Having been blunted in their first assault on Celebic, the Austrians re-grouped to try again. This time two brigades would contribute their weight to the assault and eject the Montenegrins from their hold within Hercegovina before they could incite rebellion among the Orthodox segment of the local population. Getting the infantry across the ridges and hills had been difficult enough; the Austrians had no hope of deploying any artillery support beyond some mountain artillery batteries.

The Montenegrins had prepared for another frontal assault from the west, and the Austrian flank attack took them by surprise. Rather than try to fight off the twin-pronged assault, they set all of the buildings in Celebic on fire and retreated. Despite the proclamations of “brotherhood” between Montenegrins and Bosnian Serbs, this was going to be a brutal war.