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The Austro-Germans tried to dislodge their opponents by means of violent artillery fire and a series of strong counterattacks, but were unsuccessful, and by the end of the fourth day, August 5, 1916, the Russians were in possession of the west bank of the Sereth, near and northwest of Zalocze, and of the villages of Zvyjin, Ratische, Tchistopady, Gnidava, and Zalvoce, and the entire ridge of heights between them.
The Russians meet the =10= men with about =12=, and the French meet the =22= with about =10=; but as they have not the whole =22= to meet in the first shock, they are struck rather in the proportion of =10= to =16= or =17=, while the presence of the British contingent makes them rather more than =10½=. But these initial figures rapidly change with the growth of the armies, and before the first period is over the Germans have =22= in the West against =15= French and =1= British, making =16=; while in the East the Russian =12= has grown to, say, =24=, but the Austro-Germans in the East, against those =24=, have grown to be quite =32=. And there is the numerical situation of the first period clearly, and I think accurately, put, supposing the wastage to be equal in proportion throughout all the armies.
Then came several attempts on the part of the Austro-Germans to cross the rivers; all these the Serbians successfully repulsed, though they may have been mere feints, as a boxer jabs at his opponent's jaw while he really aims for his wind. There were seven of these attempts. In one, near Semendria, the Serbians reported that a whole battalion of an enemy was destroyed.
Gradually this movement spread until on August 14, 1916, the Russians saw themselves forced to evacuate Jablonitza on the Pruth, which, together with some near-by villages, was immediately occupied by the Austro-Germans. Over 1,000 Russians were captured. Additional territory was regained by the Austro-Germans in this vicinity on August 15, 1916.
We warned them that the Gallipoli expedition would be fruitless and that the Austro-Germans would surely crush Serbia.... At the beginning of the war eighty per cent of the Greeks were favorable to the Allies; to-day not forty, no, not twenty per cent would turn their hands to aid the Allies." As for Venizelos, his voice was no longer heard.
The only alternative to a retreat through this wilderness was to escape south over the Greek frontier, where they could join the French and British forces outside Saloniki. But this was just the alternative which the Austro-Germans and the Bulgarians were determined to deny them.
On the same day, however, August 19, 1916, the Austro-Germans occupied some heights south of Zabie, which they succeeded in holding against strong Russian attacks launched on the same day, as well as on August 20 and 21, 1916.
On August 7, 1916, strong Russian forces attacked along a front of about fifteen miles on a line between Tlumach and Ottynia and succeeded in forcing back the Austro-Germans along this entire front. In spite of the gradual retirement of the Austro-Germans they maintained their counterattacks, which, however, were not successful.
Most of these occurred on the Stokhod, where the Austro-Germans succeeded in improving their positions at various points. The Russians seemed to be satisfied everywhere to maintain their positions and to repulse as violently as possible all Austro-German attempts to press them back.
Washburn: "In any other war it would have been called a good-sized action, as from first to last more than 100,000 men and perhaps 350 to 400 guns were engaged." The Austro-Germans came on in four groups. The Third German Landwehr was moving from the southwest by Wierzbnik against Ilza, slightly to the north of Lubienia.
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