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Summary: By a Friend of the Author
Review: This description of the nature of military combat as experienced by the frontline fighter is the best of its kind I have read. The writing is clear, direct, and honest. One can understand how this brief, intense moment in Gene Sledge's life left a searing and indelible impression.
The great value of the book is that it strips war of its gloty and romance. Gene saw and understood the necessity of the effort in which he was a part, but regretted that necessity, and he deplored the brutality and horror which characterized it.
For those who would understand the nature of close military combat, the price it exacts from those who engage in it, and the debt we owe them, it is required reading.
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Summary: Okinawa: Marines, And Army 77th Infantry Division!
Review: This book finally enabled me to fill in the story surrounding the tidbits of things my Dad reluctantly divulged about the brutal, muddy, bloody events he lived through as a Sergeant on Okinawa with what the Marines called their Army division, the 77th Infantry Division. Dad received a Silver Star (which, when you read the citation, you would swear is as much deserving of the Medal of Honor as a lot of those citations I have read), and, because his company was so decimated, had to have 2nd Lt. bars pinned on him on the battlefield. He suffered all his life with various ailments traceable to living, eating, sleeping in the mud on Okinawa, never complaining or burdening other Americans to pay him disability, and died in 1981. Dad never lived to see his grandson, Kyle, have 2nd Lt. bars pinned on him at West Point. (Or did he?).
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Summary: More than one way to survive...
Review: Dr. Sledge wrote that in the slaughtering days of Peleliu there was no sound -- no sound because there was ALL sound, deafening assaults on the ear's physiology. Of the 9000 Marines who landed on the island's shores, 1 out 7 were dead within 24 hours. Ocean water was dyed red to 4 feet out. On shore, and weighted down with 90 pounds of survival gear and weaponry, men ran and fired and fought in 110-degree heat, with no water to drink. And that was only the beginning.Accounts of organized slaughter abound, from Thucydides' "History of the Peloponnesian Wars" to the Civil War's "Andersonville," from Leon Uris's factual writings shaped as novels to Canada's Farley Mowat in his 40-years-after-the-war eloquent memoir "And No Birds Sang," and to Larry Heinemann's wrenching exposures of Viet Nam. All these writings are unspeakably moving, and when we close the covers, we think we understand ... until we come across a book like that of E.B. Sledge. The accounts of Dr. Sledge touched me immeasurably of their own accord but also because I once loved a casualty of that South Pacific island's horrors, who, unfortunately, never quite found a way back to normalcy. I was too young and self-involved to comprehend. As he continued his fateful journey into alcoholism, my own soul stiffened and I left that tortured man. Twenty-six years later I sought out Dr. Sledge, and after some time found a way to reach him. His words, in a letter to me, ought to be shared. Dr. Sledge wrote that his physician father offered advice that put Sledge "on the road to a postwar life of happiness and success." Some of the advice was this: "Don't ever feel bitter or sorry for yourself. You served your time in Hell, but you survived." Survive he did, and well. Dr. Sledge went on to earn degrees in science and to become "Uncle Eugene" to his friends on the Alabama campus where he taught biochemistry and zoology. "Science was my salvation," he told me. "When combat memories bore down on me I lost myself in a difficult problem [in science]." Read his noble book. In honoring him, we honor all who have served, and are now serving, the ideals of our country.
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Summary: a chronical of horror
Review: My generation was late even for the Vietnam war. So when we want to understnd war, we ar indebted to authors such as E.B. Sledge, who describe in vivid detail what it was like to live through the "meat grinder" of battle. It is too much to say I envy the soldiers who fought in the battles of Peleliu and Okinawa, described in this book. The author's descrition is too true-to-life to admit such a comment. But it is not too much to say that one comes to admire the sacrifice and courage of men who fought these battles. Mr. Sledge's book is a great gift to those who never have had to put their lives on the line for thier country -- it informs and humbles us. I expect this book is also a great gift to those who have endured the crucible of battle -- it articulates their common experience.
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Summary: What it was REALLY like...
Review: If your war history reading list is rich with books that take a bird's eye view of combat, try taking a beach assault into hell with E.B. "Sledgehammer" Sledge. I read this book after reading "Wartime" by Paul Fussell who recommends it as the best singular account of the realities of combat. It is a very detailed, gritty account of the war through the eyes of a man who survived two extremely brutal battles. The descriptions of the battlefields he fought in and the wreckage of the aftermath are priceless and hard to find in other history books. This is a great read for someone who has never been in battle or the Marines and wants to know what it's REALLY like. It's also a great warning to those who might want start a war that will involve someone else's sons and daughters....
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Summary: Topnotch first hand account.
