rbians with
enthusiastic vigor, from Shabatz to Liubovia. And presently Valievo, the
railroad terminus and the first objective of the Austrians, became
untenable.

On November 11, 1914, the Serbians were compelled to evacuate this city.
Its capture was the first step in the progress of the Austrians toward
Kragujevatz, Nish and a junction with the Turks near Constantinople.
Still, as later events will show, the Serbians were by no means the
beaten rabble described by the Vienna press. The score or more of cannon
which the Serbians were compelled to abandon on account of the bad
condition of the mountain roads were hailed as evidence of a hardly won
campaign, and the stragglers captured were accepted as signs of a
demoralization which had as yet not set in.

On the other hand, whether this first success was real or not, it did
serve to inspire the Austrian troops with an enthusiasm which they had
hitherto not possessed.

The Serbians had not yet been driven back on the line along which they
had originally intended to make their first stand against the invaders.
During the period between the first mobilization and the beginning of
the first invasion on August 12, 1914, what are referred to as the
Kolubara and Lyg positions had been strongly intrenched. But it had not
proven necessary to fall back on these positions; the Austrians had been
driven back at once. But now, after the fall of Valievo, the Serbians
decided to make no further resistance to the Austrian advance until this
line was reached.

The Kolubara River itself is not of sufficient width to hold back an
advancing army long, but in places its banks rise so high and steep that
it serves very much the same purpose as a moat before a castle. In such
places comparatively few men could hold back a large number of the
enemy. A little south of Lazarevatz the line of intrenchments left the
Kolubara and followed the Lyg River, where the country was even more
rugged. From the source of the Lyg the Serbians had fortified the Jeljak
and Maljen ridges, which control practically all the roads leading to
Kragujevatz and, proceeding in a southwesterly direction, they threw up
earthworks on the Bukovi, Varda, Jelova, Bukovic, Miloshevatz and Leska
Gora ranges, which defended an advance toward the Western Morava Valley.

CHAPTER LV

PRELIMINARY AUSTRIAN SUCCESSES

It was along this line that in November, 1914, the Serbians determined
the decisive battle of the c