se two ridges, which overlooked the line of march. This
the Austrians knew well enough, even before the first of their troops
had crossed the Drina. As is well known, the best maps, not only of
Serbia but of all the Balkan countries, have been made by Austrian
engineers. There was probably not a spur, not a fissure, certainly not a
trail, of these mountains that had not been carefully surveyed and
measured by engineers of the Austrian staff.

The Austrians knew the country they were invading quite as well as did
the native Serbians. All through it may be said that it was not through
want of accurate knowledge that the Austrians finally met disaster.
Rather was it because they misjudged the relative values of their facts.
And one of their first mistakes was in overestimating the effects of the
two Balkan Wars on the efficiency of the Serbian army. First of all, as
was obvious from the leisureliness with which they proceeded to occupy
the two mountain chains in question, that they vastly misjudged the
capacity of the Serbian troops to make rapid movements. Even as the
first shots were being fired across the Drina at Losnitza, the Serbian
forces were on the move, westward. Two army corps were at once rushed
toward the Valley of the Jadar; part of a third was sent to block the
advance of the Austrians from Shabatz. Meanwhile the Austrians took
their time. For two days they busied themselves fortifying the bridge at
Losnitza.

CHAPTER XLIX

THE GREAT BATTLES BEGIN

On August 14, 1914, began the first battle of the Serbian campaign. The
Austrians proceeded to storm the heights from which the small outpost
detachments had all the time been bombarding them with its old-fashioned
guns. The Serbians, though few in number, made a desperate resistance.
It was their business to hold back the enemy as long as possible, even
until the reenforcements should arrive.

Early in the morning of August 14, 1914, the Austrians advanced in a
great mass, then charged up the hillsides toward the Serbian position.
The Serbians waited until they were well up the steep slopes and the
rush of the enemy had subsided to a more toilsome climb. Then they sent
down volley after volley from every available weapon.

The Austrian soldiers, who had until then never experienced anything
more warlike than field maneuvers, lost their nerves; the first line
broke and ran at the first fire. However, that was likely to happen to
any troops under fir