h were able to repulse their attacks,
but further advance was now out of the question.

The situation of the Serbian armies up in the north was now truly
desperate. The combined Austro-German and Bulgarian lines, beginning
at Vishegrad, north of Montenegro, swept in a straight line across the
heart of Serbia to Nish, where it curved downward to Vranya, then
swept into Veles and down to where the French army prevented it from
reaching the Greek frontier. It was, in fact, like a great dragnet,
which had only to be contracted to sweep the Serbians inward, over
against the awful defiles of the Montenegrin and Albanian Mountains, a
country through which no organized army could pass in a body, and
through which only the strongest of the noncombatants could hope to
escape alive. And for a time it seemed as though the French would
prick a hole through this net, through which, by rending it into a
wide gap, the Serbians could have been saved. But with the retirement
of Colonel Vassitch from Babuna Pass that last chance was gone; Serbia
was left to her fate.

Meanwhile the pressure from the north continued irresistibly; steadily
the Serbian armies were being pushed back against the mountain ranges,
in comparison to which their own mountains were mere hills. And while
the Serbians were waxing weaker every day, their enemies were growing
stronger, not only because their long line was contracting, but
because now they were being constantly reenforced. Also, with the
cutting of the railroad, all means of supply were gone; the Serbians
must now continue the fight with their own resources. They were now
becoming woefully short, not only of ammunition, but of food as well.
Yet they continued the struggle, retreating before the enemy facing
them, step by step backward, taking advantage of every little natural
position to cause the invaders as much loss as possible.

During the two weeks following the fall of Nish the three commanders
of the invading armies began, and continued, a great converging
movement on the Kossovo Plain, their object being to completely
encircle the main Serbian armies. Koevess was advancing his forces
toward Mitrovitza on the north side of the plain from Kralievo up the
valley of the Ibar, branching out of the Western Morava. In the hills
north of Ivanitza the Serbian rear guards made a stubborn attempt to
hold him back, but finally they were dislodged and the Austrians
occupied Ivanitza on November 9, 1915. Fo