November 15, 1914

One hundred years ago today the pivotal Battle of Kolubara was fought in Serbia.  

Leading up to this battle Austria-Hungary launch a third invasion into Serbia on November 6, 1914. Austria-Hungary had invaded Serbia twice before, only to be defeated by the Serbian army. Austria-Hungary was determine to have this invasion succeed as it was under enormous pressure on the Eastern Front and it needed to end the Serbian campaign to turn its full attention to the east.

The Austro-Hungarian invasion began with early success and by November 8, 1914 the Serbian defenders had started to falter and by November 10, 1914 Serbian army was in full retreat to defensive position along the Kolubara river. Serbia was in a dire situation. Its army lacked sufficient ammunition, supplies, heavy weapons and winter clothing. The Serbian government sent out pleas for supplies to Great Britain, France and Russia but this yielded little results. With defeat at the door the Serbian government debated whether to try to make peace with Austria-Hungary but it was decided that the Serbian army should fight on, as to surrender at this point would likely lead to annexation of Serbia by Austria-Hungary.

On November 15, 1914 250,000 beleaguered and poorly equipped Serbian soldiers held the east bank of the Kolubara river, with an additional 150,000 soldiers protecting the northern flank. These forces were faced by 450,000 well equipped Austro-Hungarian soldiers to the north and west . Celebrations were being held in Austria-Hungary that the war in Serbia would soon be over. The next day Austro-Hungarian forces assaulted the Serbian positions along the Kolubara.

What would happen over the next thirty days would be a disaster for Austria-Hungary and is still heralded today in Serbia as "The miracle of Kolubara." Despite Serbia's lack of men and war materials they were not unprepared for this attack. Choosing Kolubara to make a stand was not an idle decision. The river was in mountainous terrain but the west bank (the side the Austro-Hungarians would approach from) was fairly open, but the terrain on east bank offered a good deal of protection. Additionally the Serbians had been building fortified position along the Kolubara for weeks. When the Serbians retreated from the Austro-Hungarian border to the Kolubara they destroyed any infrastructure providing communication or transportation to deprive the Austro-Hungarians of its use. With the winter rains in full force much of roads and countryside of Serbia were a quagmire of mud, any Austro-Hungarian supplies, messages, or reinforcements to Kolubara would be significantly slowed during the course of the battle.       

For days the battle raged with the Austro-Hungarian forces regularly crossing the Serbian held Kolubara in freezing weather only to be thrown back each time at great cost to both sides. By November 28, 1914 Serbian losses mounted and it was clear that Belgrade to the north (Serbia's capital), so near the Austro-Hungarian border could no longer be defended and was evacuated and the Serbian army retreated to defensive positions to the south surrendering the city to the Austro-Hungarians on December 1, 1914.

At this point Austria-Hungary was so confident of victory it started drawing up plans for an occupational government of Serbia. But though Belgrade had fallen the Serbian army was still holding the Austro-Hungarian invasion from pressing much deeper into Serbian territory.

The grinding battle had drained the both sides but the Austro-Hungarians had become overstretched as they pushed deeper into Serbia and were struggling to keep their frontline troops supplied and in communication with commanders. On December 2, 1914 the Serbians saw their opportunity for a counter attack. Though Russia and Great Britain did not offer assistance, France eventually answered Serbia's call for supplies and by December these supplies had finally reached the frontlines allowing the Serbians to launch a sustained offensive. Everything the Serbians had was thrown into the attack. Even the Serbian's seventy year old King, Peter I, donned a uniform and was armed with a rifle and participated (though mostly symbolically) in the attack.

Not realizing the Serbians had received French supplies and not expecting a Serbian offensive (as the Serbians had been predominately fighting defensively for weeks) the Austro-Hungarians were completely caught off guard, so much so that the Austro-Hungarians were conducting a military parade in captured Belgrade as the attack commenced. With the mud bogging down messengers the Austro-Hungarians artillery and reserves miles away from the frontline were unaware of the initial attack, leaving the frontline Austro-Hungarian soldiers unsupported until it was to late and they had been overrun by Serbian forces. By December 6th it was clear that the third invasion of Serbia was a failure and the Serbian army was poised to retake lost territory.    

Having been ejected from Serbia twice before the Austro-Hungarian army took steps to prevent them from losing the territory that they had taken. But due to poor planning much of the Austro-Hungarian defensive efforts did more harm than good. As the Austro-Hungarians captured cities, towns and villages they left soldiers and artillery behind to defend these gains and fortify these positions. Though the captured towns were well defended and fortify the surrounding countryside was not. Using the hills and valleys of the Serbian countryside as cover the Serbian army surrounded each captured town cutting off the Austro-Hungarian defenders within. Often without the defenders even knowing until it was too late. Tens of thousands of Austro-Hungarian soldiers were taken prisoner this way, along with their supplies and weapons. Supplies and weapons the Serbian army desperately needed.  By December 16, 1914 Belgrade had been liberated and the Austro-Hungarians had once again been repulsed from Serbia.

The battle was a disaster for Austria-Hungary. Not only had a third invasion failed but out of the 450,000 Austro-Hungarian soldiers who invaded Serbia 273,000 were killed captured or wounded. Additionally, the defeat left Austria-Hungary in political turmoil and even more diplomatically subordinate by Germany who began to increasingly view the Austro-Hungarian army as incompetent. The Battle of Kolubara would take on near mythic qualities in Serbia, but the victory was no without a high price. The 400,000 man Serbian army suffered 132,000 casualties, 22,000 of which were killed. Aside from the military losses civilian suffering was catastrophic. As the Serbian army retook much of the lost countryside it found that village after village was empty. Later military investigation and Western press revealed  the occupied parts of Serbia had been devastated, with farms destroyed, wells poisoned, buildings burned and rampant murder and abuse of the civilian population.