 Mackensen’s chose to order a vigorous pursuit in the Ibar Valley, with the aim of encircling and fighting a decisive final battle against the Serbs in the Kosovo area near Priština, known as the “Field of Blackbirds”.On 5 November the Bulgarian 9th Infantry Division succeeded in reaching and cutting the main road running south through Niš made contact with General Gallwitz’s Eleventh German Army.On 6 November, the Forty-Third Reserve Infantry Division, commanded by Generalmajor Hermann von Runckel, moved quickly to gain control of the area south of Kraljevo which the Serb Government had abandoned two days earlier, this put the Germans in position to gain entrance to the Ibar River valley.