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With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa (Classics of Naval Literature)
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Manufacturer: US Naval Institute Press
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Additional With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa (Classics of Naval Literature) Information
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In his own book, Wartime, Paul Fussell called With the Old Breed "one of the finest memoirs to emerge from any war." John Keegan referred to it in The Second World War as "one of the most arresting documents in war literature." And Studs Terkel was so fascinated with the story he interviewed its author for his book, "The Good War." What has made E.B. Sledge's memoir of his experience fighting in the South Pacific during World War II so devastatingly powerful is its sheer honest simplicity and compassion. Now including a new introduction by Paul Fussell, With the Old Breed presents a stirring, personal account of the vitality and bravery of the Marines in the battles at Peleliu and Okinawa. Born in Mobile, Alabama in 1923 and raised on riding, hunting, fishing, and a respect for history and legendary heroes such as George Washington and Daniel Boone, Eugene Bondurant Sledge (later called "Sledgehammer" by his Marine Corps buddies) joined the Marines the year after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and from 1943 to 1946 endured the events recorded in this book. In those years, he passed, often painfully, from innocence to experience. Sledge enlisted out of patriotism, idealism, and youthful courage, but once he landed on the beach at Peleliu, it was purely a struggle for survival. Based on the notes he kept on slips of paper tucked secretly away in his New Testament, he simply and directly recalls those long months, mincing no words and sparing no pain. The reality of battle meant unbearable heat, deafening gunfire, unimaginable brutality and cruelty, the stench of death, and, above all, constant fear. Sledge still has nightmares about "the bloody, muddy month of May on Okinawa." But, as he also tellingly reveals, the bonds of friendship formed then will never be severed. Sledge's honesty and compassion for the other marines, even complete strangers, sets him apart as a memoirist of war. Read as sobering history or as high adventure, With the Old Breed is a moving chronicle of action and courage.
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What Customers Say About With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa (Classics of Naval Literature):
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E. It would be a foolhearty attempt on my part to attempt to add any superlatives not already offer by other highly favorable reviews of this book. Sledge; scholar, gentlemen, Marine. B. Like any great work, I did not want it to end. ----RIP Mr.
The conditions that these guys lived and fought under were appalling,I always felt that the bulge fighting was tough, but the island fighting seemed like endless misery both from the elements and the fighting.I think comparisons with the Band of Brothers are not fair in the sense that BoB was a combined story of an entire company, a lot of personalities,events and the like making it a richer narrative,Sledges book is the perspective of one mans experience and observations and is more gritty as a result.This book gets five stars in my opinion. This book was highly recomended to me and it was an eye opener for me as I haven't read much about the pacific war, and this certainly was just that.
His humanity couldn't be overwhelmed by the "abyss" of combat. Recommended by Nathaniel Ficke, author of "One Bullet Away," and it is one of the most compelling war biographies I have ever read.
Yet the humanity comes through powerfully; the descriptions are vivid and detailed, confirmed by historical research, making the story that much more compelling. The author describes it as a pestilence on the human landscape, like a vision of hell. EB Sledge survived one of the bloodiest and most brutal campaigns in world history, nearly being killed a number of times. If you've ever wondered what combat is really like, this is it: week after week of grinding fear, friends dead and maimed, inhuman acts performed daily by ordinary people. I'll go out on a limb and recommend that every American should read this book or one similar, to have a taste of what the common soldier may experience while serving the interests of the nation. This account provides a ground-level narrative of just what that experience is like. Later in life he becomes a research scientist, and the book is written very matter-of-factly, from that kind of detached observer viewpoint.
It's the best personal military account that I've read. An honest and very well written memoir from an enlisted marine who fought on the first lines in the WWII Pacific island battles of Peleliu and Okinawa.John Master's memoir, "The Road Past Mandalay" covers the Burma war against the Japanese from the British side (and is a great book), but Sledge's "With The Old Breed" is better, since he was at much greater personal risk and describes the psychological effects of this long exposure.
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