eeded rest. And so the Austro-Hungarian soldiers were
allowed to continue their northward flight unmolested.

Thus for twelve days after the Battle of Shabatz, or from August 23,
1914, there was quiet along the Austrian and Serbian frontier. The
remnants of the Austrians had definitely retired northward. And at about
that time the Russians were driving hard at the Galician front. The
Austrians were being beaten there, too. Altogether the situation looked
extremely serious for Austria at that time. But, finally, encouraged by
the Allies, the Serbian General Staff decided to send an expedition over
into Austrian territory.

Not much over twenty miles north of Shabatz is a range of mountains,
called the Frushkagora. A fairly strong force holding these rocky ridges
would be in a position to prevent the Austrian general from reenforcing
his armies in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the east. It would also afford
a better protection to the northern frontier of Serbia than would a
force of the same size stationed within Serbian territory along the Save
River. The chief thought of the Serbian general was, however, to gain
control of this natural position and hold it while another Serbian force
was invading Bosnia, in conjunction with the Montenegrin troops. What
made this first objective the more tempting was the known fact that
between the frontier and the Frushkagora range the Austrian forces
amounted only to about a dozen regiments.

To the First Army, General Putnik assigned the execution of this
expedition. That was now composed of two divisions, and the cavalry
division, which had rendered such excellent service on the Matchva Plain
during the first invasion. The left wing of this expeditionary force was
to be supported by a division in Matchva, while the "Detachment of
Belgrade" was to operate on the right. A second reserve division was to
hold Obrenovatz.

Another glance at the map will show that, almost halfway between Shabatz
and Belgrade, the Save takes a peculiar little loop into Serbian
territory, forming a narrow strip of Austrian territory projecting into
Serbia. Naturally, this little tongue could be commanded by the Serbian
guns without first crossing the river, since the Austrians could only
operate here by marching down in a narrow column between the two sides
of the loop formed by the river. Such a force, however, could be
immediately flanked by the Serbians from their side of the river. This
peculiar penins