Austrian defeat on the Kolubara

On 6 December 1914 General Oskar Potiorek, commander of the Austro-Hungarian forces in the Balkans, ordered the 6th Army to withdraw behind the river Kolubara. The British chronology of the war records under this date the end of the Battle of the Kolubara and the rout of the Austrian forces, which were thrown back to the north. In reality the fighting went on for more than another week, and the last Austro-Hungarian soldiers left Serbia only on 15 December. Yet it was on 6 December that the fate of the campaign was decided: on that day the front of the 6th Army collapsed, and its retreat soon turned into flight.

After the loss of Suvobor

Since 3 December General Wenzel von Wurm’s XVI Corps had been under attack by the Serbian 1st Army of General Živojin Mišić. On the afternoon of 5 December the Austro-Hungarians had to give up the Suvobor ridge and the Rajac range. Wurm tried to organise a new line of defence further west, from Mount Maljen across the Bačinovac ridge, but his retreating units were completely intermingled. Some brigades were left with a few hundred rifles, and the soldiers were short of ammunition. Even so, in the evening Potiorek still believed that the Serbian attack would exhaust itself. On the morning of 6 December his staff intercepted a telegram showing that the commander of the Serbian 2nd Army, Vojvoda Stepa Stepanović, saw no possibility of holding his positions any longer. The news was passed on at once to the 5th Army to raise its spirits.

The order to retreat

The illusions were dispelled within a few hours. At dawn the Danube Division (1st levy) attacked the Bačinovac ridge. The Austro-Hungarians held out as long as the Serbs attacked from the front, but when the Serbian artillery joined in and the infantry began to outflank the position from the east, they had to give it up at about 10 a.m. The neighbouring 50th Division lost Ruda hill and began to fall back. Wurm reported by telephone that he could hold out no longer. Potiorek noted in his diary that nothing remained for him but to order XVI Corps to retreat behind the Kolubara, into the area of Valjevo, and XV Corps to fall back. XIII Corps was to hold on, as far as possible, to the hills near Lazarevac. He added hopefully: “After rest and reinforcements we shall yet make good this setback.” The order went out at 11 a.m.

Panic on the road to Mionica

Meanwhile something happened that no one had foreseen. One regiment of the Serbian Danube Division with two guns pushed forward along the road towards the small town of Mionica. From the ridge it saw the crowded columns of the XV and XVI Corps trains on the road and opened fire on them. Panic broke out among the drivers. The wagons took to flight, sweeping along with them the remnants of broken units. Serbian patrols, taking advantage of the confusion, got as far as Mionica.

The threat of a breakthrough also forced haste on XV Corps under General Michael von Appel, who on his own initiative had ordered a retreat even before Potiorek’s order arrived. Breaking contact with the advancing Serbs proved very difficult. The rearguard of Hungarian Honvéd troops of the 40th Division, which had defended Čukor hill for several days, gave way only at about 3 p.m., and the Serbian divisions trod on the Hungarians’ heels all night. At about midnight the 50th Division occupied a bridgehead on the southern bank of the Kolubara near Valjevo to cover the evacuation of the town. Some 6,000 wounded and sick soldiers lay there.

Belated relief

Rescue was to come from an attack by General Liborius von Frank’s 5th Army on the northern wing. Potiorek urged that the outcome of the fighting of both armies depended on the strength of this blow. The units of the 5th Army, however, which had moved off towards Belgrade a few days earlier, were unable to exert any noticeable pressure on the Serbs. The attack on Mount Kosmaj, the pillar of the Serbian defence in the north, stalled. The tired 29th Division was short of artillery ammunition, and the Austrian official history writes that the division, “fortunately for the Serbs”, did not budge.

Mišić was cautious. Not knowing how the neighbouring armies were faring, he intended on 7 December to gather his divisions and put his supplies in order, sending only pursuit detachments after the enemy. His soldiers, elated by victory, did not wait for orders, however. Over the following days the 6th Army’s retreat turned into flight, and the Serbs recovered Valjevo.