Mustafa Kemal was one of the 20th century's greatest combat commanders. Winston Churchill labeled him as a 'Man of Destiny', his service at Gallipoli and in the War of Independence were pivotal in the success of Turkish armies. Moreover, after leading the Nationalist army to victory and establishing the modern Turkish Republic, he took the name Ataturk, or father of the Turks, as his own.

Born to a middle class family in Salonika, he attended military school in the late 19th century and graduated from the Ottoman Military College in Constantinople in 1905. He saw service in the...