The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF

Yagodnya and the Guéevo Mountains, where, indeed, their position seemed safe. The Serbians, after some vain and costly attempts to dislodge the enemy from these last positions, and always frustrated by the big guns from the other side of the Drina, abandoned the offensive, and during five weeks kept on the defensive on this front, whilst endeavouring by an offensive in Bosnia, to oblige the enemy to withdraw from Serbia. This latter attempt failed because, fearing a new Austrian invasion, the Serbs dared not send any considerable forces to Bosnia, where, moreover, the provisioning of large bodies of troops offered insuperable difficulties.

But simultaneously with the fighting on the front Zvornik Bielina, nearly every day engagements took place along the Drina and the Save. The Austro-Hungarian troops vainly attempted for some weeks to find a new base for the invasion of Serbia. They could not advance anywhere, and were forced to keep to the banks of the frontier rivers, having lost thousands of their bravest troops in the passage of the larger streams.

The one success of the Austro-Hungarian penetration into Serbian territory was the stopping of the Serbian advance into Syrmia, for the Serbian headquarters, for strategical reasons, called back all the troops which had crossed the Save. Having retaken Zemlin, the AustroHungarians with increased fury, resumed the

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