Battle fought between Austria-Hungary and Serbia in August 1914
Battle of Cer
Part of the Serbian Campaign of the Balkans Theatre of the First World War
A map depicting the initial Austro-Hungarian invasion of Serbia, August 1914.
Date
15–24 August 1914[a]
Location
Cer Mountain and surrounding towns and villages in the northwestern portion of the Kingdom of Serbia
Result
Serbian victory[4][5]
Belligerents
Serbia
Austria-Hungary
Commanders and leaders
Radomir Putnik
Stepa Stepanović
Pavle Jurišić Šturm
Oskar Potiorek
Eduard von Böhm-Ermolli
Liborius Ritter von Frank
Units involved
2nd Army
3rd Army
2nd Army
5th Army
Strength
180,000
200,000
Casualties and losses
3,000–5,000 killed
15,000 wounded
Total : 18,000–20,000 casualties
6,000–10,000 killed
30,000 wounded
4,500 captured
46 guns captured
30 machine guns captured
140 ammunition wagons captured
Total : 40,500–45,500 casualties
v
t
e
Serbian campaign
Serbian campaign (1914)
Cer
Srem
Drina
Kolubara
Serbian campaign (1915)
Morava
Ovče Pole
Kosovo
Great Retreat
Montenegro
Mojkovac
Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian occupation
Toplica Uprising
The Battle of Cer[b] was a military campaign fought between Austria-Hungary and Serbia in August 1914, starting three weeks into the Serbian Campaign of 1914, the initial military action of the First World War. It took place around Cer Mountain and several surrounding villages, as well as the town of Šabac.
The Battle of Cer is known as the first Allied
victory over the Central Powers in the First World War.
The battle, part of the first Austro-Hungarian invasion of Serbia, began on the night of 15 August when elements of the Serbian 1st Combined Division encountered Austro-Hungarian outposts that had been established on the slopes of Cer Mountain earlier in the invasion. The clashes that followed escalated into a battle for control over several towns and villages near the mountain, especially Šabac. On 19 August, the morale of the Austro-Hungarians collapsed and thousands of soldiers retreated into Austria-Hungary with many of them drowning in the Drina River as they fled in panic. On 24 August the Serbs re-entered Šabac, marking the end of the battle.
Serbian casualties after nearly ten days of fighting were 3,000–5,000 killed and 15,000 wounded. Those of the Austro-Hungarians were significantly higher, with 6,000–10,000 soldiers killed, 30,000 wounded and 4,500 taken as prisoners of war. The Serbian victory over the Austro-Hungarians marked the first Allied victory over the Central Powers in the First World War, and the first aerial dogfight of the war took place during the battle.
^Neiberg 2006, p. 55.
^Mitrović 2007, p. 69.
^Glenny 2012, p. 315.
^Pavlowitch 2002, p. 94.
^Jordan 2008, p. 28.
^Tucker & Roberts 2005, pp. 604–605.
^Hickey 2002, p. 38.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
The BattleofCer was a military campaign fought between Austria-Hungary and Serbia in August 1914, starting three weeks into the Serbian Campaign of 1914...
composed to commemorate the Serbian victory in BattleofCer during World War I and came to be seen as a symbol of Serbian resistance and victory in the World...
The Battleof the Somme (French: Bataille de la Somme; German: Schlacht an der Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a major battleof the First...
The Battleof Caporetto (also known as the Twelfth Battleof the Isonzo, the Battleof Kobarid or the Battleof Karfreit) took place on the Italian front...
The Battleof Ankara or Angora (Ottoman Turkish: آنقره محاربهسی, romanized: Anḳara Muḥârebesi) was fought on 20 July 1402 at the Çubuk plain near Ankara...
Mouquet Farm, also known as the Battleof Mouquet Farm was part of the Battleof the Somme and began during the Battleof Pozières (23 July – 3 September)...
The Battleof Tannenberg, also known as the Second Battleof Tannenberg, was fought between Russia and Germany between 23 and 30 August 1914, the first...
Battleof Ypres (German: Dritte Flandernschlacht; French: Troisième Bataille des Flandres; Dutch: Derde Slag om Ieper), also known as the Battleof Passchendaele...
The Battleof Nicopolis took place on 25 September 1396 and resulted in the rout of an allied Crusader army of Hungarian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Wallachian...
The Battleof Maritsa or Battleof Chernomen (Serbian: Marička bitka / Маричка битка; Turkish: Çirmen Muharebesi, İkinci Meriç Muharebesi in tr. Second...
unity of the Army, the Turks temporarily retreat) Second Siege of Petrovsk (Ottoman victory) BattleofCer Srem Offensive First bombardment of mount Lovćen...
Battleof Mons was the first major action of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in the First World War. It was a subsidiary action of the Battle of...
The Battleof Kosovo took place on 15 June 1389 between an army led by the Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović and an invading army of the Ottoman Empire...
The Battleof Baku (Azerbaijani: Bakı döyüşü, Turkish: Bakü Muharebesi, Russian: Битва за Баку) took place in August and September 1918 between the Ottoman–Azerbaijani...
The Battleof Verdun (French: Bataille de Verdun [bataj də vɛʁdœ̃]; German: Schlacht um Verdun [ʃlaxt ʔʊm ˈvɛɐ̯dœ̃]) was fought from 21 February to 18...
The First Battleof the Marne was a battleof the First World War fought from 5 to 12 September 1914. The German army invaded France with a plan for winning...
The Battlesof the Isonzo (known as the Isonzo Front by historians, Slovene: soška fronta) were a series of twelve battles between the Austro-Hungarian...
the Second Battleof Ypres was fought from 22 April – 25 May 1915 for control of the tactically important high ground to the east and south of the Flemish...
The Battleof the Falkland Islands was a First World War naval action between the British Royal Navy and Imperial German Navy on 8 December 1914 in the...
The Battleof Loos took place from 25 September to 8 October 1915 in France on the Western Front, during the First World War. It was the biggest British...
compensating for their lack of weaponry. The Serbs beat back an Austro-Hungarian invasion in August at the BattleofCer. That marked the first Allied...
First Battleof Ypres (French: Première Bataille des Flandres, German: Erste Flandernschlacht, 19 October – 22 November 1914) was a battleof the First...
The Battleof Coronel was a First World War Imperial German Navy victory over the Royal Navy on 1 November 1914, off the coast of central Chile near the...