The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-21
'AUSTR|ANS DID NOT | DEFEND VAL)EVO
We're Taken Completely by
 Surprise by Servians
ENTRY UNIMPOSING
Serbs Were Too Much in Earnest for Much Display-Austrians Dis carded Much Equipment in
 Their Retreat

l Naljevo, Servia, February 1-.Sor- l respondence of the Associated Press.) l The Servian reoccupation of Valjevo, ! which marked the end of the third Aus
 trian invasion of Servia, was accom-
 plished without extensive fighting in
 the immediate vicinity of the town.
 The Austrians, it is true. had prepared elaborately for the defense of valjevo, and their artillery commanded all the usual approaches. But the Servians I presented only a small decoy squad at
 the main roads. sending their principal I forces around the hills by footpaths and secret routes to the rear and lanlS of the Austrian positions
 They took the Austrians completely by surprise after scattering a rear guard of Hungarians quietly by the bayonet. The towns defenders. attack ed from both front and rear. abandoned trenches and fled. Retreat changed to l rout when the Servians turned on them their own cannon from the heights, l shelling the Austrian rear guard in its flight and killing hundred of them at one spot the rounded the top of | hill just outside the town.
 Entry Not Imposing
 The entry of the Servian army was | not imposing. The men were too much ! in earnest for much display of nilar- ity. Some of the old population got out faded flags and hung them aloft in welcome. and there was a committee of old men representing the munich
 pality to receive the general and well come the returning soldiers, but in the
 main the entry resembled the return to bereaved house after funeral The dead lay everywhere Servian as well as Austrian and as for the wound edit was many days before they had all been gathered up from the fields and hills of the countryside and placed under surgeons care.
 Along the roads there was plenty to indicate the collapse of the invaders plans. Countless cans of food and pieces of discarded broken equip ment lay in the wheel tracks and hero and there could be seen the gleam of uniform almost completely concealed by the mud At the entrance to the town was a great heap of broken ar tillery, ammunition. provisions, bag gage, cartridges cases and personal eff fleets, which the Austrians' plan to burn had been foi1ed by the pressure of the oncoming enemy
 The Servians advanced too hastily to
 bring up much of their own artillery
 but they had no difficulty in manning the Austrian guns which they had can tured. guns. horses and ammunition wagons The use of these Austrian guns against their late owners added the last incentive to the hasty depar- ture or the invaders, for the Austrian 1 infantry easily recognized the shots fired toward them from their own guns, not only by the position of the
 batteries. but also by the character
 istlc reddish purple smoke of the Aus
 trian powder.
 Used Austrian Equipment
 In some of the trenches the Serbs
 gathered up the shovels left behind
 by the Austrians and began at once completing the defense works for It
 was generally believed that the Aus
 trians would soon reform and return In an effort at counter attack. The Serbs expressed great contempt for the novice Qualifications erected by the Austrian recruits, for the Serbs lave been building trenches all through three wars until the science of this mode of defense is as familiar to them as target practice
 The horses and ponies which th Austrians left stabled in Valjevo fn- cluded large numbers of Tyroleau mules. never before seen in these parts.
 but excellent sturdy animals and in valuable for artillery purposes In all parts of the town were to be ,een coaches and cabs, brought from Trieste and other cities to do military duty and now abandoned. their shafts point ing desolately skyward
 Close behind the Servian soldiers came groups of refugees hurrying back to their homes, which they had lef. when they fled before the Austriuu ad- vance. Their oxen were yoked up to every conceivable species of wagon. and their wagons were piled high with every conceivable species of household article.
 There was great smashing of dishes when the Servian women got back into their homes, for these people arc al- most superstitious as to the cleanliness or their crockery and lsitchenware. and It seemed to be the general opinion among the housewives that nothing which had been used by the Austrian invaders was suitable for use again in preparing Servian meals
 Within a day or two the town was almost swamped with prisoners, for the servian troops had spread fan-like over the countryside. and were sweeping in Austrian stragglers everywhere.