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Summary: Amazing True War Story
Review: This fascinating and sometimes shocking book is a must have for any WWII history buff. Some of the Author's recolations are truely unforgetable. I've read a lot of books on the war but this has to be one of the five best.
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Summary: A harrowing story compellingly rendered
Review: I doubt whether there is or will ever be any book better at conveying the horror and misery of war. Sledge has no axes to grind - he just wants to tell his reader what the Pacific campaign was like for the foot soldier. The account is first person. The writing style is simple and direct. He has created a book that enagages as well as any page-turner but also teaches by giving a glimpse of a world most of us, thankfully, will never have to experience. Read it.
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Summary: Simply the best personal account of warfare ever
Review: I have read over 30 persoanl accounts of cambat in WWII and this one has to rank at the top. If anyone can read this account and not thank God for the USMC then they place no value in their freedom. The vivid accounts of sheer terror are beyond description. You must read it to believe it. I usually read about the war in Europe but after this book it is obvious that the fighting in the Pacific took brutality to another level. Thank you E.B. Sledge for your service and this wonderful book.
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Summary: The best first-hand account of Marine combat during WWII
Review: Author Eugene Sledge served as a mortarman with the 1st Marine Division during the battles of Peleliu and Okinawa. His devasting account of the horrors he witnessed are a must read for anyone interested in WWII. This could be the best personal memoir of combat ever written. If you want a full appreciation of what the generation of Americans who endured WWII combat went through, buy this book now.Sledge takes the reader with him as he joins the Marine Corp, goes through boot camp, and ends up with the grizzled combat veterans of the 1st Marine Division. He takes us through his initiation of combat on Peleliu, a coral island which had some of the worst fighting, up to that point, in the Pacific. Today, there is a general belief that the battle for Peleliu was unnecessary, owing to the advancement of the schedule for the invasion of the Philippines. If this was an unneeded battle, Sledge shows in full detail the horrible sacrifice young Americans suffered. His account of the battle of Okinawa is even more devasting. Where Peleliu was a dry, parched hell, Okinawa is a hell of rain, mud, muck and decay. Sledge is unstinting in exposing the horror and ever-present danger facing those in the frontlines. He shows the casual brutality of combat, and does not turn away from showing the hatred most Marines had for the Japanese. He shows the close bonds that develop between the members of a combat unit, the terror of shell-shocked soldiers, dodging bullets & shells on stretcher bearer duty, the stench of fighting in the middle of human decay, and the loss that is felt when friends die. "With the Old Breed" is mandatory reading for anyone interested in WWII.
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Summary: The truth behind "dying for your country"
Review: This book is an overlooked classic, a gutwrenching page turner that will haunt you for a long time. As Paul Fussell states in the introduction, "Readers of this book will find it hard to forget, and they will not easily brush away its troubling revelations about what the modern world periodically requires its boys to do and to suffer. " Sledge's memoir as a Marine in the Pacific, barely out of his teens like so many others, spares no punches in describing what a battlefield looks like littered with the incredible waste of youth. It is an unedited version of the horrors and heartbreak of war told with simplicity and compassion from someone who actually lived through it. You will fully understand why so many veterans still cannot bring themselves to talk about their experiences. The fact that on Okinawa alone over 26,000 men suffered from mental and emotional breakdowns is a sobering testament to what war can do to a man. This book should be required reading for our younger generations. Why our schools are not insisting that our youth remember those who sacrificed their future so we could have ours, learning what the high cost of freedom is, and reflecting and learning from the stories of these brave, humble men is bewildering. It is interesting to note that the author put pictures of himself at the end of the book, not, as others normally would, at the beginning; a sign of his modesty. God bless the Marines and all those who sacrificed so much - We owe all our fighting men a debt that can never be repaid. Let us not ever forget.
