The WWI Serbian Army of 1914
Defender of Belgrade the Serbs met Austrian forces along the Drina river
Underequipped, outnumbered, and fighting with its back to the mountains the Serbian National Army never shrank from its duties in World War One.
Serbia was the country attacked first in world war one. On July 29th 1914 forces of the Austria-Hungarian Empire began bombarding the Serbian capital of Belgrade. The tiny Serbian army fought like lions for two years and was only overcome by impossible odds. The Serbian National Army, led by Chief of Staff Voyvoda (Field Marshall) Radomir Putnik, was small as was its country. Drawing from a population of only 4.7 million the peacetime strength of the Serbian army was some 45,000 men spread over 70 infantry and 12 cavalry regiments. The army of the 56 million inhabitants Austria-Hungarian Empire was more than seven times this size. Officer training, especially for techinal skills like artillery and engineering, was undertaken in russia and several russian officers even served in the serbain army.
The regular Serbian soldier wore a uniform made from thin, airy grey-green cloth. The trousers were loose, tight from the knee, worn either with black or brown marching boots, or with the traditional woolen socks with the opanci moccassin-style shoes. A slung light brown bread bag and boxy German pattern leather ammunition pouches completed the marching uniform. The back pack was of a rucksack variety and pretty light, giving the Infantry men a standard load of only some 12kg (26 pounds), compared with, the Austro-Hungarian 25kg (55 pounds) per man, which increased the mobility of the Serb fighters. Uniform shortages however meant that the majority of reservists called to the colors simply wore their own clothing, only being issued the traditional Serb sajkaca cap. Reservists even had to carry their ammunition in their pockets as no pouches were available.
In 1914 the Serbian army was able to mobilize 400,000 men, and these were often poorly armed if at all. The country's arsenals included 120,000 Russian made Mosin rifles, 110,000 excellent M1899 7mm Mausers, and 80,000 forty year old Russian Berdan breechloaders. No infantry regiment had its full complement of weapons when the war started, many lacking as much as 30% of their prescribed number of rifles. Serbia also faced severe shortages of artillery, shells and machine guns, with only four maxim machine guns per regiment. The Serbian army was, with the exception of their allies the Montenegrin army, the worst equipped military force of all of the world war one combatants.
What the Serbian soldier had to make up for his poor or non-existent equipment was experience. Decades of unrest, civil war and banditry had instilled a sense of martial combat in most of the males of the region. The Balkan wars of 1912-1913 then gave the Serbians a baptism of fire on the modern battlefield. This fighting élan, coupled with the fact that the Serbian soldier found himself fighting a defensive war for his homeland, helped make up for arms and material. The original Austrian expedition into Serbia met with disaster. The Austrians crossed the Sava and Drina rivers on August 13, 1914 and by the end of the month retreated back after a crushing defeat. It wasn’t until Bulgaria signed a secret military alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary and agreed to attack Serbia from the east in conjunction with a combined 20 division German-Austrian army in the winter of 1915 that the Serbs were finally defeated. Even then a force of 150,000 were evacuated from their occupied country and continued to fight for the allies as an army without a country until the end of the war. Two divisons were formed in Russia from volunteers that fought on that front 1915-1917 and then into the Russian Civil War.
Total Serbian losses in the war are estimated at more than 370,000. It must be remembered that this is from a country of less than five million persons to be placed in the proper perspective. The fighting skill and determination of the Serbian soldier against all odds is truly one of the lesser known in the annuals of military history.
Sources
Armies of the Balkan States 1914-1918, Compiled by the General Staff of the Royal Army, published by the Imperial War museum 1996,
War Record of the Serbian Army , New York Times June 22, 1919.
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