Apparently the Austrian commanders realized that they had genuine obstacles to overcome, for they did not proceed with any impetuous haste. It was six weeks before they had advanced so far as to come into real contact with the new Serbian line. During that interval they had been preparing for this kind of mountain warfare, by bringing up special mountain artillery and men who had had experience in just such a country on the Italian front. It was mid-November, 1914, before the Austrians were ready to deliver their first assaults. Almost every garrison in the town of Bosnia had been drawn on to swell their numbers and the troops brought up from the Italian front amounted to a whole army corps. All in all, there were about 250 battalions of infantry, in addition to cavalry, artillery and engineer corps. One feature of this third invasion, which had not attended the first and second, was the vast number of refugees who now came fleeing through the Serbian lines. Their ox carts and their flocks blocked the roads, old men and women and children thronged the trails in their mad haste to get away from the advancing Austrians. Their reports of the vast numbers of the enemy that they had seen may not have helped to encourage the Serbian soldiers, but, on the other hand, they gave reports, somewhat exaggerated, perhaps, of such hideous atrocities committed by the Magyars that henceforth the Serbians were to fight with an added bitterness and hatred. Allowing for a certain amount of exaggeration, there still seems to be solid foundation for the reports of atrocities committed by the Austrians in Serbia. But this seems to be a circumstance inseparable from any war. And, naturally, the invaders are necessarily always the guilty ones. The Serbians did not commit atrocities for the very simple reason that they never had the opportunity to come in among the enemy's villages. Had they invaded the Hungarian plains there would undoubtedly have been atrocities committed on both sides. An army like the Austrian, composed of so many different nationalities and races, would naturally be more susceptible to such excesses. Whatever their reasons for waiting so long before their next general attack, the Austrians had, at any rate, played into the hands of their enemy to the extent that they had allowed him to accumulate a plentiful supply of ammunition. Moreover, more was coming, sent by the Allies and this had a cheering effect on the men. On the morning of November 15, 1914, the Austrians began their first attack. It developed principally against the Second Army, south of Lazarevatz, and against the Uzitsha detachment in the direction of Kosjerichi. For five days the Austrians sent successive waves dashing against the Serbian walls, but each was repelled, hurled back, with comparatively little effort. How determined the Austrians were may be judged from the fact that the Serbians now took more prisoners than they had during all the previous operations.