The Day Before

Sophie and Franz in happier days

Franz called the second day of manoeuvres off at noon. He was happy with what he had seen and telegram the Emperor that the troops had performed beyond all praise. After dinner back at Ilidza,  some officers suggested cutting the tour short and heading home, but the Archduke didn’t want to disappoint anyone.

The next day’s schedule called for mass in the morning before taking the train into Sarajevo to inspect troops, attend a reception in the town hall, open a new museum, have lunch at the governor’s palace and visit a carpet factory (Franz and Sophie appear to have had a thing about carpets), before returning to Ilidza and back home. Franz Ferdinand was probably looking forward to his day with Sophie. There had been no trouble and Sophie and enjoyed her visits to Sarajevo. 

The Archduke probably was not aware that June 28^th was also St. Vitus Day, the 525^th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, an incredibly important and symbolic day for Serbian nationalists. He was certainly not aware that, as he was enjoying dinner, a group of young men were drinking and singing patriotic Serbian songs at Semitz wine shop, within sight of the planned route for tomorrow.

Gavro in less happy days.

The men singing in the wine shop, Mehmed Mehmedbasic, Nedjo Cabrincvic, Vaso Cubrilovic, Cvjetko Popovic, Gavro Princip and Trifko Grabez, had also been on manoeuvres that day. In the afternoon they had gone to the local park with Danilo Ilic, who gave the young men pistols and bombs, and showed them how to use them. The bombs were complex. They required unscrewing a cap and hammering the top against a solid object. After that, since the bombs had a delay of twelve seconds before detonation, the bombers were instructed to count to ten before throwing them.

After the weapons were distributed, Ilic gave each of them their position on the Appel Quay, the route the royal couple would take to and from the town hall reception.  Surely, with six heavily armed, fanatical assassins, nothing could go wrong. Everyone went home confident that the next day would see a mighty blow struck for Serbia and against the hated Austro Hungarian Empire.