El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-12-16
others of the crew, which numbered
ahnllt On had hnnrl wounded

others of the crew. which numbered
about 80. had been wounded.
Just Sham Demonstration.
The commander of the BOdrog' Lieut..
Olaf Wolff, explained this was a mere
incident in the days work WIN
others, his vessel had been sent Iate
in September to Belgrade to give sun
stance to a sham demonstration Whlch
was to prevent a massinS OF the ser
Wan army against a small Austr0-
Hungarian force west of Belgrade
along the Save river
Ships Reply Is Ineffective.
To navigate the Danube along the
Servian frontier was then, and is at
present. no small matter, according 10
Lieut.. Wolff. In spite of the fact that
the monitors and other craft of the
AustrO- Hungarian Danube fiotilla are
painted a peculiar sort of olive Whlch
melts completely into the vegetation
along the bank, the ships were visible
against the background of drab
Danube waters and offered an easy
target To the fire which the Servian
artillery concentrate invariably upon
the halted monitors, the Austrians re-
ply with but small effect The Serbs
mask the positions of their guns in
very thorough manner and before the
crew of the monitor has located a sin
gle position a veritable hail of shells
comes.
Serbs Can't Sink Monitors.
But vulnerable spots on monitors
are not many and field artillery is
not designed to cope with armor plate.
For these reasons, the AustrO-Hun-
garian monitors have been able to
do much good work. Not one of them
has been sunk by Servian artillery.
The Temes, sister ship of the BOdrog.
went down on October % by hitting a
mine in a field which she had traversed
four times under less favorable cir
cumstances
Monitors Help Avoid Invasion.
The blocking of the mouth of the
Save by the Serbs at the outbreak of
the war obliged four of the Austro-
Hungarian monitors to remain in that
river. Between the city of Belgrade
and the barrier, however, lay a terri
tory through which the Serbs could
easily effect an invasion of the en-
pire, and it seemed desirable to have
these craft available in some opera
items occupying the, greater part of
October.
How to get monitors past Belgrade
was a problem. The vessels not only
would have to steam through a large
mine field and past the Servian artil-
lery positions, but they would also
have to pass under the international
bridge which connects Belgrade with
Semlin. A bomb dropped from the
bridge upon the deck of a monitor
would have frustrated the plan.
Ran Past the City.
On a dark night. September 10, part
OF the Danube flotilla, the monitors
BodrOg and Temes, and several other
vessels, set out on the periIous trip
past Belgrade and succeeded in getting
as far as Gypsy island. The mines were
avoided by zig-zagging through the
field and, contrary to expectations, the
Serbs threw no bombs from the bridge
They had thought the enterprise of
the Austrian boats impossible, but dis
covered to their cost that they had
taken too much for granted. few
days later the flOtind returned again
without mishap and later a second ex-
cursiOn was made.
On the fifth trip, October %. at PAS
q. m, while near Shabatz, the Temes
hit mine and sank almost immediate
". losing SO of her crew in the ex-
plosiOn and by drowning.