UNLIMITED Audiobooks and eBooks
Over 40,000 books & works on all major devices
Get ALL YOU CAN for FREE for 30 days!
The Secret Battle
A. P. Herbert
Book Overview:
Like many soldiers at the beginning of their military careers, Harry Penrose has romantic ideas of climbing the ranks and attaining hero status. However, while stationed at Gallipoli, the realities of war begin to take their toll on Penrose, not only physically, but also mentally where the war has become a 'battle of the mind.' This is his story as related by a fellow soldier, as well as the story of the campaign at Gallipoli which is vividly portrayed from the author's own personal experiences.
Like many soldiers at the beginning of their military careers, Harry Penrose has romantic ideas of climbing the ranks and attaining hero status. However, while stationed at Gallipoli, the realities of war begin to take their toll on Penrose, not only physically, but also mentally where the war has become a 'battle of the mind.' This is his story as related by a fellow soldier, as well as the story of the campaign at Gallipoli which is vividly portrayed from the author's own personal experiences.
How does All You Can Books work?
All You Can Books gives you UNLIMITED access to over 40,000 Audiobooks, eBooks, and Foreign Language courses. Download as many audiobooks, ebooks, language audio courses, and language e-workbooks as you want during the FREE trial and it's all yours to keep even if you cancel during the FREE trial. The service works on any major device including computers, smartphones, music players, e-readers, and tablets. You can try the service for FREE for 30 days then it's just $19.99 per month after that. So for the price everyone else charges for just 1 book, we offer you UNLIMITED audio books, e-books and language courses to download and enjoy as you please. No restrictions.
Forthwith he swarmed over the parapet, full of life again, nosed about till he found the reeking thing, and gazed on it with undisguised interest. No sign of horror or disgust could I detect in him. Yet it was not pure ghoulishness; it was simply the boy's greed for experience and the savour of adventure. Anyhow, my experiment had failed; and I found that I was glad. But when I was leaving him for the next platoon, he was lying down for a little sleep on the dirty floor of the trench, and as he flashed his electric torch over the ground, I saw several small white objects writhing in the dust. The company commander whom we had relieved had told me how under all these trenches the Turks and the French had buried many of their dead, and in a moment of nauseating insight I knew that these things were the maggots which fed upon their bodies.
'Harry,' I said, 'you can't sleep there; look at those things!' And I told him what they were.Read More
Try now for FREE!
"Love your service - thanks so much for what you do!"
- Customer Cathryn Mazer
"I did not realize that you would have so many audio books I would enjoy"
- Customer Sharon Morrison
"For all my fellow Audio Book & E-Book regulars:
This is about as close to nirvana as I have found!"
- Twitter post from @bobbyekat
Community Reviews
I found this as powerful on its second reading, years after the first time I opened it, as it was then. It's a timeless masterpiece about the effects of war on a sensitive, educated young officer. The narrative is unadorned and simple, as a friend tells of the battle within the victim-hero overwhelm
All war is horrific, but WWI seems to me particularly obscene. Powerfully and straightforwardly written, events described in this story bring to mind a shameful incident in the American Civil War. A cargo of provisions heading for starving Confederate soldiers was dumped from a train by their office
4.4 stars. Realistic description of life as an infantryman during WWI. Tragic ending for a brave and honest man just trying his best. This book pairs well with Juenger's "Storms of Steel," Boyd's "Through the Wheat," Crane's "Red Badge of Courage," Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front," Grossm
I really enjoyed this. Took me into the trenches of Gallipoli and then France and the life of a group of common English soldiers worrying about snipers and mortars that can kill or wound a man in a flash , living without real sleep,the stench of the battlefield that i could imagine. All the discomfo
I'm more likely to read James or even George Herbert than A.P....this was a 'Dad's Bookshelf' find on a rainy afternoon. But what a fascinating book, wonderfully vivid in its evocation of somewhere I'm so glad I wasn't at. It's all here - some marvellous descriptive writing, heart-rending insights i
War sucks.
If there's a central message to this book, that's it: war sucks. There is no glory in war. War may be inevitable, it may even be necessary, but it is not good and it is not glorious. And no one who goes into war ever comes out unscathed.
This book was first published in 1919, soon after the
As a writer A.P. Herbert was known for his comic work. This, however, his first book, is an altogether darker affair.
The Secret Battle, published in 1919, might be the first of the British novels/memoirs of the First World War. It tells the story of a high strung young soldier called Harry Penrose