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 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.

Finally, there was the third reserve, another 50,000 men, but they could
be used for fighting only in the gravest emergency.

The infantry of the First Ban was armed with excellent Mauser rifles,
caliber 7 mm., model 1899. The Second Ban carried a Mauser, the old
single loader, to which a magazine was fitted in the Serbian arsenals;
while the Third Ban had the old single-loader Berdan rifle. The machine
gun carried was the Maxim, of the same caliber as the new Mauser.

In artillery the Serbians were perhaps not so well off. Their cannons
had seen a great deal of service in the Balkan wars, and the larger a
piece of artillery the more limited is the number of rounds it can fire.
It is extremely doubtful that there had been time to replace many of
these worn-out pieces.

The field gun was of French make; it was a 3-inch quick firer with a
maximum range for shrapnel of 6,000 yards, a little over 3-1/2 miles.
The Second Ban was armed with old De Bange guns of 8 cm. caliber. The
heavy guns, which had done much service outs