Friendships Forged Under Fire

Edward Salter was a solicitor working for a firm in Brighton before World War I started. Feeling a call to serve, he volunteered, and gained a commission in a regiment raised after Britain entered the war. He has just finished training.

The Fires of Gallipoli, a novel by Barney Campbell, opens in Malta, with Salter, a platoon leader, about to join the Allies Mediterranean Expeditionary Force at Gallipoli. It follows Salter and his regiment from there.

Salter, a shy, reserved man, is thrown into an inferno. While not among the first troops to land, he and his regiment endure eight months on the Peninsula. Edward discovers unknown reserves. He proves a fast learner. He progresses from platoon leader to company commander and then battalion adjutant through a combination of courage, competence and luck. Even as his regiment is winnowed by combat, he survives uninjured.

He also gains battlefield friendships. He befriends a fellow platoon leader, Theodore Thorne, even before reaching Gallipoli. The fires of combat make them brothers-in-arm. Each becomes the talisman for the other, believing their comrade will see them through the battle safely. Salter also forms an unlikely companionship with Baffle, a lance corporal man known as a brawler. In combat he proves as fearless as Salter. The pair form an enlisted-officer bond only battle can forge.

Yet Edward’s greatest tests come after the regiment is withdrawn from Gallipoli, and returns to England. He spends his leave with Theo at his Northampton estate. He meets and becomes entranced by Theo’s sister. Then, while the rest of the regiment is committed in France, Salter, having drawn the attention of Lord Kitchener while in Gallipoli, is assigned to Kitchener’s staff. It is a soft assignment, but Edward feels like he is shirking his responsibilities to his regiment and his friends, especially Theo.

He returns to his regiment only after Kitchener’s death, a fate Edward escaped only because Kitchener abruptly kicked Edward off the trip the staff took to Russia. But the day before Edward’s return, Theo is badly wounded. A coolness grows between them, something that Edward cannot resolve until the war ends.

The Fires of Gallipoli explores the meaning of friendship, duty, and loyalty. A vivid portrayal of men in combat, it shows how the trenches of Europe affect those who went through it and changes them for both the better and the worse.

“The Fires of Gallipoli,” by Barney Campbell, Elliot Thompson, September 2023, 256 pages, $23.73 (Hardcover)

This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.