The Devil’s Anvil: The Assault on Peleliu

On September 15, 1944, General William Rupertus and the 16,000 Marines of the US 1st Marine Division moved toward Peleliu, an island 500 miles east of the Philippines. Rupertus anticipated a quick, two-day crush to victory, strengthening General Douglas MacArthur’s flank in his drive on the Philippines. Instead, as this book reveals, American forces struggled for more than two months against 10,000 Japanese soldiers who had spent six months preparing for the battle. By the time the Americans could claim a victory, the fight had become one of the war’s most costly successes. Even more tragic, Peleliu was later deemed a more or less unnecessary seizure. In The Devil’s Anvil , Hallas reports on the personal combat experience of officers and enlisted men who were at Peleliu. These men describe the loss of friends, the pain of wounds, and the heat, dirt and exhaustion of a fight that never seemed to end.