ere set afloat to
the effect that the Austrian Government had decided to undertake a
great offensive--for the third time--against Serbia, and erase her
from the map, with the assistance of four German army corps. The
concentration zone for operations against either Serbia or the Russian
front in the Carpathians was naturally in the central plains of
Hungary. But to cover the real object of Austro-German concentration
active demonstrations were made on the Serb border in the form of
bombardments of Belgrade, and occupation of Danube islands. These
demonstrations made plausible the Teutonic assertion that the
concentration of troops was being carried out with a view to an
invasion of Serbia. So successful was the ruse, and so well had the
secret been kept that on February 1, 1914, a Petrograd "official"
gravely announced to an eagerly listening world: "The statement is
confirmed that the new Austro-German southern army, intended for the
third invasion of Serbia, consists of six Austrian and two German
corps or 400,000 men, under the command of the Archduke Eugene(!)" At
the very time this appeared the new Austro-German "southern" army had
been already, for quite a week, making its presence severely felt in
the eastern and central sections of the Carpathians, and still the
Russian authorities had not recognized the identity of the forces
operating there.

A brief description of the battle ground will enable the reader to
follow more easily the course of the struggle. Imagine that length of
the Carpathian chain which forms the boundary between Galicia and
Hungary as a huge, elongated arch of, roughly, 300 miles. (The whole
of the range stretches as a continuous rampart for a distance of 900
miles, completely shutting in Hungary from the northwest to the east
and south, separating it from Moravia [Maehren], Galicia, the Bukowina,
and Rumania.) Through the curve of this arch run a number of passes.
Beginning as far west as is here necessary, the names of the chief
passes eastward leading from Hungary are: into Galicia--Beskid,
Tarnow, Tilicz, Dukla, Lupkow, Rostoki, Uzsok, Vereczke (or Tucholka),
Beskid[2] (or Volocz), Wyszkow, Jablonitza (or Delatyn); into the
Bukowina--Strol, Kirlibaba, Rodna; into Rumania--Borgo. In parts the
range is 100 miles in width, and from under 2,000 to 8,000 feet high.
The western and central Carpathians are much more accessible than the
eastern, and therefore comprise the main and easiest routes