Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, graphic, gripping
Review: An excellent account of personal experience. Graphic and blunt in its detailed narrative, praises, and critiques. Gripping from beginning to end, I couldn't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: If you're a light reader this will hold your interest. The account of Peleliu was more riveting than Okinawa to me. The descriptions of fear before hitting the Peleliu beach on the initial amphibious assault, and then later on running through a hail of bullets were great. Most thought provoking was the attitude of the enemy troops versus that of the Marines - no quarter, no surrender, and the emphasis on suicidal hand-to-hand combat by enemy infiltrators at night.
Rating:
Summary: Five stars is not enough: RIP Dr Sledge
Review: Eugene B. Sledge died this week at the age of 78 from cancer. With the Old Breed is perhaps the finest personal account of combat ever written. It should be required reading in every high school in this country. Dr. Sledge wrote this book for his children: it has transcended that, and become a book for all our children.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful book about men in combat
Review: "With the Old Breed" works on two very different levels. One is an outstanding first-hand account of the campaigns for Peleliu and Okinawa from the perspective of the United States Marines. The second, which is what makes this book so special, is the tale of the of fear and abject horror that those young Marines had to deal with."With the Old Breed" isn't just about two military campaigns in the Pacific, it's about the emotional "campaign" that each soldier had to fight just to keep going. With an unflinching pen, Sledge takes the reader on a descent into the maelstrom of lead and blood that was these campaigns. The reader feels the terror, the cold and heat, the filth, the sorrow...and is also offered a glimpse of the extraordinary courage those young men showed. "With the Old Breed" is a superb, moving account of men in combat. It is a must read for anyone who knows the operational history, but not the personal history, of WWII.
Rating:
Summary: What more can one say?
Review: I have read all 53 reviews of this book, which I have just finished reading. When 51 of the 53 give the book 5 stars and the other 2 give it 4 stars you know that this book is exceptional. I especially liked the fact that Sledge conveyed the horror of war without finding it necessary to give a tape-recorder-like expletives-not-deleted account of the language of the combatants, or to describe their sex lives. James Webb, who wrote Fields of Fire, would have benefited from reading this book. I also appreciated the fact that at the end of the book there are pictures of the author as a Marine, to remind us anew what a kid he was when he went thru the events he describes so clearly and memorably.
Rating:
Summary: If God had a problem, Send the Marines.
Review: This is a very good book. Why ? Because it is an honest account of the transition of everyday young men into those men who can do the toughest jobs that their nation requires of them. "Sledgehammer" to his buddies, tells of the good and mainly bad times of the First Marine Division. Mud, constant risk, brilliant officers and idiot officers, support between small groups to achieve a larger objective - it's all in this book. I suspect in spite of all the horror, he has left some out as just sometimes you can see how some of his leaders are so stupid in their orders (when he knows the impending disasterous result from previous failures) that more expedient short cuts were applied. You feel for these guys by the end of their 62 days of constant rain, mud, digging foxholes to find rotting corpses at the bottom of the hole, and hidden, constant and deadly Jap fire on Okinawa (and over 20,000 casualties) when some rear echelon officer orders them to collect all the brass shellcases and bury the dead Japs. Get a copy, read it and get as many others to read this as possible. Then we will continue to appreciate the debt we owe these guys.
Rating:
Summary: War as hell.
Review: 'With the Old Breed' is a powerful first person account of Dr Sledge's experiences fighting in the Pacific. This book varies from most military pieces in that the larger view of the war takes a back seat to the daily personal experiences of the fighting men on the ground. Dr Sledge's detailed writing drags the reader into the fighting hell the Marines faced in the Pacific theatre during WWII. It follows his experiences from training through to his first experience of battle in Peleliu to the final capture of Okinawa. He manages to drag the reader into the World of the fighting Marines - from the horror delivered by war and the fanatacism of the Japanese enemy, to the brotherhood only experienced between men fighting for one anothers survival. I would recommend this piece not as a definitve historical account of fighting in the Pacific in WWII, but rather as a moving personal account of one mans experiences on the frontlines. A must for any military historian.
Rating:
Summary: Required Reading for any WWII Fan
Review: Every combat veteran brings us a different and unique perspective of what war is really like. But Sledge takes us a step beyond the rest. His narrative will challenge your senses with revealing images of vicious combat you have seldom encountered in books of this sort. While he respects the bravery and sacrifice of his comrades, at the same time he shows us the awful futility and sorrow of war. In vivid detail he follows the US Marines as they battle their way across the rugged islands of Peleliu and Okinawa, against a hardened determined enemy bent on total destruction. It's a heart-rending account you won't soon forget. I highly recommend reading this book you will find it fascinating, frustrating and highly instructive. Dr. Sledge has given us a glimpse into the depths of the soul of a combat solider.
Rating:
Summary: The best personal account of WWII in the Pacific
Review: With the Old Breed is the best memoir I have read on the Second World War. After a brief chapter about his introduction into the Marine Corps, Sledge brings us with him into the fetid, humid hell that was the Pacific theater. Sledge, a mortarman with 3/5, 1st Marine Division, graphically details his experiences at Peleliu (a pointless battle) and Okinawa. His tales are moving and brutal. In one account, his vivid description of digging a fighting hole only to find the rotting corpse of a Japanese soldier 2 feet down literally made my skin crawl. Elsewhere he recounts the bitter personal brutality that was all too common between US Marines and Japanese soldiers. After reading this book, you will understand what Sledge meant when, in the introduction he writes, "it has been a burden to retain this story." We should be thankful that Sledge decided to share his burden with posterity, lest we forget the awful price paid by all who were involved.
Rating:
Summary: With the Old Breed
Review: E.B.Sledge offers the reader a first-hand account of a front line Marine in the Peleliu and Okinawa campaigns against entrenched Japanese troops. His description of life and death from within a division which suffered over 150% cascualties is unsurpassed with realism. The author compliments his memoir with footnotes of historical details while retaining the simplicity of his personal account of the campaigns from the eyes of a PFC out in front against an enemy force which is determined to fight to the death. With the Old Breed is recommended for those who which to learn the truth of War of the Pacific against the Japanese without ommiting the horrors and realism of warfare.
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