The Folio · 1926 · restored 2025

The Perils of Amateur Strategy

As Exemplified by the Attack on the Dardanelles Fortress in 1915

Lt. Gen. Sir Gerald Ellison — Ellison served in South Africa and through the Great War, rising to Quarter-Master General during the Dardanelles campaign.

Ellison served in South Africa and through the Great War, rising to Quarter-Master General during the Dardanelles campaign. His thesis is blunt: the professionals warned that the operation would fail as planned, the amateurs overruled them, and tens of thousands died for it.

Sourced via Internet Archive.

• retypeset
• new introduction
• annotations
• restored images

“The price paid for the luxury of amateur strategy was reckoned, as usual, in the lives of other men.”

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Ellison, Lt. Gen. Sir Gerald. The Perils of Amateur Strategy (1926). Bulkington Books, 2025.