The Secret Battle, A Tragedy of the First World War

By A. P. Herbert

Frontline Books, 2009

Originally, Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1919

Reviewed by Bruce Sloan

The Secret Battle is a novel, but it is based upon what the author saw as a soldier of the Great War. Alan Patrick Herbert (1890–1971) enlisted in the summer of 1914 as an ordinary seaman. Shortly afterwards, He was commissioned as a sublieutenant of the Royal Navy, and promptly turned infantryman in the Royal Naval Division. He fought at Gallipoli and the Western Front, where he took part in most of the major battles from 1916 onward. Herbert later served in Parliament and in WW II as a petty officer in the Royal Naval (Thames) Patrol, and he was knighted in 1945. He died on 11 November 1971, Armistice Day.

The introduction, by Malcolm Brown, is nearly as engrossing as the story, as it sketches Mr. Herbert's life and the political and social environment which kept this work from becoming popular right after the war. In the 1928 foreword, Winston Churchill wrote: "This story of a valiant heart tested to destruction took rank when it was first published a few months after the Armistice, as one of the most moving of the novels produced by the war. It was at that time a little swept aside by the revulsion of the public mind from anything to do with the awful period just ended." Bernard Montgomery considered it the best account ever written of frontline combat.

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The story is of Harry Penrose, a young officer whose wartime experiences parallel those of the author. Penrose is unsure of his courage, and in trying to sort himself out, his actions prove his valor. At Gallipoli, he assumes the role of scout, lying between the lines, night after night, and continues with incredible bravery when he is on the Western Front. 

After much wartime introspection and courage, due to politics and the intransigence of the British officers above him, Penrose is court-martialed over an inaccurately reported incident during a shelling and shot for cowardice.

The opening lines of The Secret Battle: "I am going to write down some of the history of Harry Penrose, because I do not think full justice has been done to him. . ." The reader will certainly agree, and it may be partly due to his reading of this novel many years before, that the death penalty was not reintroduced, by decision of Winston Churchill, in 1942.

The Secret Battle is alive with experiences of the trenches and the men who fought through the war. Although a novel, it reads like a firsthand account. After all, the author was there. 

Bruce Sloan

[Editor's Comments: This book was one of my first introductions (c. 1968) to some of the finest fiction of the war.  I had picked it out as a change of pace after reading the entire Lord of the Rings trillogy during a term break at college. Please read The Secret Battle if you haven't discovered it yet. Also, readers might be interested in our earlier article on the service and subsequent careers of author A.P. Herbert, HERE. MH]