The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-12-27


 already had a Serb burgomaster and a civilian administration.
 There has been little fighting in the Kladowa region\ The fort or citadel, an ancient Turkish structure, recently reinforced by some modern redoubrs, was abandoned by the Serbs Cattle and sheep grazed on the g1acis and in the meats. Anciently, the fort com manded the western limits and Ka- zza11 pass. Then it would have been a military achievement of the first order to take Kladowa;/ today a few shells from a, twe1ve-inch gun would leave little but fractured masonry.
 The channel of the Iron Gates was a mill-race of turbulent mud Though the Sava pulled hard against the eighteen ninEtes to get into quieter water. A turn brought the ship with in sight of Orsowa and Ada KaIe, the latter, up to 1913, the last out post of Turkey in Europe: Fearing that Serbia might annex the island. the Austro-Hungarian government took possession nominally, though | leaving to the Turkish population 1 every right and prerogative it had ever enjoyed, including the privilege of carrying on smuggling in tobacco with whomsoever it pleasedI
 At Orsowa some of the Central Power troops crossed the river. The town itself showed signs of the re-
 
 Serbs from the opposite bank. How the Austrians and Germans succeed ed in scaling the cliff-1ilze elevations on the Serbian shore is hard to un- derstand. DisIodging an enemy en- trenched on top of the Hudson Pali- sades looks less difficult. But many a man tumbled and more were drowned before they set foot on Ser bian soil. Neverth e1ess the attack was Successfully carried through and will probably remain one of the mon uments of the great war.
 Orsowa lies on historic ground. Here the Iron Gates end and the Ka- gan pass begins. The river squeezes itself through a. narrow @defile of the l kazan nountains-a geological fault apparently. Through the gorde the Romans had to build a road that FwouId connect the Pannonian colonies. Trajan's tablet, still legibIe, cele brates this ancient piece of military engineering. Close to the waters edge a gallery was cut in the lime rock and where the masses of stone could not be conquered in this way a trestle, supported on beams, was con stru ucted. The manner in which the structure was made possible is inter esting for the reason that it has been revived by American engineers who built raf1road through the Andes. Square holes of a, depth of about four feet were cut into the face of the cliff. Into these stout beams were placed and on these a strong wooden floor was laid
 No attempts to cross the Danube were made by the Austrians and the Germans in the Kazan pass but east of it, at the head of AIoldava7 island, and opposite the Serbian town of Du- ] brovica, the main descent occurred. The exact scene is marked by pom toonr bridge which must be looked
 
 bridge is about 1,300 yards long and rests upon about thirty large barges.s It was built by Austro-Hungarian pioneers while under fire, and is as- serted to have no equal in the his- tory of@ military engineering. Field Marshal von Mackensen, when he in spected the stretch of river which his troops would have to cross at this point, is said to have shaken his head. The remark he made was simply:
 Well, the river looks different than it does on the map"
 The crossing the Danube at this point was no mean undertaking, ac- cording to those who witnessed the affair. The first troops went over in bar ges in the face of a. terrific in fantry, artillery and machine gun fire. Many a, man went down and several boats sank but the first who landed rushed the Serbian infantry positions with hand grenades, displaying a de-
 
 core those privileged to view the operation from comparative safety, as did a. German pioneer officer who told the story The various organizations riValled with one another in the dash, men were seen to fall wounded, but rather than remain useless, they 1 cfawled after their comrades on all | fours. The resistance 6of the Serbs, though desperate, was soon broken, ! and here, as further upstream, the Central Powers troops obtained a firm footing which later developed in to a crashing advance southward in to the valley of the Morava and the heart of Serbia
 At Semendria, a crossing had been effected in much the same way. But in that town,s which the correspon- tdent visited, the terrible work of greater part The Serbs seems to have had the plan of holding the old citadel The Germans brought up a few 42-centimeter pieces. A single shot made a section of the fortress un- | tenabIe. It hit the base of a tower, 1 sending fragments of masonry broad 1 cast, and drove every Serb into an other part of the position. Today the 1 tower leans at a dangerous angle. An l other "42'' shell hit a parapet wall tearing a large breach in it. The yard | of the citadel is a series of craters, deep and large enough to hide com panies in them.
 On the whole waterfront of se- mendria not a single building was left intact. Under the shock of the 1 shells.
 l With the citadel disposed of. the German and Austrian troops rushed the Serbian positions west of the town. I The hills, on which the Serbs were to make their last stand, were well for tifi0d Seven lines of trenches and ] obstacles lie behind one another, but so cruelty effective was the artillery fire of the Austrians and Germans that the Serbs were obliged to retreat long before the Central Power troops developed their attack to it's maxi r,o,1,,a shock In one section of the