Crucible of Hell

The Heroism and Tragedy of Okinawa, 1945

By: Saul David

Narrated by: Saul David, William Roberts

From the award-winning historian, Saul David, the riveting narrative of the heroic US troops, bonded by the brotherhood and sacrifice of war, who overcame enormous casualties to pull off the toughest invasion of WWII's Pacific Theater - and the Japanese forces who fought with tragic desperation to stop them.

With Allied forces sweeping across Europe and into Germany in the spring of 1945, one enormous challenge threatened to derail America's audacious drive to win the world back from the Nazis: Japan, the empire that had extended its reach southward across the Pacific and was renowned for the fanaticism and brutality of its fighters, who refused to surrender, even when faced with insurmountable odds. Taking down Japan would require an unrelenting attack to break its national spirit, and launching such an attack on the island empire meant building an operations base just off its shores on the island of Okinawa.

The amphibious operation to capture Okinawa was the largest of the Pacific War and the greatest air-land-sea battle in history, mobilizing 183,000 troops from Seattle, Leyte in the Philippines, and ports around the world. The campaign lasted for 83 blood-soaked days, as the fighting plumbed depths of savagery. One veteran, struggling to make sense of what he had witnessed, referred to the fighting as the "crucible of Hell". Okinawan civilians died in the tens of thousands: some were mistaken for soldiers by American troops; but as the US Marines spearheading the invasion drove further onto the island and Japanese defeat seemed inevitable, many more civilians took their own lives, some even murdering their own families. In just under three months, the world had changed irrevocably: President Franklin D. Roosevelt died; the war in Europe ended; America's appetite for an invasion of Japan had waned, spurring President Truman to use other means - ultimately atomic bombs - to end the war; and more than 250,000 servicemen and civilians on or near the island of Okinawa had lost their lives.

Drawing on archival research in the US, Japan, and the UK, and the original accounts of those who survived, Crucible of Hell tells the vivid, heart-rending story of the battle that changed not just the course of WWII, but the course of war, forever.

©2020 Saul David (P)2020 Hachette Books

Critic reviews

"The First Special Service Force created in 1942 was a unique elite unit.... As Saul David makes clear in this stirring account of their heroics, they did much more than their share and established precedents for the US and Canadian Special Forces of today." (James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Battle-Cry of Freedom)

Fascinating and gripping

A very detailed book about a very brutal battle that sheds light on soldiers of both sides, civilians caught in the crossfire and convinced bye evil propaganda to kill themselves and military and political leaders of that time. It grounds you when you worry about stuff when you hear what all those people went through. Sad but very inspiring, yet something that will not happen again…not because people are smarter but they are more selfish and personal responsibility is not an issue nowadays! Thanks for this great book!

Good overall story of Okinawa campaign

The author should have narrated the whole story. Good book that covered a lot of areas of the campaign I didn’t previously know about.

One of the best on Okinawa

Saul David never disappoints. “Crucible of Hell” covers all sides of the battle for Okinawa, and the brutality of the battle. It was the bloodiest battle of the entire Pacific campaign. David uses personal accounts from US marines and the Japanese. Nobody was spared in this one. The only issue with the book is the narrator at times. He still gets a five rating because the book is exceptionally good, but he can be a bit shrill and theatrical when it’s not warranted. But any inconsistency can easily be overlooked. There’s no reason getting irritated over minor issues. This is the best of the best!!