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Summary: One Marine's time in the abyss
Review: The Pacific War was the most horrible modern conflict in which Americans have fought - made so by an unrelenting, fanatical enemy battling in often abysmal locations. The savagery displayed by both sides was mind-boggling, and Sledge pulls no punches in that regard; as he notes, most books on the war overlook the virulent hatred that characterized combat between Japanese and Americans during those dark days. It's no wonder so few of them wanted to talk about it upon returning. This book captures the feeling of the young boy plunked down in the middle of nowhere, not sure what he'd find. What he found was the stuff of nightmares. What those young men accomplished is astounding, and to think they had to come home to a country that regarded the Pacific as a mere second stage to Europe and to families whose only frame of reference for war was Hollywood's irrelevant representation and dry newspaper accounts. Indeed, the Marines wondered if it would take an attack back home to shake them up. So they grew alienated from the homefront and the bonds between them grew. Some tore up their tickets home to return to their companies in the face of more combat. That brotherhood was all they had after being forever changed by the war. Think of this work as a reminder in this post-narcissist age what sacrifice once meant and what a generation had to contend with. Sledge is one of the few to leave behind a truly stunning first-person document of that godawful war, and we should be glad he did - we need to know what was and what might have been. His generation is passing on now, and it's hard to imagine a greater loss that America could suffer.
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Summary: Honest, Plain Spoken Account of Horror and Heroism
Review: Three veterans of the First Marine Division have written accounts of WWII in the Pacific. E.B. Sledge in this book, William Manchester in "Goodbye Darkness," and Robert Leckey in "Strong Men Armed." Sledge's book gives an honest, plain spoken, first hand account of two horrific campaigns. He pulls no punches in describing the brutality and the horror, but he doesn't dwell on it. He merely describes it in a matter of fact fashion. Leckey's book ("Strong Men Armed") doesn't dwell on personal experiences, but gives the vast panorama of the Navy/Marine Corps island hopping campaign, and helps to put Sledge's personal memoir into the context of the whole war in the Pacific. Manchester's book ("Goodbye Darkness") reads something like the out-loud ruminations of a mental patient working through unresolved issues on the psychiatrist's couch. Leckey is a noted military historian who has written a number of very good books on the subject. Manchester is a noted author, and of the three has the most recognizable name. Sledge, however, although not a professional writer, is the First Division alumnus who has written the best book on the Pacific War. (Leckey runs a close second and Manchester a distant third).
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Summary: Far Away Places
Review: I have been an avid reader of World War II publications for over ten years. My father served in the South Pacific at the War's end, and rarely speaks of the horrors of his experiences in World War II. Eugene Sledge recalls two of the most horrific battles American Marines fought in the Pacific Theater of Operations. What these men faced every day is almost incomprehensible. Having grown up in a strong Catholic family, I know all about Purgatory, Hell, and the Eternal Lake of Fire; Having read "With the Old Breed on Peleliu and Okinawa," I truely believe those men who fought in either of those two campaigns could write a book on those places mentioned.
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Summary: With the Old Breed
Review: This book will stay with you always . It is the best view into the mind of a WW 2 Marine I have ever encountered .The savagery of island fighting is described in a matter of fact manner .If there is an equal to this account , I have not found it . Mr. Sledge has done a magnificant job .
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Summary: If anyone still thinks war is a glorious experience ...
Review: they need to read this. What an unassuming, straightforward account of two of the Pacific Theater's most terrible campaigns. Even more, what an account of life for the combat marine. Flies in c-rations, maggots on your clothes, sleep deprivation, and the sacrifice of men for their fellow men - it's all in this account. Never does Dr. Sledge, who was interviewed by Studs Terkel in The Good War, glorify himself in any way. He simply focuses on the daily struggle to survive and keep one's sanity. These were men who had a job to do, and they did it as well as they possibly could in sub-human conditions those who did not experience it could not believe. It's well-written in a down-to-earth style one might expect of a biology professor. The irony of a man who faced the dead every day returning home to study and teach about life is typical of men who went through his experiences. This is a fine read about men at war against the Japanese, the elements, themselves, and the struggle to maintain sanity. Highly recommend.
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