The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1917-07-28
POOR SERBIA.


saddest chapters that has been written during IL
ar In fact it is one of the saddest annals of warfare
,e history of all the world 1t is as follows:
The condition of the Serbian army, after nearly
three years of the bitterest experience undergone
by any of the entente allied forces, is described by
Herbert Corey, the war correspondent in graphic
communication to the National Geographic Society,"
a part of which is issued as the following war geo.
graphy bulletin from the society's Washington
headquarters:
1.-THE Serbs are the poor relations of the allies
They are armed with the old St.. Etienne rifles
which the French discarded The artillery in sup
port has been cast from other fronts Their
geons are borrowed surgeons, for the most part.
They are uniformed and fed by the French, and
Great Britain loans them money. They never have
enough cars even for staff use. Sometimes they
nave not enOught food But they always have
enough ammunition and they find enough fighting
for themselves.
''The Serbian army began the great retreat of
1915, 100000 strong. Not more than 100000
reached asylum on the island of Corfu after the
winters fight through the filled passes of AL
bania and Montenegro. In the confusion of those
days some one had forgotten There was not suf-
ficient food or clothing or medicines or nursing
awaiting them. Men who had struggled through
the winter died on the open beaches of the Island
of Vido.
dying men dug their own graves and then dug
the graves Of the men already dead. Not more than
half were fit to serve again when the fall campaign
of 1916 began.
1T was a sad army-bitter army-but not de-
Zpairing army that accompanied last winter. Many
of these men were 'cheechas' in the Serb phrase.
When man reaches the age of 40 he becomes
uncle to his neighbors. Some of these men were
IN the fourth line before the war.
Serbia to the Serb peasant means the little
white cottage, the plum orchard, the 10 acres of
ground. Few of them had been 80 miles away from
home when war began five years ago in the Balk-
ans. Fewer have seen their homes since. They
nave received no news from their wives and famil-
les, for the Acknowledgment censorship had been
extremely sever They have seen comrades die
Most of them-three men out of five in some units
have been wounded at some time during the war.
There were no songs upon the march except
during those vivid days when the Bulgarians were
being forced out of Monastir. There was no light
hearted talk about the campfires. There was no
music except that and then one heard the weird
land complaining tones of a one-stringed fiddle
which patient soldier had made out of the
material at hand. They kept to themselves or in
little groups of twos and threes At night scores
of tiny fires would sparkle in the open land on
either side of the monastir road where the paired
comrades were cooking their evening meal They
marched badly, slowly, slouching, their old Shout
alers bowed under their packs, their grzzed faces
deeply lined. Yet these men were the cutting edge
of the weapon that bent back the Bulgarian lines.
"One divison-the Morava-remained in the
aggressive for 95 days without rest. During that
period they had but one trench-the front trench.
They had one second line, reserve, rest camp.
Zone regiment of the Choumadia division lost
1000 out of l4OO men in taking Vetternik Mountain,
and then held that mountain under fire from the
ROCK OF Blood which dominated the summit for
~ DAYS until relief came. Even then the men of the
regiment which had been so nearly wiped out did
not go to rest They stayed on Vetternik
In the taking of Kaymakchan half of some of