Battle of the Drina

Battle of the Drina
Part of the Serbian Campaign of the Balkans Theatre (World War I)
Serbian infantry heading for battle
Date 7–24 September 1914[1] Location Drina River 44°19′46.56″N 19°17′33.07″E / 44.3296000°N 19.2925194°E / 44.3296000; 19.2925194 Result Inconclusive[2] Austro-Hungarian invasion stopped[1] Serbs suspend offensive into Syrmia[1]
Belligerents
Austria-Hungary	Serbia  Montenegro
Commanders and leaders
Oskar Potiorek Liborius Ritter von Frank	Stepa Stepanović Pavle Jurišić Šturm
Strength
Fifth Army Sixth Army	Second Army Third Army
Casualties and losses
40,000[3]	30,000[3]
class=notpageimage| Location within Serbia

The Battle of the Drina (Serbian: Bitka na Drini, Битка на Дрини) was fought between Serbian and Austro-Hungarian armies in September 1914, near Loznica, Serbia, during the First Serbian campaign of World War I.^[3]

After a first failed invasion of Serbia where he lost 40,000 men, Oskar Potiorek, the Austro-Hungarian commander of the Balkanstreitkräfte, launched a new offensive across the River Drina at the western Serbian border; after successfully crossing the river the night of 7—8 September the Austro-Hungarian forces were stopped facing strong Serbian defensive positions. In the meantime, the Serbian army was forced to end their offensive into Austrian Syrmia and regroup their forces to face the threat. Meanwhile, in the far west, a smaller force of Serbian and Montenegrin troops moved into Bosnia, taking Višegrad. In the South, the Austrians took Shabatz (Šabac). On 17 September, a counterattack pushed the Austrians back to the Drina, where both sides settled into trench warfare.^[4]

The Battle of the Drina is considered one of the bloodiest on the war's Balkan Front.