The Distant Drum

“We waited in silence, each man occupied with his own secret thoughts and no doubt wrestling with his own secret fears. I think that half-hour was probably the worst I have ever spent. Slowly and inexorably the minutes passed, second by second, and the time approached which might be the end of everything for me. All my efforts to screw up my courage, all my fatalistic self-assurances that what is to be, will be, became more and more useless, and hope seemed to ooze away with every second...” Frederick Noakes, 1917.

Guardsman Frederick Noakes fought on the Western Front for the last 18 months of the Great War. In 1934, he wanted to write up his ‘adventures’ while his memory was still ‘undimmed’, using the letters he wrote home during 1917–1919 as the basis for the memoir. His eloquent text, with his views on politics, morale and the trenches, moved friends to persuade Noakes to publish the work privately in 1952.

Fen Noakes did not consider himself a hero, but the dignity with which he conducted himself under the most dreadful conditions suggest otherwise. His articulate and effective prose gives a voice to the average soldier in the trenches. Professor Peter Simkins provides an introduction to this new edition, which also includes a foreword by Carole Noakes, niece of the author.