Serbian Campaign (World War I) - 1914

1914

The Serbian Campaign started on 28 July 1914, when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and her artillery shelled Belgrade the following day. On August 12 the Austro-Hungarian armies crossed the border, the Drina River (see map).

Initially, three out of six Austro-Hungarian armies were mobilized at the Serbian frontier, but due to Russian intervention, the 2nd Army was redirected east to the Galician theater. However since the railroad lines leading to Galicia were busy with transport of other troops 2nd army could only start it's departure northward at August 18. In order to make use of the temporary presence of the 2nd army AOK allowed parts of it to be used in Serbian campaign until that date. Eventually AOK directed significant part of 2nd army ( around 4 divisions ) to assistance of Potiorek's main force and postponed their transportation to Russia until the last week of August, defeats suffered in the first invasion of Serbia eventually forced AOK to permanently transfer 2 divisions from 2nd army to Potiorek's army. The V and VI Austro-Hungarian armies had about 270,000 men who were much better equipped than the Serbs. Overall, Austro-Hungarian command was in the hands of general Potiorek. In addition, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had the third largest population in Europe in 1914, behind Russia and Germany, and almost twelve times the population of the Kingdom of Serbia, giving it an enormous manpower advantage.