The Beaches Of Hell Boyd Cochrell

Boyd Cochrell, as an officer in the U.S. Marines, fought in the Pacific for two and a half years: hence the unquestionable authenticity of his novel. He says of it ‘I picked a man in the front lines who was a private and nothing but a private, who fought the fighting as it was fought, and who didn’t get wounded or killed to resolve all those perplexing plot dilemmas. I chose a very young man because the average age of the Marines during the height of the war was twenty. I chose one who would see it through to the bitter end because I have always wondered who wo9n the war after all those terribly heroic officers were killed or disabled into the arms of Deborah Kerr.’