Part Two of our Armies of 1914

Posted by Christopher Eger Sep 24, 2006

Hello there Military History fans,

We continue our look at the armies of 1914 with a look at some of the more obscure forces that took the field. These armies were some of the most under equipped forces in the history of modern land warfare. Few remember that the war started in the Balkans and those armies that fired the first shots are held on the sidelines of history, with most of the attention of the great war focused on the carnage of the great powers on the Western Front. The first rounds exchanged were on July 29th, when river monitors of the Austro-Hungarian navy began bombarding the Serbian capitol of Belgrade from anchor in the Danube River. This began the Austrian armies David and goliath story of combat with the mountain kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro.

The first article goes to the aggressor, the now long defunct empire of Austria-Hungary. The country of more than 56 million souls was in such a poor martial state that a German General referred to his country as being “shackled to a corpse” when referring to the armies of Austria-Hungary. You can view the article here

The second article is on the Army of the Kingdom of Serbia, now recently returned o the map of Europe after being part of Yugoslavia for seventy years. This force met the Austrians at the border and mauled them so bad that it took sixteen months of fierce combat on all sides to finally be beaten.

You can view the article here

The third article is on the most often forgotten combatant of 1914, that of the country of Montenegro. With an army composed of poorly equipped and mostly untrained soldiers, the army of the tiny mountain kingdom never once thought of abandoning their country.

You can view the article here