With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa (Paperback)

~ E. B. Sledge (Author), Paul Fussell (Introduction) "I enlisted in the Marine Corps on 3 December 1942 at Marion, Alabama..." (more)
Key Phrases: ammo bag, stretcher team, mortar section, Marine Corps, World War, Half Moon (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Eugene Sledge became more than a legend with his memoir, With The Old Breed. He became a chronicler, a historian, a storyteller who turns the extremes of the war in the Pacific —the terror, the camaraderie, the banal and the extraordinary—into terms we mortals can grasp."—Tom Hanks

“In all the literature on the Second World War, there is not a more honest, realistic or moving memoir than Eugene Sledge's. This is the real deal, the real war: unvarnished, brutal, without a shred of sentimentality or false patriotism, a profound primer on what it actually was like to be in that war. It is a classic that will outlive all the armchair generals' safe accounts of—not the "good war"—but the worst war ever.”—Ken Burns


From the Trade Paperback edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Review

"The best personal account of World War II. Sledge never loses sight of the honor and the glory of war. Excellent in all respects."--Kevin S. Fontenot, Tulane University

"I feel like I should have a campaign ribbon for Pelelin and Okinawa. I have shared the fox hole. I have felt the heat. It is the closest thing to being there. After reading the book my buddies in K-3-5 are real. It has to be among the best works of its kind. The forgotten soldiers tell one story. These Marines are remembered,"--William J. Ikeriran, Univ. of North Alabama

"The book is a superb supplementary text for any American survey course or class on World War Two."--Daniel P. Murphy, Hanover College

"It is a fine text to use for WWII--and for combat studies."--Perce C. Mullen, Montana State Univ.

"Classic....Should be required reading for all students, especially now that we are once again unleashing the dogs of war."--John F. Cox, University of Arizona

"In what may be his finest feat as a critic, Fussell introduces the reader to a hitherto unsung but remarkable author named Eugene B. Sledge....This book richly merits a wider audience....The searing honesty of [Sledge's] words makes them...a fitting epitaph for the ordeal that began in Danzig fifty years ago."--Newsweek

"One of the finest memoirs to emerge from any war."--Paul Fussell, in Wartime

"Among the thousands of soldiers' stories, I am haunted by one from the Pacific War....[Sledge's account is] one of the most arresting documents in war literature."--John Keegan, in The Second World War

"Although rendering his war experiences is "painful," the effort to bring them to the "folks back home" is ultimately worthwhile if not necessary....In every word appear Sledge's urgency of purpose, the immediacy of his experience of war, and the mark of that on his character. I am not alone in claiming this memoir to be the most comprehensive--and scathing, compelling, sorrow-laden--rendering of the marine infantryman's experience in World War II."--Sewanee Review

"One of the most important personal accounts of war that I have ever read. I believe that it will become a classic, and will be read and cited as long as the Pacific campaign is remembered."--John Keegan

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (October 25, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195067142
• ISBN-13: 978-0195067149
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (236 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #77,387 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

182 of 185 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SLEDGE: THE ROBERT GRAVES OF THE MARINES, November 26, 2002

By	R. J Szasz "Rod Szasz" (Tokyo, Japan Japan) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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 quintissential 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 "squid 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 three of four-deep covering 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 Peleliu 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. 10,000 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.

94 of 95 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars With Gene Sledge and The Old BreedBeedd, August 6, 2004

By	Benis M. Frank "Chief Historian of he Marine ... (Bowie, MD) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As I found outshortly after I first read With The Old Breed...Gene Sledge and I were in the same replacement draft which joined the 1st Marine Division on Pavuvu, British Russell Islands, but were in different units in the division. We both made the Peleliu and Okinawa landings, and his account of both battles--the savagery and bloodletting is exactly as it was. Coinicidentally, I was a stretcher bearer supporting Company K, 3d Battalion, 5th Marines, Gene's outfit but I didn't know that until long after the war. Gene became a close friend after his book was published and we exchanged experiences. With The Old Breed deserves every commendation it has received over the years, from Marine veterans and others We lost Gene to cancer several years ago, but his memory and memoir will live on and be an inspiration to Marines of this and future generations, as will the exploits of the 1st Marine Division in all of its combat operations. Benis M. Frank, Chief Historian of the Marine Corps, Retired.

88 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book on combat ranks in the very highest tier., January 4, 2000

By	Raymond W. Russell (Asheville, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This account by E.B. Sledge, a Marine PFC who landed on Peleliu and
Okinawa, details the violence and brutality of these two battles so
realistically that it is a disturbing and haunting book. Peleliu was
supposed to last 3 to 4 days, but went on for 2 months and cost the
Marines 1,262 dead and 5,274 wounded. The statistics from Okinawa
contain a action, and 26,221 neuropsychiatric "non-battle
casualties." At Peleliu, