With the Serbs in Macedonia

INCH BY INCH 143
that Monastir would never be taken— though
by the time the news got into the German papers
the city was already in our hands. For on the
next day, the 17th, a change came over the
scene. The Serb does not like being pushed
back. There is quite as much bull-dog in him
as in us. In a fight he prefers to hold on— or
get a bit more. So, on November 17th, before
the German general had got his breath back
or learned of his promotion, the Danube Divi-
sion, assisted by the Morava Division, retook
hill 1212, this time for ''
keeps.'' After their
reverse, after all this long spell of continuous
fighting in wintry weather, up they went against
bombs, and machine-gun and rifle fire, and heavy
boulders rained down upon them. The Germans
broke, the Bulgars fled— and the Serbians
followed hard on their heels. As an indication
of the severity of the fighting, it may be mentioned
that the Morava Division sent six thousand
troops to assist in the struggle for 12 12,
and they finished the fight with an effective
strength of one thousand eight hundred.
There was no stopping them once 1212 was
in their hands. Every man in the Serbian Army
knew what that meant, and the fall of 1378,
an equally important position just beyond,
followed on the next day, November i8th.
Those two heights settled the fate of Monastir.