
Forged in Hell
The Gripping True Story of the Special Forces Heroes Who Broke the Nazi Stranglehold
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Narrated by:
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Steven Crossley
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By:
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Damien Lewis
About this listen
July 1943: The largest invasion fleet ever assembled sailed for fortress Europe, aiming to bulldoze its way onto Nazi shores. At its vanguard went a few hundred elite forces soldiers. The Royal Navy warship carrying them—a former passenger ferry transformed for battle—bore the iconic winged dagger emblem carved on its prow, plus the motto 'Who Dares Wins,' painstakingly fashioned with the most rudimentary tools by Sergeant William 'Bill' Deakins, the foremost explosives expert on board and a Royal Engineer by trade.
Led by the SAS commander Blair 'Paddy' Mayne, these war-bitten, piratical raiders were tasked with the impossible—to be the first among the fleet—the very tip of the spear—to bludgeon their way through the most heavily defended enemy shoreline, enabling the ensuing forces to follow on. If they succeeded, it would mark the turning point in the war. If they failed, the consequences were unthinkable. Against all odds, outnumbered some fifty-to-one, and facing a ferocious series of cliffside defenses, they would have to dare all as never before. So begins the true story of the SAS's incredible mission, an endeavor replete with surprise, shock, action, heroism, and glory, not to mention treachery, dismay—and the longstanding personal aftershocks of brutal and bloody years spent at war.
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- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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In the late summer of 1944, 80 British Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers undertook a covert commando raid, parachuting behind enemy lines into the Vosges Mountains in occupied France to sabotage Nazi-held roads, railways, and ammo dumps, and assassinate high-ranking German officers, undermining the final stand of Hitler's Third Reich. Despite their successes, more than half the men were captured, tortured, and executed. After the war ended, a top-secret black ops unit was formed to hunt down the SS commanders who had murdered their special forces comrades....
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Fascinating and little known WW2 story
- By Paul Atwater on 10-16-20
By: Damien Lewis
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The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
- How Churchill's Secret Warriors Set Europe Ablaze and Gave Birth to Modern Black Ops
- By: Damien Lewis
- Narrated by: NIgel Carrington
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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From the award-winning historian, war reporter, and author Damien Lewis (Zero Six Bravo, Judy) comes the incredible true story of the top-secret "butcher-and-bolt" black ops units Prime Minister Winston Churchill tasked with stopping the unstoppable German war machine. Criminals, rogues, and survivalists, the brutal tactics and grit of these "deniables" would define a military unit the likes of which the world had never seen.
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Dropped many parts of critical chapters.
- By Barry Davis on 07-17-21
By: Damien Lewis
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Oathbreakers
- The War of Brothers That Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe
- By: Matthew Gabriele, David M. Perry
- Narrated by: Paul Bellantoni
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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By the early ninth century, the Carolingian empire was at the height of its power. The Franks, led by Charlemagne, had built the largest European domain since Rome in its heyday. Though they jockeyed for power, prestige, and profit, the Frankish elites enjoyed political and cultural consensus. But just two generations later, their world was in shambles. Civil war, once an unthinkable threat, had erupted after Louis the Pious’s sons tried to overthrow him—and then placed their knives at the other’s neck. Families who had once charged into battle together now drew each other’s blood.
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The drama is exceptional
- By Nathan on 04-03-25
By: Matthew Gabriele, and others
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Escape from the Deep
- A True Story of Courage and Survival During World War II
- By: Alex Kershaw
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In the early morning hours of October 24, 1944, the legendary U.S. Navy submarine Tang was hit by one of its own faulty torpedoes. The survivors of the explosion struggled to stay alive one hundred-eighty feet beneath the surface, while the Japanese dropped deadly depth charges. As the air ran out, some of the crew made a daring ascent through the escape hatch. In the end, just nine of the original eighty-man crew survived. But the survivors were beginning a far greater ordeal.
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Fascinating story or survival
- By J. vanDijk on 04-18-25
By: Alex Kershaw
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Rogue Heroes
- The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: Ben Macintyre
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Britain's Special Air Service - or SAS - was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young, gadabout aristocrat whose aimlessness in early life belied a remarkable strategic mind. Where most of his colleagues looked at a battlefield map of World War II's African theater and saw a protracted struggle with Rommel's desert forces, Stirling saw an opportunity: Given a small number of elite, well-trained men, he could parachute behind enemy lines and sabotage their airplanes and war matériel.
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Those Who Dared, Won!
