Читать книгу The Great War (All 8 Volumes) - Various Authors - Страница 169

Table of Contents

ATTEMPTS TO RETAKE BELGRADE

On December 10, 1914, General Stepanovitch immediately began a movement against Belgrade which had now been in the hands of the Austrians since the first of the month. At this time the Third Army was pressing on toward Obrenovatz, the cavalry division held the left bank of the Beljanitza River, the Second Army was holding a line from Volujak to Neminikuchir, the Belgrade detachment still maintained the ridges along Kosmai and Varoonitza and a detachment, which had come up from Semendria, occupied Pudarchi. The troops thus formed a crescent, with one horn touching the Save and the other the Danube, Belgrade being the star in the middle.

The Austrian main positions stretched from Obrenovatz up the right bank of the Kolubara to Konatitche and then across to Grooka through Boran, Vlashko and Krajkova Bara.

There now followed what was probably the most stubborn fighting of the third invasion: either the Austrian soldiers composing this northern army were better material, or the Austrian commanders were especially animated with the necessity of holding Belgrade.

On the morning of December 11, 1914, the Serbian advance began. As possession of the railroad was of first importance, the center pushed rapidly ahead until it reached Vlashko heights. Again and again the Serbians charged up the slopes of this eminence, only to be beaten back. But finally, toward evening, the Austrians fell back and the summit was taken, thereby giving the Serbians control of the railroad at Ralia; the terminus of the line, in fact, for a tunnel several miles farther north had been blown up by the Serbians on the day they had evacuated Belgrade.

Early the next day, December 12, 1914, the advance was continued and the left wing of the Third Army reached Obrenovatz and its right occupied a line from Konatitche to Boshdarevatz. The Second Army occupied the summits designated as Hills 418 and 287 and the Belgrade detachment advanced to a front from Koviona to Krajkova Bara.

Thus, with astonishing swiftness, and in spite of the stubborn resistance, the crescent was contracting and the Austrians were being squeezed back into Belgrade. But they continued their desperate resistance, fighting over every foot of ground before surrendering it. By December 13, 1914, the enemy had been routed from all the territory lying between the Save and the Drina, but with such desperation did the Austrians cling to Belgrade that they delivered repeated counterattacks upon the Serbian positions at Koviona and Krajkovo Bara before they finally retired north.

The triumphant Serbians, though they had suffered severely, followed up the retreat vigorously, pressing along the banks of the Topchiderska River on the left and up the main road on the right. The left wing had advanced up the Kolubara River toward its junction with the Save, which was eight miles behind the Austrian front. The enemy had to draw back for fear of being suddenly taken in the rear. Two monitors were sent up the river to check the Serbian cavalry division, which was trying to work its way around the marshes and thus cut off the Austrian force entirely. But this movement of the left wing was merely a feint; it was intended simply to make the Austrian line waver. While the Austrians were maneuvering in answer to this feint, the Serbian center was pushing its advance.

The Austrians had attempted to check the Serbian advance by intrenching heavy rear-guard forces in several strong positions, the nature of the country being especially suited to such tactics. The hills along the road north of Ralia are, indeed, strategic points of immense military value. But the Serbians, their capital now almost in view, pressed on with frantic vigor.

The Austrians fought manfully, giving them one of the best fights they had yet been through. Instead of merely clinging to their hill intrenchments, they made fierce and determined efforts to pierce the Serbian line. It was in one of these counterattacks, near the central height, where the railroad entered a tunnel, that the resistance of the Austrians was broken. After the Serbian riflemen, with their machine guns, had thrown back the enemy, the Serbian artillery caught the retiring masses of blue and gray clad soldiers of the Dual Empire.

This produced a panic in the densely packed retreating column, whereupon the Serbian infantrymen leaped out of their trenches and dashed forward in pursuit, forming two pursuing columns, one on either flank of the fleeing Austrians, like wolves worrying a wounded buffalo. And as these streams of Serbians ran uphill more rapidly than the blue-gray flood moved, the Austrian rear guards, composed of heavy forces, turned to check the pursuit.

On the morning of December 14, 1914, the Serbians approached the southern defenses of Belgrade, where the Austrians must make their last stand; along a line from Ekmekluk to Banovobrodo. Here General Potiorek had constructed a system of earthworks, consisting of deep trenches with shrapnel cover and well-concealed gun positions, with numerous heavy howitzers and fieldpieces. Evidently he hoped to withstand an indefinite siege on this fragment of Serbian territory, holding Belgrade as a bridgehead for another advance toward the main Morava Valley, when the next effort to invade Serbia should be made. He would, at the same time, preserve at least a semblance of his prestige from all the calamities that had befallen his armies, enabling him to represent the campaign as a reconnaissance in force, similar to Hindenburg's first advance against Warsaw.

But his troops had been so terribly punished that they could not garrison the siege defenses. The Serbians, now drunk with their many victories, and absolutely reckless of death, as they drove on toward their capital, with their old king, grandson of Black George, moving through their foremost ranks, charged up into the ring of hills.

The last fight, on December 14, 1914, which definitely broke the back of the last effort of the Austrians to maintain a footing on Serbian soil, took place on the central height, Torlak. Two battalions of Magyars were defending this point. And just as the sun was setting over in the Matchva swamps in a glow of fiery clouds, the foremost Serbians leaped up to the attack.

Long before the fight was over darkness set in. The Serbians, driven back again and again, came back like bounding rubber balls. Finally they gained the trenches, and one general, horrible mêlée of struggling, shouting, furious combatants set in. The shooting had died down; they were fighting with bayonets and knives now. Finally the tumult died down. But nearly every Austrian on that height died. Few escaped and not very many were taken prisoners. Then, under cover of the night, the Serbians spread over the other heights and captured the whole line of defense works.

No Serbian slept that night. They tugged and dragged at their heavy guns through all the dark hours, up toward the city, and placed them on heights commanding the pontoon bridges that had been thrown over the Save from Semlin.

When dawn broke on December 15, 1914, a heavy mist hung over the river, but the Serbians knew with accuracy the location of the pontoon bridge. All during the previous day and during the night the retreating Austrians had been crowding over this bridge to escape into Austrian territory. At first the retirement had been orderly, but later in the day, as the news from the front became more serious, as the low, distant roar of rifle and machine gun rolled nearer, the movement increased in intensity, and, during the night, developed into a hurried scamper. Cannon were unlimbered and thrown into the river, and troops fought among themselves over the right of way along the narrow plank walk. In the midst of this confusion, while yet thousands of the invaders were still on the Serbian side of the river, just as dawn was breaking, there came a deep report, the hissing of a flying steel missile, and a shell dropped in the middle of one of the pontoon supports, hurling timber and human beings up into the air. The confusion now became a wild panic. Some tried to return to the Serbian shore, others fought on. Dozens of the struggling figures rolled over the side of the bridge into the eddying currents of the waters.

Again came the dull, heavy report, then another and another, followed by the screeching overhead. Shells dropped into the water on all sides. And then another bomb burst on the pontoon where the first shell had landed.

Even the roar of the shouting soldiers could not be heard above the crashing of timbers, the snapping of mooring chains. The bridge swayed, then caved in, where the pontoon had been struck and was sinking. Between the two broken-off ends, still crowded with struggling humanity, rushed the turbid current of the river. The last road to safety had been cut.

Presently the fog lifted and revealed a long line of retreating Austrians, reaching down the road toward Obrenovatz, still heading desperately for the bridge, as unconscious of its destruction as a line of ants whose hill has been trampled in by a cow's hoof. But they were not long to remain unconscious of the fact that they were now prisoners of war.