December 19, 1914. 
LAND AND WATER 
the eastern field, has taken place in the sections 
B and C, that is, in the Polish and the Servian sec- 
tions. B, which is properly divided into two sec- 
tions, B^ the fight for Warsaw, and B^ the 
fight for Cracow, we will take last as being the 
longer to follow and the more complicated in 
character, and we will deal first with C, the Ser- 
vian front. It is important to our understanding 
of how the war is being fought at this moment, and 
of what the chances of the Allies are against their 
once far superior, and stiU equal, Germanic 
enemy, to discover not only how, but why affairs 
have gone as they have in North Servia during 
the past week. 
How they have gone is the story of how the 
Austrians have been unexpectedly thrown back. 
Why this has happened is the very funda- 
mental point of supply. 
To understand any campaign in the Balkans, 
and in particular a campaign in Servia, the first 
thing is to note the contrast between the difficult 
ar.d the easy country. 
That contrast exists, of course, in the grouiKi 
of any campaign, and it is the main non-human 
factor in success and failure. But in Servia the 
contrast is at once sharp and simple. 
You have in the north a great river, the 
Danube. Tliere runs into it from the west one of 
its principal tributaries, the Save. Where they 
meet in fertile and not too hilly country is the 
.Servian capital of "Beograd," Belgrade. The 
courses of the Danube and of the Lower Save here 
run through open and tolerably easy landscapes : 
an army can march through them on a fairly 
broad front, with numerous roads (of a sort), with 
certain stocks of food available, shelter in the 
shape of numerous buildings, and so forth. Into 
the Danube, below the junction of the Save, there 
runs another lesser tributary, the Morava. 
All the lower portion of the Morava valley, up 
to A, is a continuation of the open country. Then 
comes what you always get in mountainous lands, 
flat, open stretches of valley-floors between the 
hills around, but separated one from the other by 
gorges, or at least narrows, where the hills ap- 
proach to either side of the stream. 
There are in the case of the Morava three such 
patches of open country; that running from the 
first narrow at A to the second at B. Then, after 
the gorge at B is another flat running up to 
and beyond the confluence of the river that waters 
the old capital of Nish. This small bit of open 
country lasts to the next narrows at C ; while 
much further up, in the very heart of the moun- 
tains, you have, as far as D, the upland open of 
Leskovac. To this chain of open spaces on the 
Morava must be added the narrower, but still 
practicable, valley of the Western, or " Galitza," 
Morava, which I have marked on the sketch, 
W, W. Finally, let the reader note the River 
Drina, which comes in from the south into the 
Save on the west of the State, forming the boun- 
dary along most of its course, running for the 
most part through mountain land, but in its lower 
reaches through the easier country. 
Now, when the recent Austrian advance 
began against Servia in these regions it took the 
form of concentrating perhaps as few as six, per- 
haps as many as eight, Army Corps (certainly not 
more than eight and hardly less than five, say, 
250,000 to 300,00t) men), and (rf advancing from 
the north-west across the Save and the Drina 
against the depleted and sorely-tried Servian 
forces, with the object of occupying the lower open 
country, and, that once occupied, of advancing 
through the hills to Nish, the old capital and pre- 
sent seat of Government 100 miles away. This 
opportunity for a great advance was afforded 
to the Austrians by the reported depletion 
of Servian supplies. The report has since 
turned out well founded. And we shall 
note again in dealing with the whole of this eastern 
field that in these parts of Europe tvith their im- 
perfect communications and undeveloped societies, 
supply is now the deciding factor in almost every 
series of actions. 
The Austrians, then, having received infor- 
mation that Servian supply was depleted, parti- 
cularly in the matter of artillery ammunition, ad- 
vanced in force for the first time since their griev- 
ous defeat of three and a-half months ago. With- 
out much difliculty this large and well-munitioned 
Austrian force, with good railways and navigable 
rivers behind it, occupied the easy country to the 
north near the great rivers, the Servians retreat- 
ing before them. 
Let us consider what task the Austrians had 
proposed to themselves, and grasp their plan by 
the aid of this sketch. 
Tl II Two main passes over tfue Wcdenhed. CiTtidge ' 
^^ Hill Country /^' 
. -it.^ axistrumfrotiton.Dsc. 2'f'f 
nr 
They would with certainty, considering their 
superior numbers, and much more their ample sup- 
ply in face of the lack of supply on the Servian sicte, 
occupy the easy country of the lowlands. They 
would enter and garrison Shabatz and Belgrade, 
and even Valjevo, which is at the head of the easy 
country at the foot of the hills. This done, they 
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