n pursuit.

"Leaving the general we proceeded. Our troops had forced the line here
at 3 a. m., wading under machine-gun and rifle fire in water and marsh
above their waists, often to their armpits. The Austrian end of the
bridge was a horrible place, as it was congested with dead, dying and
horribly wounded men, who, as the ambulances were on the other side of
the river, could not be removed. A sweating officer was urging forward
the completion of the bridge, which was then barely wide enough to
permit the waiting cavalry squadrons to pass in single file. On the
opposite bank waited the ambulance to get across after the troops had
passed. A number of German ambulance men were working furiously over
their own and the Austrian wounded, many of whom, I think, must have
been wounded by their own guns in an attempt to prevent the bridging
of the stream. A more bloody scene I have not witnessed, though within
a few hours the entire place was probably cleared up.

"Passing on I, for the first time, witnessed the actual taking of
prisoners, and watched their long blue files as they passed out from
their own trenches and were formed in groups allotted to Russian
soldiers, who served as guides rather than guards, and sent to the
rear.

"Near here I encountered about fifty captured Germans and talked with
about a dozen of them. Certainly none of them showed the smallest
lack of morale or any depression.

"By noon sufficient details of the fighting were available to indicate
that this corps alone had taken between three and five thousand
prisoners and twenty guns, of which four are said to be howitzers.
When one is near the front the perspective of operations is nearly
always faulty, and it was, therefore, impossible to estimate the
effect of the movement as a whole, but I understand that all the other
corps engaged had great success and everywhere advanced."

PART IV--THE BALKANS

CHAPTER XXIX

HOLDING FAST IN SALONIKI

The six months ending with March, 1916, had been not only an eventful
period in the Balkans, but a most unfortunate one for the Allies. In
no theater of the war had they sustained such a series of smashing
disasters in diplomacy as well as on the field of battle. First of
all, early in the fall, the Austrians had begun their fourth invasion
of Serbia, this time heavily reenforced by the Germans and in such
numbers that it was obvious before the first attack was begun that
Serbia by herself