Battle of the Drina

Battle of the Drina
	Part of the Serbian campaign of the Balkans theatre of World War I
	; Serbian infantry heading to the front
Date	7–24 September 1914
Location	Drina River, western Kingdom of Serbia44°19′46.56″N 19°17′33.07″E / 44.3296000°N 19.2925194°E
Result	Inconclusive; (See Aftermath)
Belligerents
Austria-Hungary	Serbia; Montenegro;
Commanders and leaders
Oskar Potiorek; Liborius Ritter von Frank	Stepa Stepanović; Pavle Jurišić Šturm
Units involved
5th Army; 6th Army	2nd Army; 3rd Army
Casualties and losses
Total: 40,000	Total: 30,000
	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.

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.

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