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other in Constantinople, each eager to gain the allegiance of the suddenly resurgent Ottomans.
    Enver’s star continues to rise, to the point that, in January of 1914, he is promoted to the rank of General, becomes Minister for War and Chief of the General Staff – making him the political and military leader of the armed forces – while his key ally, Cemal, is appointed Navy Minister and given the rank of General. Talaat remains as Interior Minister.
    But General Enver’s tightening grip on power is not universally celebrated, and many of his detractors, however minor their complaint, are quickly relegated to out of the way places. Even some of his fellow Unionists are sent where their voices are less likely to be heard. One such man, whom Enver recognises as a possible nuisance, is CUP member and Young Turk Lieutenant-Colonel Mustafa Kemal, who has summarily been sent to the Bulgarian capital of Sofia as Military Attaché. Feeling almost banished, removed as he is from the corridors of power, Mustafa Kemal – an independent and nationalistic man of grand ambition, deep reflection and rather regal bearing – becomes ever more frustrated, but for the moment there is nothing he can do.
    By mid-1914, Enver’s control over what is left of the Ottoman Empire is complete, as he is the most powerful man in the Ottoman Government and armed forces.
    And yet, even now, in Australia, there is not the slightest apprehension that the Dardanelles and the Ottoman Empire will become the focus of the entire nation’s attention, before 12 months have passed.
    How did it all change so quickly?
    I told you. Therein lies a tale …

Chapter One
A REAL WAR

    The Balkans generates more history than it can locally consume. 1
    A remark attributed to Winston Churchill
    And Australia will do her part. Britain is proud of her colonies, and the colonies are justly proud of Britain. Let outsiders touch the motherland and they will find her cubs from all parts of the world will come to the rescue. 2
    Victorian Premier Sir Alexander Peacock
    Europe today is a powder keg and the leaders are like men smoking in an arsenal … A single spark will set off an explosion that will consume us all … I cannot tell you when that explosion will occur, but I can tell you where … Some damned foolish thing in the Balkans will set it off.
    German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck at the Congress of Berlin, 1878
    10.15 AM, 28 JUNE 1914, SARAJEVO, BOSNIA, A SHOT IS HEARD AROUND THE WORLD
    On this bright, shining morning, the heir to the Emperor of Austria, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, Sophie, are in an open-topped limousine, magisterially gliding down a street in Sarajevo. They are here on an official visit to this far-flung outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, all too aware that there is tension in the air, that many Bosnian Serbs wish the Serbian regions of Bosnia to follow the Kingdom of Serbia and break away from the Empire.
    It is the 14th wedding anniversary of their wonderfully happy marriage and both are thrilled to be able to simply sit beside each other, for once, in public. As Sophie was not born a royal, this is not allowed back in Vienna, but here the two can hold hands and there is no one to complain. Their motorcade glides on; the crowds press forward and cheer.
    And then it happens …
    Seemingly from out of nowhere, a young Serb, Gavrilo Princip, trained in assassination by members of the Black Hand movement, charges towards them with a pistol in his hand. Though dying of tuberculosis, Princip is intent on doing his bit for Bosnia before he bows out and … he fires two shots.
    On the vehicle’s running board, bodyguard Franz von Harrach hears the shots and, the next thing he knows, a thin stream of blood has spurted from the Archduke’s mouth and splattered his own right cheek. The Duchess rises and cries out to her beloved husband, ‘ Was ist mit dir passiert? – What has