Inside GHQ

Step inside the nerve centre of the Gallipoli Campaign with the previously unpublished diary of Captain Orlo Williams.

As a cipher officer within General Headquarters (GHQ), Orlo possessed privileged access to the secret communications that shaped the ill-fated 1915 expedition. He gives an insider’s account of life at GHQ, detailing the planning and execution of crucial moments – the landings, key battles, and the final evacuation. Witness the complex interplay between military commanders and politicians, illuminated by Orlo’s candid, often critical, assessments of figures like Hamilton, Churchill, and Kitchener.

This diary is an essential primary source, revealing the internal machinations, strategic debates, and political pressures defining one of the First World War’s most controversial campaigns.

Orlando ‘Orlo’ Williams was privy to the plans, personalities, and politics that dominated the Gallipoli campaign. Amusing, informed, and often acerbic, Orlo’s Gallipoli diary is one of the most insightful accounts of the campaign and the inner workings of General Sir Ian Hamilton’s headquarters.

‘Inside GHQ’ is a crucial, deeply researched, and authoritative piece of scholarship. It will prove essential reading for historians of both the First World War and the Gallipoli campaign.

—Aimée Fox, University of St Andrews and editor of The Military Papers and Correspondence of Major General Guy Dawnay, 1915–1919

A waspish judge of character and a lively observer of events, Orlo Williams is amusing, enthusiastic, critical, enthralling and depressing in turn, reflecting his contemporary emotions—but he is never dull.

—Peter Hart, historian and author of Gallipoli