dy of their army. But the
pontoon bridge had not yet been completed. Of the 400 yards across the
river, only twenty remained unbridged. Seeing their advantage, the
pursuing Austrians redoubled their attack furiously. The Serbian
regiment, with half its men down, and only 60 feet of water between
itself and the main corps, turned, with its back to the river, and
fought back with equal fury.

With frantic haste, the Serbian engineers attempted to finish the
building of their bridge, so that the main body of the troops might rush
across and relieve the situation of the regiment defending itself
against overwhelming numbers on the opposite bank. But before this could
be accomplished, the wounded began throwing themselves into the pontoon
nearest their side of the river. The mooring lines parted and the barge
drifted away from the end of the bridge, down the river, loaded with
wounded soldiers. The same happened to the next barge. To add to the
disaster, the barges were old and leaky, and soon one of them filled
with water and began sinking. Presently it sank, throwing the wounded
into the river, where most of them were speedily drowned.

The Serbians on the Austrian shore, now seeing their last hope of
support or escape cut off, continued fighting desperately until all
their ammunition was gone. Then the handful of survivors surrendered. By
this time it was already dark. The only one to escape across the river
was the regimental surgeon who, carrying the regimental flag between his
teeth, swam across the river and reached the main body of his countrymen
safely.

Fortunately, the recklessness which led this attempted crossing to
disaster did not characterize the movements of the main body which had
crossed at Novoselo. The advance continued under carefully thrown out
screens of cavalry, and was kept up until the trenches at the landing
could be abandoned and a wider circle of defensive works could be thrown
up, including within their line the villages already mentioned. Thus the
three Serbian bases were strongly protected by a semicircle of field
works, radiating from Kupinovo. Having secured this position, General
Boyovitch, the Serbian field commander, advanced his cavalry in fanlike
formation to the north and west. One division followed the cavalry on
the right; another took a northeasterly direction.

By the evening of September 7, 1914, the enemy had been driven back to a
line reaching from Detch to Nikintzi. No ser