Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-12-15
The Most Daring Feat of the War
BY HERBERT COREY.

19.-There fascination for the observer in the
fighting in the Balkans that the war on the western
front utterly lacks 1t is a in miniature one
finds himself with the human element.
On the Somme ones faculties half palsied by the
immensely of the forces engaged. \ bombardment has
something of the majesty of a storm at sea-
The continuous and stupefying, the
effect in whole rather than in detail Here one stands
by the individual and watches the effect of the
single she'll There is sporting quality in the reply
made by the Bulgarian too In the west shell falling
is accepted incident of the battering of
line perhaps twenty-five miles long. Here knows
that particular shell fired particular target
Ammunition is not plentiful either side that
shots can be thrown
81 think got the old gunner yesterday" said the
captain of referring to the mountain rife
that was industriously pottng at us. 1.-THE new man
isn't much"
SO is with the action of the men engaged. the
west whole divisions thrown forward to the attack
One might the the charging line and
either end even with good glasses.
Here the fighting is by regiments. often by
companies. One knows the Of the organizations
engaged and where they from and for what they
remarkable. So-and-so a gain in his sector
or is driven back Such-and-such company went
through the which is equivalent saying they
are past masters in the art of mountain Jovan
Somethingovitch killed two Bulgars from behind the
"A grand Jovan," is the nodded verdict about
the camp fires. "In the second Turkish war"
This individual quality in the Balkan fighting was
clearly brought out by the attack Vetternik tiny
action 1t is true when weighed in the scales by Verdun
OF 1pres But 1t was as CALAMITY fought a battle as
was ever won and gave play to remarkable personal
qualities of the Serbian fighters way as to
deserve attention. The Importance of the fight was
only relative. Without the peak of Vetternik the
Serbian advance have been rendered more diff
cult, but it is only be defenses
Dobrapolya mountain which on this sector barred
the to Serbia.
Vetternk mountain a tooth in the saw of the
Mogene On the very top IS a rocky eminence
200 feet higher The sides are quite as steep as
the ordinary house roof in western village but
angle is such that every foot climbed for.
Today rode three-quarters of the up the
tain on the newly made gun road, then climbed
desperately for hour and thyee quarters before
reached the first line of Serbian came at
top speed all the down, because every
the way were in range of Bulgarian batteries Yet
it took us two hours to negotiate the 2OO-foo descent
impossible the paths There are few cliffs The
mountain side is mass of tumbled rocks between
which minute bushes find sustenance in pocketfuls
earth.
'vetternik be taken" the
Serbian general staff when the general advance had
driven the Bulgars back the Macedonian foot of
Moglene range.
The Bugars not only held every inch of the noun
but had established strong line of posts
foot along the line of the village Bahovo. There
three Bugars to every Serb along whole
front The Bulgarian troops had pieces,
ranging from the mule gun of .65-caliber field
piece of II, with two loss mounted on the
summit. Serbians had not single piece artillery.
single regiment of took that position
with the exception of the rocky nipple the summit
in three days with loss of 400 The Bulgarian
loss is unknown. There still bodies the Bull
garian dead scattered about these hills
under the late october sum- One is continually
minded of them. Half the Macedonian peasants in the
vicinity dressed in parts of clothing stripped from
the hotsam of the fight.
How did you take t?' l asked the colonel who now
commands on Vetternik -..
''Our thought of their in Serbia" was the
grim reply. -~7
The first attack line outposts
at the toe the mountain. There had
rifle firing for a day two, but the Bulgarans knew
the Serbs artillery Perhaps they thought
fact he BIS med
the posts night with butt and bayonet. is par
ticulary good this work is the Serb In the
of the finds a better expression for fierce
hate that burns in his breast than in the rather
impersonal shooting at an earthwork. The outposts
back in disorder and fled up the mountain
with the Serbians at their heels
Now began of the against man conflicts
which mark the fighting this front. There were
forty lines of barbed wire the face of the
tain The Bugars built gun positions
on every angle of the hill from which an advancing
force could be held under fire. The fought
without orders such orders as could be passed
from They used the the Sioux
and the Apache. They sheltered themselves behind
and scooped out little gules them
selves to the baking earth behind the bushes
It a fight in which each fought himself.
he killed he moved forward
eve crawled" said the colonel, "al the way up
mountain. No stood erect"
The fighting by groups and individuals. There
were no charges the forty lines would
have held back any charge. The crept
and then the wire and writhed through When
they got enough to the trenches to throw
bombs they cleaned the trenches 1t is exag
geration say that other in the field could
have done this, because other army has had five
years of continuous fighting, have the Serbs
Each man is not merely a veteran He is up to every
trick and dodge of fighting in the hills During
three days of fighting they got water foul
rickles that through the enemy trenches. What
food they had they carried with them. The wounded
man saved himself persisted. They under
continuous artillery fire to which they could reply
At the of the three days they held all the top
Vetternik the rocky eminence which 1 have
referred.
For fourteen days the Serbians top of that
hill against artillery without of any sort until
they could build the goat paths which packed
and dragged artillery. In month they men
in all of casualties The enemy trenches were
never than hundred meters from each other
and sometimes only ten meters. There were places
Bulsar and Serb talked all day long the
earthworks.
The action on Vetternik not great, measured by
any standard common to this 1t micro
scopc in forces engaged and in values compared
the mighty battles to which the western front has
accustomed us. But a test of individual fighting
qualities and a proof of the mettle of the of