Review: Author E. B. Sledge enlisted in the Marines on 12/3/42. Ultimately a member of K Co, 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment of the 1st Marine Division, he went ashore with the Old Breed on Peleliu and Okinawa. This memoir of his time in training and combat was originally written to help his family understand his war. The result of his efforts is among the most vivid descriptions of the horrors of war that this reviewer has encountered. The necessity for taking Peleliu was questioned during the war as it is now. MacArthur was of the opinion that Peleliu was necessary to protect his right flank during his invasion of the Philippines. Given the then weakened state of the Imperial Navy and the destruction of much of the Japanese air power after the taking of the Marianas, the necessity of taking Peleliu is widely questioned. The island quite possibly should have been bypassed. On Peleliu the Japanese employed a change in tactics. No more would the enemy attempt to defend the beach. From this point forward, and at Iwo and Okinawa, they would employ a defense in depth based upon mutually supporting, fortified positions. Utilizing the natural terrain, Japanese engineers constructed pillboxes, gun emplacements and strong points in caves, depressions and reverse slopes, often connected by tunnels. There was no one main line of defense and they fought until the last position was taken by force. Because of the invasion of Normandy three months earlier, little press was given to this little understood and under-reported island battle. Incredible as it seems, the Old Breed, the 1st Marine Division, suffered twice as many casualties on Peleliu as the 2nd Marine Division did at bloody Tarawa. Sledge lets us see through his eyes the horror of moving through an open field in a vain attempt to take Bloody Nose Ridge and the ultimate reduction of the Umurbrogol Pocket. "Each day", he tells us, "brought some new dimension of dread...I witnessed some new, ghastly, macabre facet in the kaleidoscope of the unreal." From one hell to another, the 1st Marine Division again encountered the defense in depth at Okinawa, the last amphibious invasion. This action utilized the largest invasion fleet ever assembled in the Pacific. On Peleliu the digging of foxholes and burial sites was impossible due to the coral surface of the island with little or no soil. The enemy dead were everywhere, bloated and covered with maggots. The stench of decaying flesh and excrement was unrelenting. On Okinawa, the situation was worse. The precise and constant shelling by the enemy often prevented the moving of American dead as well. "When enemy artillery exploded in the area, the eruption of soil and mud uncovered previously buried Japanese dead and scattered chunks of corpses...the ridge was a stinking compost pile. If a Marine slipped and slid down the back slope of the muddy ridge, he was apt to reach the bottom vomiting...horror stricken in disbelief while fat maggots tumbled out of his muddy dungaree pockets, cartridge belt, legging lacings, and the like. It is too preposterous to think that men could actually live and fight for days and nights on end under such terrible conditions and not be driven insane." The reduction of Okinawa took 82 days and Sledge suffered the same ghastly nightmare for many, many years. The dream was always the same: going back into the line on Okinawa. Peleliu and Okinawa were taken but at a high cost. Total American casualties for both islands were 7,613 killed and missing and 31,807 wounded. The 1st marine Division alone suffered 14,191 men killed, wounded or missing. "What a pitiful waste," Sledge wrote, reflecting on the death of an unknown Marine teenager. Reading his book, one is compelled to ask the larger question but is grateful that the invasion of the Japanese home islands became unnecessary.
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Summary: Realistic
Review: I was a Marine in the Gulf War, and earned a couple other combat action ribbons. Of course, never had to go through what the Marines of WWII did. But the thing I loved the most about this book compared to other accounts of war, is the details he mentions. Like how fighting for weeks without bathing or even shaving can have a real impact on you. And what it's like in a foxhole during a war. For anyone that thought D-Day or any of the Marine landings in the Pacific had glamour and excitement, really needs to read this.
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Summary: Impossible to forget
Review: This is one of the finest books I have read. It is haunting. The writing is plain, simple and honest. Sadly, I just learned that the author, Eugene Sledge, died recently. I would have liked to write him a letter to thank him for what he endured.
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Summary: Ode to E. B. Sledge
Review: "With the Old Breed" is the most profound personal war narrative I have ever read, and I've read hundred's...whenever I feel sorry for myself or think my life is difficult, I re-read this book. I only wish I could have met Dr. Sledge in person and let him know what an impact his book has had on my life. God bless him and all vets who served.
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Summary: IN MEMORIUM: E.B. Sledge passed away on 3 March 2001
Review: I'm writing this as a memorial announcement to those who haven't heard. Eugene Sledge died on 3 March 2001 after a prolonged battle with stomach cancer. He was buried with full military honors with a full Marine Corps escort in Mobile, Alabama. Colonel Joseph H. Alexander, USMC (Ret) attended the ceremony and there will be a tribute to "Sledgehammer" on the History Channel some time in November as part of the "Unsung Heroes" series. He was a wonderful man and a good Marine; an example to us all. God love him and keep him always. Semper Fi Sledgehammer!
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