OPERATIONS IN SERVIA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 177, 5 January 1915, Page 5

OPERATIONS IN SERVIA.

[ THE RECENT INVASION. MASSES OF AUSTRIAN'S^ 'i x n-i ■ ■ From facts which are now to liana, it is possible to get a correct valuation upon the recent Austrian invasion of Servia, which has since been beaten back. It seems clear that the enemy put into the field tho whole qf this year's levy of the combined Landsturm and troops belonging to many interior garrisons. Thus assured of an important numerical superiority over the Serbs, and uideii by powerful additions of artillery, they decided to attempt to retrieve the disastrous failur* of their two previous excursions. The offensive in this instance was first directed upon the Mutchva and Gutclievo Mountains. In preparation for the last assault, the Austrians brought up additional heavy guns, probably from Serajevo, and from the security of their positions in the Bosnian Mountains on the left bank of the Drrnal they drenched the Serbian troops with shrapnel. Following this preparation, a, mass of infantry was hurled forward and a fierce combat raged. Six times were the Austrians driven on the Serbian lines, and six times were they thrown back, until one Serbian commander reported that his men were unable to continue their rifle fire as a heap of'dead Austrinas piled up before them shut out any further advance from view. At a seventh assault, tho Serbs were obliged to give way, and the mountain at iength passed into Austrian hands.

In Matehvn, when once the combined fire of the Austrian batteries and monitors rendered the plain untenable, the Serbs reared on the heights to to the' south and south-east, and the whole country lying to tho north of the Loznitza-Shabatz Road passed into the hands of the enemy. Tho then directed their chief attack to the hills lying to the south-east of Shabatz, where they continue to profit. by the' fire of their monitors.