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Summary: One man's account of war...
Review: "With the Old Breed" is a first-hand account of combat against the Japanese at Okinawa and Peleliu. Actually, I never heard of the Battle for Peleliu until I read this book. But, this battle and the one for Okinawa were fierce battles against an enemy very willing to die for their cause. Very few prisoner were taken.Overall, I thought this book was excellent. Lying in foxholes at night waiting for the Japanese to infiltrate must have been horrific as was the constant shelling. There was 2 weeks of rain on Okinawa and mud and trench foot, etc. And then there was the stench of rotting bodies. The most memorable moment in the book for me was when the author was ordered to dig in along a ridge. First, he found maggots. After more digging, he realized he was digging through a dead Japanese soldier!
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Summary: Amazing!
Review: This is one of the best personal memoirs of WWII that I have read. Sledge's personal accounts and graphic descriptions of battle and the emotional and psychological impact of battle are riveting. This is a must read for any WWII or miltary history buff who is looking to get into the mind of those who where there and gave their all! Semper Fi!
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Summary: Pragmatic, stoic and truly eye opening
Review: An excellent missive about the true experience of war. From the descriptions of training and boredom to the horrific examples of human cruelty, this book states all the facts without embellishment. The author moves the reader along a chronological journey bereft of all the bells and whistles that accompany some documentaries in this genre. Embedded in his brevity is a powerful message of heroism (Japanese and American), stoicism and hardship. The author honors his Japanese enemies with stories of heroism and discipline that are quite extraordinary. The descriptions of decomposing corpses in the mud of Okinawa will stay with me forever. The horror that he felt is conveyed in simple, powerful prose and I will not see another war movie or read another historical documentary without recalling his words. The writing style is easily readable and the message behind the story is impressive. War is hell. An excellent book for anyone to read. The powerful imagery might be a bit too much for younger readers, but to not read this book would be worse.
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Summary: The Real Face of War
Review: Short, sweet and to the point. "With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa" is the very best personal memoir on World War II that I have ever read. Sledge's book very thoroughly describes and covers the physical, mental, and emotional horrors of battle. Sledge's first-hand experience and understanding of youth lost during battle is truly frightening. He describes the gloomy environment, the ear pounding sounds, foul stench, bitter taste, and experience of men, or boys in combat. Sledge writes about their fears and trepidation, but also writes about the bravery and camaraderie, or brotherhood these men had towards one another. Soldiers that fought and some witnessed the death of their buddies. All readers need do is read a chapter, put their head back, close their eyes, and visualize what the American soldier went through to protect America. If there was a Pulitzer Prize for a personal memoir it would surely go to Eugene B. Sledge for his book. "With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa" should be required reading in all American History classes throughout our great land.
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Summary: Portrait of a Fighting Man.
Review: To say that this book is powerful is inadequate. 235 men of Company K, 3d Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division went ashore at Peleliu in September of 1944. In June of 1945, after mopping up at Okinawa, only 26 of the original K/3/5 made it through. Note E. B. Sledge's integrity as an objective observer of war. Sledge, known as "Sledgehammer" by the raggedy-... Marines, tells his horrific story without whining or self-pity. Neither is he grinding an anti-war, "peace at any price" ax. His experience is of the face of battle reduced to its most sickening level. Never mind the position movements on maps at headquarters; the stench of battle prevails. From Sledge's viewpoint, grand strategy gave way to one-on-one enemy action in his sector. Fear and survival exclude swagger. Men in battle persevere to kill the enemy and to support their buddies. Naive expectations fade quickly as maggots infest the dead and torrential jungle rain fills the foxholes. Bloody Nose Ridge and the Shuri Line grind the Marines. The snap of bullets, the whine of artillery shells, and the agonized cries of wounded comrades are the only soundtrack. Mental and emotional fatigue takes a fearful toll, right along with bloody wounds and dreadful field sanitation. Sledge deplores the brutish nature of war, but recognizes its occasional inevitability, humanity's great dilemma. The privilege of freedom carries its own responsibilities. Heed the writing of a fighting man who knows. This book should be required reading for all persons on both sides of the war controversy. ;-)
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Summary: Essential for all Citizens
Review: Much has been said about the impact of the film "Saving Private Ryan" towards bringing the realities of war home to the general public. I must disagree because in the end, the medium of film cannot help but to be stirring; film is by its very nature is "sensational." The personal memoir is a much more effective means of transmitting the experience of combat -- the confusion, horror, terror, and sheer filth of it all. WITH THE OLD BREED is unique in that it is a personal memoir written a (very intelligent and introspective) enlisted Marine. There a multitudinous memoirs by officers, and they can't help but have a "gung ho" flavor to them. WITH THE OLD BREED avoids all that, and focuses on the sheer physicality and brutality of war. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough to anyone who wants to know what battle is really like, and why we should think long and hard before sending our sons off to kill or be killed.
