Rating: 
Summary: REST IN PEACE, BROTHER, ONE LAST BEACH....
Review:
Fanatical enemy----- check
Fake surrenders----- check
Religious / Racial 'ideologues'----- check
Suicidal surprise attacks where the planners (officers) are never
in any danger, until their willing teenagers/women 'run out'.
(funny how that works out) (so very 'brave', oui ? )
We are proud to
claim the title...
(in Naha AND Fallujah)
An article that mentioned Paul Fussell's thoughts on
'Sledge' brought me here. NOT for the squeemish.
Rating:
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.
Rating:
Summary: The Forgotten Campaign
Review: Devasting account of the Pacific campaign as fought by the U.S. Marines in WWII. I say forgotten because I, like many Americans, have always seemed to focus on the European campaigns, probably because so many Americans are of European ancestry. Once I started reading about the Pacific War, I came to realize that it was, if anything, more brutal than the European War. Eugene "Sledgehammer" Sledge recounts his days in the 1st Marine Divsion (The Old Breed) fighting (and remarkably coming out unscathed) at Peleliu and Okinawa. Personally, I had never heard of Peleliu, but after reading this book, I believe it was one of the toughest and most brutal campaigns of the Pacific War. Fighting on a coral island (which made digging foxholes impossible) near the equator (110 in the shade)against an enemy that knows only kill or be killed. And the water brought to the island had been contaminated by motor oil, making many Marines sick if they drank it. Mr Sledge tells his story in a matter of fact narrative that truly makes you relize the horror of these battles faced by American boys. Truly these men were our GREATEST GENERATION.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, As good as its reputation
Review: I finally got around to reading this wonderful book. Like many others, I was lead to it by Paul Fussell's "Wartime."
I have gained a new appreciation for the history of the Pacific campaign and will undoubtedly read more.
Sledge's account is a little tedious at times as he makes an effort to nail down historical details of troop deployments, which are important but not particularly interesting to the average reader, but it hardly detracts from the impact of the book.
If an expanded edition of this book were published with better maps and perhaps an expanded introduction by an historian I would surely buy it. Fussell's introduction explains a little bit about how Sledge actually managed to keep notes in combat, which I found interesting and would like to know more about.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book, one tough soldier.
Review: I have an uncle who survived the Okinawa campaign. Of the 30+ men in his platoon, 10 lived, he alone came thru unscathed. He only talked about his experiences once. That was right after he came back in the 40's. He has related that carrying a flamethrower isn't a fun job, but no details at all about his service. I can understand now why he has been tight-lipped about it. It was a horrific experience.
I got the book yesterday in the mail. I couldn't put it down until I finished it last night. The descriptions were excellent. I was there.
I have been a student of WWII since elementary school. I was fascinated with the advances of technology that occurred then. This book put a face on war that I don't ever remember seeing in the 35 years that I've studied that time period. His story shows the brutality and low-tech nature of close combat.
It is inspiring to see the determination to "see it through" that was exhibited by our men in WWII.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Insight
Review: Of the many books on the various battles between the US and its enemies, only those written from participants provide a true insight into the conflict. In fact, usually the best books are not written by those behind the lines calling the shots, but those who were on the front lines. Indeed, I had previously heard of the many atrocities committed by the Japanese on both civilians and combatants, but to hear first hand about what certain US troops did during and after the heat of battle was sadly educative. This book is recommended reading for anyone interested in what the Greatest Generation accomplished and it certainly made me more appreciative for our current freedom in this great country. God bless the USA.
Rating:
Summary: Devastating
Review: This book is a masterpiece of writing, fiction or nonfiction. You are right there in the blood and mud and nightmare with the soldier who wrote this book. He writes straight from his gut in a way most writers cannot accomplish after a lifetime of writing. This is not for the squeamish or romantic. It is war at its most brutal and it is very up close.
I came away from this book profoundly moved by the willingness of the author to tell his story in such a plain, unvarnished way and for his sacrifice and for all the soldiers who were not able to speak. Historically, it is a fasinating look at the ground war in the Pacific, fought by the Marines. Sledge deals in the day to day life of the soldier on the ground, how he had to fight, what kind of rifle he had, what his foxhole felt like, what it sounded like at night. The devil's in these details. We don't hear much about Peleliu any more (can you find it on a map without checking with encarta?) We don't even hear much about the battle of Okinawa. The European theater has gotten much of the attention lately. I don't know why that is, maybe because it's easier to imagine Belgium or France, rather than Guadalcanal or the Solomon Islands.
If you have a relative who served in any war, if your father or grandfather was in WW II, read this book for them, and think about what they did.
Rating:
Summary: ¿kaleidoscope of the unreal¿
Review: This is a gripping account of combat on Peleliu and Okinawa during World War II, without embellishment, without literary flourish. The narrative is simple, unadorned, raw. Sledge--a "fugitive from the law of averages" who survived some of the Pacific War's bloodiest battles--doesn't allude to Hemingway or Remarque, doesn't reference past wars (except fleetingly in discussing the martial tradition of the Corps); he's not interested in connecting his experiences to the ancient line of wars and warriors. Instead, he describes combat as it was, as he saw it and participated in it. Sledge takes readers onto those bloody islands--the relentless fighting on Peleliu, the stinking hell of Okinawa.Sledge stresses over and over again that war is a waste, "a terrible waste." Young bodies are ripped and torn apart; young men are struck down in their prime and stripped of decades of potential life. Mentally, it is a waste, too. Exposed to brutal combat, civilized men quickly become savage themselves and, for example, pry gold teeth from dead--and, on at least one occasion that Sledge mentions, from wounded and still living--Japanese. There are many other moments throughout the book where the reader winces. And yet, while war is not glorious, there are qualities that men can show under fire, that shine brightly in comparison to the brutality: love, loyalty, bravery, esprit de corps, compassion. Sledge stresses those, too. This is not an antiwar book, though. Sledge entered the abyss of war, endured hardships, confronted death, saw men torn down. He knows war is not pretty, not fun, not romantic. And yet he also knows that it is sometimes necessary and that, as citizens, we must sometimes sacrifice for our country. He concludes: "With privilege goes responsibility." So it does.
Rating:
Summary: The Classic Account of the Marine's Island Campaigns
Review: This is one of the finest narratives of modern combat ever written. The author was a young southerner who enlisted in the Marine Corps in the months following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. Sledge was sent to the South Pacific, where the United States was taking back a seemingly endless chain of tiny coral atolls. The implacable enemy - who almost never surrendered - was dug in deep and had to be rooted out through air, naval and artillery bombardment, small-arms fire and even hand-to-hand combat. The islands were hot and humid and the conditions the marines lived under unfathomable. Through courage, grit and dogged determination, the marines prevailed, but none of them were left unscathed. Sledge, who went on to the quiet life of a biology professor, writes of the Pacific War from the point of view of the infantryman, eye-deep in the blood, muck, mire, courage and comradeship of combat.
Rating:
Summary: A MUST FOR YOUR LIBRARY
Review: This is probably one of the most realistic works I have read. It is a absolute must for anyone attempting to understand the Pacific Campaign, what our men went through and what they did for us. I have read this one twice and plan a third reading soon. This is the sort of history they should be teaching in our schools rather than some of the meaningless stuff now presented. This is certainly one work you can get your teeth into. Highly recommend you add it your your collection! Thank you Mr. Sledge.
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