Austro-Hungarian troops advance into Serbia in 1914. Serbia possessed few metalled roads, and the conditions seen underfoot in this photograph are typical of those faced by both sides from an early stage in the first Austrian invasion. The Austrian assault literally became bogged down.
The Austro-Hungarian ultimatum confirmed the suspicions of many Serbs that their powerful neighbour's ambition was to expand eastwards and crush Serbia sooner rather than later. The ageing Austrian Emperor Franz Josef appeared to be reluctant to take such a step prior to 1914, but the assassination in Sarajevo, and the support of the Germans, appeared to galvanize political opinion in Vienna to the point where war seemed inevitable.
The need to protect against a Russian attack on Austria-Hungary meant that troops had to be diverted from the Balkan Army to the Galician front, and this in turn forced amendment of the original Austro-Hungarian plans for the conquest of Serbia. Rather than drive into Serbia from both north and west to directly engage the Serbian Army, the Austro-Hungarians instead looked to encircle Serb forces in the west of the country. Austro-Hungarian forces would seek to undermine the left flank of the Serbian Army by taking Valjevo, while simultaneous operations around Pozega would present a serious threat to the Serbian forces’ rear. The Austrians anticipated a swift victory, and felt that such a success would persuade the Italians, Romanians, Turks and Bulgarians to join the Central Powers, presenting a potentially much more challenging array of opposition to the Allies, particularly Russia.
The Austro-Hungarian forces assigned to the invasion were far smaller than originally planned (308,000 strong), given that a large part of the Austrian Second Army was moved to the Russian front, reducing the number of troops in the Balkan Army to around 200,000. However, the Austro-Hungarians could, upon full mobilization, call upon an army of approximately four million men; moving more men into the Balkan Army to support an attack on Serbia was, therefore, a practicable proposition once the mobilization process was complete, and as long as the threat from Russia had been contained. The Austrians anticipated a short and relatively simple campaign of conquest.
Serbs read about the developing crisis with the Habsburgs during the summer of 1914. In the absence of wireless and television, newspapers were the main source of mass communication – and propaganda – in pre-war Europe.
Opposing the Austro-Hungarians, the Serbs could muster 450,000 soldiers upon full mobilization. The main elements that would face an Austrian attack were the First, Second, Third and Uzhice armies; between them, they possessed a combined strength of some 180,000 men. The numerical superiority enjoyed by the Austrians was boosted by the fact that they possessed better equipment and a better logistics organization; the Serbs were to be largely reliant upon the arrival ofmatériel support from their allies, but supplies were low. It was estimated that full mobilization would see around 50,000 Serbian troops without any equipment at all. Many units lacked any uniform other than a standard issue greatcoat and cap, leaving the soldiers to wear their own clothes beneath. To compound matters, there were shortages of rifles and ammunition throughout the army. The Serbs were supported by the Montenegrin Army, a slightly misleading term since the kingdom did not have a regular st
