Battle of Cer
Map of the battle
| date | August 16 to 24, 1914 |
|---|---|
| place | Jadar valley and Cer mountain near Šabac |
| output | Victory of the Serbian army, withdrawal of the Austro-Hungarian army from Serbia |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 200,000 | 180,000 |
| losses | |
|
23,000 |
16,000 |
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The Battle of Cer ( Serbian : Церска битка / Cerska bitka), also the Battle of Jadar , took place during the first Austro-Hungarian offensive against Serbia in World War I from August 16 to 24, 1914. It ended with a Serbian victory and the temporary withdrawal of the Austro-Hungarian army from Serbia.
prehistory
After the mobilization, the Serbian field army, consisting of three armies, assembled in anticipation of an Austrian attack in the Morava and Kolubara valleys in the north of the country, where it faced the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army . In contrast, the Austrian campaign plan provided for an attack by the so-called B-Squadron under Feldzeugmeister Oskar Potiorek , consisting of the Austro-Hungarian 5th and 6th Army , mainly from Bosnia across the Drina . The 5th Army was supposed to advance across the lower Drina and Sava in a general direction towards Valjevo , the 6th at a later stage further south towards Užice . There was a gap of over 100 kilometers between the two armies, which practically ruled out mutual support. However, the Austrian leadership accepted this risk.
The western border of Serbia was initially only defended by weak forces, mainly the roughly strong Užice department in the Lim area and some reserve units . In addition, the Montenegrin army of around 40,000 men came to the south of the front . When it became clear to the Serbian leadership that the actions of the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army so far had only served as a diversion, on August 9th they gave the Serbian 2nd Army under Stepa Stepanović the order to move to the Drina-Save Triangle area.
course
The Austro-Hungarian 5th Army under Liborius Ritter von Frank began their attack on August 12th by crossing the border rivers. The capture of Šabac on the south bank of the Sava was considered a great success, although the advance developed more slowly than expected. On August 14th the 6th Army followed on the Upper Drina. The difficult terrain, supply problems and unexpected Serbian resistance ruined the Austrian plans from the very beginning. On the night of the 15th, the Serbian Chief of Staff Putnik , who had now recognized the Austrian intentions, ordered a new formation of his armies with the front facing west. The 1st Army should form the left wing, the 3rd the center and the 2nd Army should hold their position in the Drina-Save triangle.
The main fighting took place in the days from August 16 to 19 between the Austro-Hungarian 5th Army, which had advanced to the area of the Cer Mountains about 35 km southwest of Šabac and into the Jadar Valley , and the Serbian 2nd Army as well Divide the 3rd Army instead.
Until August 16, the XIII. Corps (FML von Rhemen ) with the Croatian 42nd Honved Division ( FML Sarkotić ) to Krupanj and with the 36th Division (FML Czibulka ) to Zavlanka. A night clash between the Serbian Combined Division and the 21st Landwehr Division of the Austro-Hungarian VIII Corps (FML Giesl von Gieslingen ) initiated the battle on Cer planina. On the morning of August 16, the Serbs, for their part, attacked at Divača and pushed the Austrians back from their positions at Borino Selo.
In the early morning hours of August 18, another Serbian attack followed from the Tekeris area by the Morava I division, which threw back the Austro-Hungarian 9th Division (FML von Scheuchenstuel ). On the Jadar section the Serbs took the village Rašulijača at noon, the Combined Division broke into the positions of the 21st Rifle Division (FML Artur Przyborski ) near Lješnica . From August 17, the Serbs tried to recapture Šabac, the Division-Šumadija I tried in vain to push in the bridgehead there. In the meantime the Morava Division I attacked near Iverak and took the village of Velika Glava. The Serbian Combined Division attacked the villages of Trojan and Parlog through Kosanin. In the late afternoon the ridge of the Rajin Grob was recaptured.
The kuk IV Corps (FML Tersztyánszky ) meanwhile repulsed the attack of the Serbian division Šumadija I in the northern section near Dobrič. On August 18, the 31st Division crossed the Sava near Šabac and tried to relieve the pressure on the northern flank of the Serbian 2nd Army on August 19. Due to the unexpectedly strong Serbian resistance, Potiorek finally ordered the complete withdrawal from Serbia. By August 20, the right wing of the Austro-Hungarian 5th Army was completely defeated on Jadar, it had lost the entire train on Jadar.
The end of the battle was the recapture of Šabac on August 24th by the Serbian 1st Army. The withdrawal of the entire Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army to the Russian front could not take place as planned, as parts had to be left behind to defend Syrmia .
Losses and consequences
180,000 soldiers on the Serbian side had faced 200,000 soldiers from the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. In the end, the defeated Austro-Hungarian army counted around 18,500 dead and wounded and 4,500 prisoners. About 5,000 Serbian soldiers were killed and more than 11,000 were wounded. Stepanović was named Vojvoda ( Field Marshal ) for his success .
The Battle of Cer was an important early success for the Serbs, which was also significant for their status within the Entente Alliance. The allies, above all Russia , were now putting pressure on the Serbs to take the offensive on their part. The preparations for this took time, however, and when the Serbian advance into Syrmia began, it was answered by Potiorek with a renewed invasion of Serbia, which led to the battle of the Drina .
The battle remained largely unknown in the German-speaking part of Europe, as the defeat of the stronger and better equipped Austro-Hungarian army against Serbia, which was still weakened by the Balkan wars , was kept as secret as possible from the media. Egon Erwin Kisch took part in the battle on Austria's side as a simple soldier, his war diary As a soldier in the Prager Korps (later title Write that down, Kisch! ) Was published in 1922.
In the Serbian village of Tekeriš , a museum presents historical relics of the battle.
literature
- James Lyon: Serbia and the Balkan Front, 1914. The Outbreak of the Great War. Bloomsbury Academic, London a. a. 2015, ISBN 978-1472580047 .
- Silvija Đurić, Vidosav Stevanović: Golgota i vaskrs Srbije 1914–1915. Zrinski, Čakovec 1990, ISBN 86-7003-053-5 .
- Gunther E. Rothenberg: The Austro-Hungarian Campaign Against Serbia in 1914 . In: The Journal of Military History , Vol. 53, No. 2 (April 1989), pp. 127-146.
Web links
- Battle arrangement of the Austro-Hungarian army
- Cerska bitka Europeana 1914–1918: Documentation by the Yugoslav Cinema (Jugoslavenska kinoteka) on the battle of the Cer Mountains on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary in 1964
Individual evidence
- ↑ Austria-Hungary's Last War, Volume I, Vienna 1930, pp. 120–145