- By Matthew on 10-07-16
By: Ben Macintyre
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Tough Rugged Bastards
- A Memoir of a Life in Marine Special Operations
- By: John A. Dailey
- Narrated by: Tom Beyer
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Following the 9/11 attacks, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld directed the Marine Corps to establish a unit that would answer to US Special Operations Command. The eighty-six-man "Detachment One" was formed with a two-year charter to train and deploy as a "proof-of-concept" to assess the viability of a larger Marine Special Operations contribution in support of the Global War on Terror. For such a departure from the norm, a special leader was needed.
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Great historical account of the precursor to today’s MARSOC
- By bryan on 01-14-25
By: John A. Dailey
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Iwo Jima: “Give Me Fifty Marines Not Afraid to Die”
- By: Lt. John Keith Wells USMCR Honorary Retired as Major
- Narrated by: Ron Garner
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Dive into the gripping, first-hand account of courage, sacrifice, and heroism in one of the most pivotal battles of World War II. Second Lieutenant John K. (Keith) Wells, USMC, led the most decorated infantry platoon in U.S. history as the Platoon Leader of the 3rd Platoon, Easy Company, 28th Marines, during the ferocious battle of Iwo Jima. Narrated with riveting precision by Ron Garner, this audiobook brings to life the relentless training, the perilous assault on Mount Suribachi, and the iconic moment of raising the first American flag atop its peak.
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SAS Great Escapes
- Seven Great Escapes Made by Real Second World War Heroes
- By: Damien Lewis
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Original Recording
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The finest fighting force in the world. Escape. Evade. Survive. Repeat. Seven gripping tales of overcoming the impossible. Arguably the finest special forces troops of the Second World War, the SAS was the jewel in the British military crown. But the near-impossible nature of their heroic missions sometimes left them trapped behind enemy lines, the enemy closing and forced to endure the unendurable. But the unendurable is all in a day’s work for these magnificent seven. Incredible odds. Outstanding bravery. Real adventure.
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No movie can compete
- By J.Brock on 06-09-21
By: Damien Lewis
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The Secret History of the Five Eyes
- The Untold Story of the International Spy Network
- By: Richard Kerbaj
- Narrated by: Richard Kerbaj
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the definitive account of the Western world’s most powerful—but least known—intelligence alliance, which remains central to the defense of the free world in a dangerously uncertain time.
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The author should stick to writing
- By IBH on 03-16-25
By: Richard Kerbaj
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Judy
- The Unforgettable Story of the Dog Who Went to War and Became a True Hero
- By: Damien Lewis
- Narrated by: Ben Addis
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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After being bombed and shipwrecked repeatedly while serving for several wild and war-torn years as a mascot of the World War II Royal Navy Yangtze river gunboats the Gnat and the Grasshopper, Judy ended up in Japanese prisoner of war camps in North Sumatra. Along with locals as slave labor, the American, Australian, and British POWs were forced to build a 1,200-mile single-track railroad through the most horrifying jungles and treacherous mountain passes.
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Couldn't put this book down
- By Barbara on 03-15-20
By: Damien Lewis
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Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
- The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Defeat
- By: Giles Milton
- Narrated by: Giles Milton
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In the spring of 1939, a top-secret organization was founded in London: Its purpose was to plot the destruction of Hitler's war machine through spectacular acts of sabotage. The guerrilla campaign that followed was every bit as extraordinary as the six men who directed it. One of them, Cecil Clarke, was a maverick engineer who had spent the 1930s inventing futuristic caravans. Now his talents were put to more devious use: He built the dirty bomb used to assassinate Hitler's favorite, Reinhard Heydrich.
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Rip-Roarin' Tale of Devoted 'Cads'!
- By Gillian on 02-08-17
By: Giles Milton
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SOG Kontum
- Secret Missions in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia 1968-1969
- By: Joe Parnar, Robert Dumont
- Narrated by: Corey M. Snow
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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This book tells the story of the Teams operating out of FOB2 Kontum, near the tri-border area, in 1968-69. From recon missions over the fence to the heroic, and sometimes fatal efforts undertaken to try and rescue missing SOG members, the events are told through the words of the men themselves, supported by previously unreleased official documents.
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Great story telling, gripping stories.
- By Derek Catalan on 03-23-25
By: Joe Parnar, and others
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The Storm of Steel
- By: Ernst Jünger, Basil Creighton
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The Storm of Steel is a first-hand account of World War I trench combat lifted from the diaries of Ernst Junger, a German infantryman who would become one of Europe's most renowned writers. The book was first translated into English in 1929 by Basil Creighton, the acclaimed translator of many other classic works of German literature, and was widely hailed as a masterpiece. To many, The Storm of Steel remains the definitive account of World War I, following Junger through several major battles as he develops from an eager young soldier into a battle-hardened officer.
By: Ernst Jünger, and others