Offsetting these handicaps, however, and more than equalizing them,
was the moral strength of the Serbian fighting units. They had
just emerged through two victorious wars; they had triumphed so
completely that there was small wonder if the Serbian farmers had
come to believe themselves invincible and their leaders infallible.
Practically every man in the Serbian army was a seasoned veteran;
he had had not only his baptism of fire, but he had been through
some of the bloodiest battles of modern times. He had got over
his first fright; he was in that state of mind where danger and
bloodshed no longer inspired either fear or horror. And even the
warlike savage trembles on entering his first battle. Finally, he
was now defending his country, his home, his very fireside and
his family against foreign invasion. And it is generally admitted
that a man fighting in that situation is equal to two invaders,
all other things being equal.
The Serb army opposing the Austrian invasions was composed of ten
divisions of the First Ban and five divisions of the Second Ban.
Five of the divisions of the First Ban and the five of the Second
came from the kingdom as it was prior to the two Balkan wars, but the
second five divisions of the First Ban were new creations recruited
from Serb Macedonia.
The principles on which the organization of the Serbian army was
based were very simple.
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