The Killing Ground

by Elleston Trevor, Christopher Hurt (Read by)

"The battle of Falaise," wrote General Eisenhower in 1944, "will be the greatest killing-ground of the war." He was not far off the mark, for at Falaise the invasion ended and a new advance began that carried the Allied armies to Berlin.

Elleston Trevor depicts the men of a tank squadron as they cross the silent, darkened channel, storm the "invincible" coast, and sweep into Falaise. His book is a classic story of men at war. "The technical detail is unobtrusive, but convincingly adequate; the dialogue is sharply revealing of character; and the characters themselves are created with compassionate warmth." (The Times Literary Supplement)

Audio Cassette

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Author has published other books under the names: Adam Hall, Mansell Black, Trevor Burgess, Trevor Dudley-Smith, Roger Fitzalan, Howard North, Simon Rattray, Warwick Scott, Caesar Smith, Lesley Stone.

Author Trevor Dudley-Smith was born in Kent, England on February 17, 1920. He attended Yardley Court Preparatory School and Sevenoaks School. During World War II, he served in the Royal Air Force as a flight engineer. After the war, he started writing full-time. He lived in Spain and France before moving to the United States and settling in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1946 he used the pseudonym Elleston Trevor for a non-mystery book, and later made it his legal name. He also wrote under the pseudonyms of Adam Hall, Simon Rattray, Mansell Black, Trevor Burgess, Roger Fitzalan, Howard North, Warwick Scott, Caesar Smith, and Lesley Stone. Even though he wrote thrillers, mysteries, plays, juvenile novels, and short stories, his best-known works are The Flight of the Phoenix written as Elleston Trevor and the series about British secret agent Quiller written as Adam Hall. In 1965, he received the Edgar Allan Poe Award by Mystery Writers of America and the French Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for The Quiller Memorandum. This book was made into a 1967 movie starring George Segal and Alec Guinness. He died of cancer on July 21, 1995.

Reviews

[Mike Jennings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb.

[Peter Brickwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating insights into the thinking and feeling of combat soldiers.

[Kit Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

As advertised by the cover illustration--which appears to be missing from goodread's database--Trevor offers up some gritty and grimy D-Day British tank division action that's never short on brutality or atmosphere. Sort of the novel equivalent of a Lee Marvin film, I guess.

[Nadir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent military fiction - no super-heroes, no "Hollywood" ending, and many characters don't make it to the end. Trevor's writing is excellent and shows an understanding of men in stressful situations (combat in this book, but a plane-crash in his book Flight of the Phoenix).