The Chequer Board by Nevil Shute (Pan, 1968)

Found at a Lifeline Bookfair, bundled with some other books by the same author:

 

THE CHEQUER BOARD

'One of them was a Negro from America,' Turner said.  'The last one to go out... Dave Lesurier, his name was... Then there was Duggie Brent - he was a corporal in the paratroops.  And then there was the pilot of the aeroplane... Flying Officer Morgan.  We was all in a mess one way or another, excepting him, and yet in some ways he was in a worse mess than the lot of us.' 

THE CHEQUER BOARD

Brilliantly interweaving the chequered fates of four men brought together by one violent moment in war, this unforgettable story matches A TOWN LIKE ALICE with its heart-stirring romance, its rich humanity and compelling drama.

World War II was a major influence on Nevil Shute's writing--all his best known novels involve the war in one way or another.  However, he wasn't a writer of straight combat stories.  No, Shute's fiction is mostly about the civilians caught up in the war, and the human effects on the men who have to fight it.

And that brings me to The Chequer Board, which deals with four men in wartime.  Three are in trouble with the law--and the fourth is just in trouble.   The book tells the story of how they got into trouble and what happened to them afterwards (spoiler alert--it ends happily for most of them!)  Of the four stories I enjoyed the one about Dave Lesurier--the 'negro from America'--most, and the culture clash between a small Cornish village and the US Army base that has been planted upon it.

The Chequer Board was first pubished in Great Britain in 1947.