SUPERB SERVIA

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 110, 5 November 1915, Page 8

SUPERB SERVIA

"GOD, BUT IT IS A NATION

WORTH SAVING!"

CORRESPONDENT'S THRILLING

EXPERIENCE

THE PEOPLE'S MAGNIFICENT HUMAN QUALITIES.

(By Telegraph.—tress Association.-Copyright.)

(Received November 5, 2 p.m.)

LONDON, 4th November

Mr. Renwick, the correspondent of the Daily Chronicle, has reached Monastir from Northern Servia, after a fortnight's thrilling experience. His main impression is the superb courage and endurance, of the Servian Army and people, and the magnificent human qualities with which they face death, homelessness, and hunger. Mr. Renwick concludes his appreciation: "God, but it is a nation worth saving, and that quickly ! " Mr. Renwick was with the Shoumadia Division, the flower of the Servian Army, which opposed the attack on the Danube and compelled General yon Mackensen to ask for urgent reinforcements. At Semendria the Servians resisted three furious onslaughts, and only succumbed to the hellish artillery fire accompanying the fourth. PRODIGAL USE OF SHELLS The Germans showered 10,000 shells on, the Servian position at Mala Krsna, south of Semendria. After the position was captured the Servian infantry, who were concealed in a wood, attacked and drove out the Germans. Meanwhile the cavalry got amongst the retreating enemy and did heavy execution, and captured three guns. BOMBARDMENT OF BELGRADE The bombardment of Belgrade by 42----centimetre shells threw up debris to the height of five-story houses. Every square yard of the city was searched by machine gun fire, German aviators meanwhile dropping bombs on the fleeing inhabitants. Despite the rain of death and terror, attack after attack was driven back by tlie Servians, but at length the enemy gained a footing in the town. GERMANS PAY A DEAR PRICE Then the most formidable part of the Gorman task began. They were compelled to win the capital street by street, paying the price for every paving-stone at each street corner of the citadel. Beforo the Germans were masters of Belgrade it was a ghostly mass of smouldering ruins, strewn in the grimmest horror with a covering of dead. A little lad of fifteen years supplied hand-grenades to five comrades, who | kept a German company at bay for two hours. The boy was promoted to the rank of corporal on the field. The capture of the hills behind Bel- | grade ,was {rightfully expensive; every ! one was covered with dead before it was won. GREAT SLAUGHTER On the Drina front 600 Germans were launched across the river, but not a single man returned alive. Motoring from Palanka, Mr. Renwick came to Colonel Terrmitch's division, which was holding an angle on the Danube and Morava. The German advance was a wonderful spectacle. In the far distance the purple mountains were lit up by the lurid flame of the Germans' artillery, the blue Danube winding below. General yon Mackensen battered away for two! weeks without shifting the Servians from the Danube. When a retreat became essential the men were cheerful, believing they had so hampered the enemy's advance that yon Mackensen would take months to carry out his scheme, and hoping thus to enable Anglo-French succour from the south to wreck him.