

“ They are loyal to their cause and seem determined to fight to the last ditch. But I did get close enough to one man—a member of the general staff—to learn that in the event of reverses to Serbian arms, the Serbian army will retreat into Greece. ”

“ Then troops in Bosnia, just before the grand attack on Sarajevo, were thrown into confusion by an order from the Montenegrin King who, without vouching any reason, called his army back. The Serbian troops had no other course than to retreat as well; and their enemies delivered, all the rest of September and throughout October, a tremendous thrust against the army that was shielding Valjevo. The Serbs, who were lamentably short of arms, munition, clothing and every sort of hospital equipment, did not care to think of the approach of winter. ”

“ Some of them were men who had been exempted in the first conscription; others were Serbs from Austrian territory. The United States sent back thousands of Austrian and Macedonian Serbs who had emigrated there. It is probable, therefore, that the total strength of the Serbian forces shortly after the war broke out was at least 280,000, if not a trifle more. To this must be added the Montenegrin army which, though operating in a separate field, contributed its share in driving the Austrians back; another 40,000 men of first-class fighting ability and experience. ”