With the Serbs in Macedonia

THE DELIVERANCE 273
howitzers— 4 and 5 inch—and no officer
commanding a battery was allowed to fire a
single shot without the explicit authorization
of the Divisional Commander.
In September and October, the Serbs
undertook two minor offensives— one in Syria
and the other with the Montenegrins in
Bosnia.
In December, 1914, at Rudnik, after a ten
days' terrific struggle, the Austrian second
punitive expedition of 300,000 men met with
a crushing defeat. The killed and wounded
• numbered 60,000 and 50,000 prisoners, 200
guns and large stores of material of all kinds
fell into Serbian hands.
1915. Till September, the Austrians made
no further big attack. Up
till then the
Serbian losses in killed and wounded were
145,000, all told ; and 200,000 civilians
perished in the typhus epidemic.
On September i8th, 1915, six Austrian and
eleven German divisions under Mackensen
attacked them on two sides. King Constantine
repudiated the treaty of alliance because
three months before he had promised the
Kaiser to remain neutral. The Serbs knew
the Bulgars were meditating an attack, but
the Allies refused to believe it, and promised
help which did not materialize.