battle. Finally, he
was now defending his country, his home, his very fireside and
his family against foreign invasion. And it is generally admitted
that a man fighting in that situation is equal to two invaders,
all other things being equal.

The Serb army opposing the Austrian invasions was composed of ten
divisions of the First Ban and five divisions of the Second Ban.
Five of the divisions of the First Ban and the five of the Second
came from the kingdom as it was prior to the two Balkan wars, but the
second five divisions of the First Ban were new creations recruited
from Serb Macedonia.

The principles on which the organization of the Serbian army was
based were very simple. The former kingdom was divided into five
territorial divisional districts--Nish, Valievo, Belgrade, Kragujevatz,
and Zaitchar. Each of these territorial divisional districts was
subdivided into four regimental recruiting districts, each of which
provided one infantry regiment of four battalions and one depot
battalion. The battalion numbered about a thousand men, so that the
war strength of the divisional infantry amounted to about 16,000 men.
Attached to each division was a regiment of artillery, consisting of
three groups of three 6-gun batteries; in all, 54 guns. The divisional
cavalry, existing only in war time, consisted of a regiment of
four squadrons, from men and horses previously registered. To each
division was also attached its own technical and administrative
units, engineers, and supply column, and its total strength amounted
to 23,000 officers and men of first-line troops.

In addition to these five divisions of the First Ban, there was
also a regiment of mountain artillery, made up of six batteries, six
howitzer batteries and two battalions of fortress artillery. Then
there was a separate cavalry division composed of two brigades, each
of two regiments. Its war strength was 80 officers and 3,200 men.
Attached to the cavalry division were two horse artillery batteries,
of eight guns each. All told, this first-line army numbered about
200,000, with about 5,200 sabers and 330 guns.

[Illustration: SERBIAN AND AUSTRIAN INVASIONS]

The Second Ban, or reserve, much inferior in armament to the first
line, brought the strength up to about 280,000 men. But this figure
is probably an underestimate. Volunteers were enrolled in immense
numbers. Some of them were men who had been exempted in the first
conscription; others were Serbs f