Try this

#! /usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use Win32::OLE;
use Win32::OLE::Const q{Microsoft Word}; # wd  constants

my $Word = Win32::OLE->new(q{Word.Application});
$Word->{'Visible'} = 0;
$Word->{DisplayAlerts} = 0;

my $doc = $Word->Documents->Open(q{c:/somepath/chapter1.doc});
$doc->SaveAs(
 {
  FileName   => q{c:/somepath/chapter1.txt}, 
  FileFormat => wdFormatDOSTextLineBreaks
 }
);

$doc->Close;
$Word->Close;
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