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Summary: SLEDGE: THE ROBERT GRAVES OF THE MARINES
Review: Although the cover and the title may not sound that eloquent or poetic, make no mistake, Sledge's elegy stands along perhaps 10 other wartime biographies written this century. He not only recounts war and the charnel houses of these two battles, but does it in a way that is both extremely moving in a prose style that is very reminiscent of the Robert Graves' WWI "Goodbye to all That" or Farley Mowat's "And No Birds Sang." Sledge, who is not a professional writer like the above gentleman but writes, in my opinion, equally as well. As such Sledge has written the quntissential experience of the Marine in the Pacific War. it is one of the best, eloquent, haunting, and poetic reads I have every come across as any war memoir and very, very scary. I think that one should be able to read through it quickly. I also liked it cause I ended up clawing through the jungle in the Horseshoe region on Peleliu and seeing nothing but gun positions, caves, and small human shaped holes in the coral landscape with Sake Bottles and used and unused cartridges in the holes. I took this book to Peleliu in 1998. The Jungle has mostly come back and there are few tourists on the Island,and none off the very few trails. The caves are littered with broken Japanese Army helmets, some rusted badly, others with the green in good condition. One can see nothing but jungle cleaved coral. After passing the usual "squidd pots" (what the Japanese called the small coral caves and holes the dot the island). Suddenly I was standing on an old oil drum, now rusted the same colour as the brown moss of the jungle. Then another drum.... Rows of drums filled with coral. About at least 50 of them lined to a depth of 3 of four deep covered the entrance to a coral cave. The front of the drums were torn and shredded by large calibre fire -- probably .50 calibre I surmise by the size of the holes. Despite its layers of armour I could not help but think that the Marines probably knocked the position out early, though it would have done them little good. Sledge describes the caves and squid pots all up to the top of the ridge. Day after day the Marines in Sledges unit went into this horror. Okinawa was Peliliu magnified 10 times, and were dehumanised by the entire experience to a degree that those who have never, perhaps today few ever can, experience such a degree of fighting.
It should be noted that the Marines and, later, the Army siezed the ridge after 4 months of fighting. 20,000 Japanese soldiers and about 2000 Americans died on this island 3 Miles Long and 1 mile wide. I came across their bones --- femurs, skull shards, and shredded bodies all over the island. All along I had Sledges book to keep me dark company.
And so I recommend you the book. In the same way that Robert Graves kept me company in my wet soujourns to Vimy Ridge and Ypres in Belgium, so too did Sledge keep me company in that hot hell in the South Pacific.
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Summary: One of the Best WWII stories ever told!
Review: I read this book a few years ago. This book puts you in the mortar pit with the Marines during WWII. I never really understood why they say "War is Hell", until I read this book. Imagine seeing your dead buddies rotting with maggots and then having a mortar shell explode those remains all over you. Very gritty to say the least. This book reflects we humans at our best and worst all at the same time. A must read. I also recommend, "Charlie Rangers".
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Summary: Smell the Smoke...Hear the Shells.....Witness the Carnage...
Review: Without doubt, the finest first person account of battlefield life that I have ever read. Period.
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Summary: Best book describing war
Review: "With The Old Breed" is a stunning eye witness account of one Marines trip from Boot Camp to the South Pacific during World War II. Sledge writes an autobiographical and historical account of his own experiences as a member of K Company, Third Battalion, Fifth Marines, First Marine Division. Coming late to the war in 1944, Sledge "only" participates in two of the famous 1st Marine battles - Peleliu and Okinawa. Throughout his account he speaks of his training, the closeness of combat and the horrors of war.
After initially enlisting in the Marines in 1942, Sledge enrolled in Marine ROTC but like may others in his class, he felt the call of the war and after a semester he went to boot camp. It was here that he got his first taste of Marine training. By this time the Marines had plenty of combat veterans who had been rotated home to fill the ranks of instructors. The effect of having veterans train the newest can be measured by their initial survival in combat. The instructors prepared Sledge and his peers well with tough, realistic training - training that would keep them alive in the first days in combat. His state side training was followed up with more once he reached the Pacific and a healthy dose of iron discipline. Again, the hard training paid off for Sledge. Later in the war the Marines ran out of time for proper training and integration of new troops. The result was dead Marines, to new to know what to do. Training and discipline were the difference between life and death in the initial days in combat. Sledge received and absorbed his training and went home without a scratch.
Though Sledge does not specifically address it, I was struck by the closeness of the combat he faced. Peleiu was a only 12 square miles - 6 miles long by 2 miles wide. Given that the average artillery piece of the day could range more than 6 miles, Peleiu was a division sized knife fight that lasted 30 days. 30 horrible days of almost non-stop fighting. Even when sent to the "rear" artillery and snipers were a constant danger. Okinawa was more of the same but on a larger scale. 60 miles long and between 2 and 18 miles wide, the Americans put a Field Army up against more than 100,000 entrenched Japanese. The vast majority of the island was covered by indirect fire and snipers were again a constant danger. Multiple Corps fought side by side where the island was barely 3 miles across. That anyone survived let alone prevailed through 80 days of bullets filling the air is amazing.
Unlike many military writers who only saw combat in pictures, Sledge was there. He writes a Marines thoughts in Marine words. And unlike writers who wax poetic about the intense experience of men under fire, Sledge repeatedly calls warfare what it is - a waste. A waste of men and material. A destroyer of lives and land. The only good he finds in his service are the friendships that were born and continue. Okinawa is an "abyss" and he tells of a battlefield so littered with dead that pieces of flesh fly with the shrapnel and mud flung by exploding artillery and mortars. He recalls a friend tricking him into not pulling the gold teeth out of a dead corpse by warning him of germs. Only later does he realize that his friend was trying to save his soul not his health.
When old men sit and decide to send young men to kill and be killed, they should be forced to read Sledge's words. War not only kills but also justifies killing. There are times and places where there is no other way. Times when the greater good can only come from the horror of war. But those times are few and I doubt someone like Sledge could find many after seeing first hand what war does to both those who die and those who survive.
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