general was born.  After passing through the elementary schools, young Putnik entered the military academy at Belgrade.  He had already attained a commission when the war of 1876 with Turkey broke out, through which he served as a captain of infantry.  His next experience was in the unfortunate war with Bulgaria, in 1885, in which the Serbians were beaten after a three days’ battle.  At the outbreak of the war with Turkey, in 1912, General Putnik was made head of the army and received the grade of voivode (field marshal), being the first Serbian to enjoy that distinction.  The grade of field marshal was created in the Serbian army during the First Balkan War.

With him worked Colonel Pavlovitch, the son of a farmer, who had won a series of scholarships, enabling him to study in Berlin.  He had directed the military operations in the field against Turkey and Bulgaria, and he was to do the same thing under his old chief against the Austrians.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XLVII

AUSTRIA’S STRENGTH AND STRATEGY

Let us now review the Austrian forces that participated in the invasions of Serbia.  In number they were practically unlimited; at least they far outnumbered the Serbian forces that met them in the field.  Their armament was of the best and their equipment as complete as boundless resources could make it.  They were, however, partly made up of the peoples of the Slavic provinces of Austria—­Bohemians, Croatians, Dalmatians, and Bosnians.  Naturally there could be but little enthusiasm in their attacks on their brother Slavs, and while there are many mutual animosities between these various branches of the Slavic race, such feelings are, at any rate, secondary to the general dislike of the “Schwabs,” as the German-Austrians are called, and the Magyars.  Possibly this had much to do with the Austrian defeats.  The Hungarian, or Magyar, regiments were probably in the majority.  But the Magyars from the interior of Hungary have no special reason to hate the Serbians, and, aside from that, they were attacking on foreign soil.

At the head of the Austrian campaigns against Serbia was General Potiorek, generally described as a textbook strategist.  But just how much his failures were due to his own inefficiency and how much to the inefficiency of those under him will probably never be determined; he had in the end to suffer for both.

These were the two great contending forces that were set in motion by the departure of Baron Giesl, the Austro-Hungarian Minister, from Belgrade, on July 25, 1914.  On the same day the Prince Regent Alexander signed a decree ordering the general mobilization of the Serbian army.  Three days later, on July 28, 1914, Austria declared war.  By that time Serbia was in the midst of her mobilization.