December 19, 1914. 
LAND AND WATER 
'ZngUtb Milts. 
vl 
■were detached (presumably by advice from 
Berlin) from the Austro-Hunganan forces on to 
the southern front — the Servian front. They had 
fully occupied the easy country of the north during 
the first third of November. Counting independent 
cavalry divisions (which seem to have been present 
with the Austrians over and above the seven Army 
Corps mentioned), and certain troops acting in 
the Lower Morava valley, we now know that over 
300,000 men were prepared to advance against the 
retreating Servians before the middle of 
November. 
The Servian retirement into the hills and on 
to the crest of the watershed between the open 
country and the Western Morava was, we hear, 
complete by November 16th. At this point, it 
seems, the Austrians allowed an inexplicable in- 
terval of delay, due perhaps to their difficulty in 
getting sufficient artillery ammunition up into the 
hills, or perhaps — as is conceivable — to sickness. 
The Servian counter-offensive seems, according to 
these more detailed later messages, to have first 
taken place, perhaps late in the day, on Thursday, 
December 3rd. 
To appreciate the country over which that 
counter-offensive developed the above sketch may 
be of value. 
The Maljen and Rudnik ridges running east 
and west, and having crests averaging about 
3,000ft. in height above the sea (but rising in one 
place to 4,500), sink in the pass south of Valjevo 
at A, and in the pass leading to Cucak, ten miles 
to the east at B, to not more than 2,000ft. 
The Austrian attempt was to force these two 
passes. 
It was upon the northern slopes which lead 
from the ridges Maljen and Rudnik down to the 
Kolubara valley that the Servian offensive de- 
- veloped. By December 5th it was complete ; and 
■ the remainaer of the week was occupied in the 
• clearing of the Enemy out of every part of Servian 
soil, with the exception of the immediate neigh- 
bourhood of Shabatz on the northern frontier. 
But it seems from messages later received, which 
I have just alluded to, that this triumph of the 
Servian Army was not only due to an accession of 
supply, but also to the withdrawal of certain of the 
Austrian forces, under the impression that the 
Servian Army was no longer sufficiently strong to 
take the counter-offensive. Numbers, therefore, 
as well as supply were concerned. It is even said 
that as many as Three Austrian army corps were 
withdrawn from this front, the task of advancing 
• upon Nish (only a hundred miles away) being left 
to the remaining Fou?', and it is probable that the 
new Austrian reinforcements which have re- 
covered the Dukla Pass and are operating in con- 
junction with the Germans in Western Galicia 
were those then withdrawn from this Servian 
front. 
If this be so (and it is not susceptible of posi- 
tive proof, it is only an inference) the instance is 
exceedingly illiuninating, and is typical of all that 
is going on upon this eastern front. The enemy is 
perpetually withdrawing men from one place 
where he hopes to establish a supremacy to another 
where he is for the moment threatened, and the 
mass of the operations exactly resembles that siege 
work, that defence of a beleaguered fortress, with 
its sudden ineffectual sorties, of which I shall 
make more at the end of this article. 
At any rate, this Servian business (especially 
in the light of the later telegrams that have come 
. through on Tuesday — the day upon which the la§t 
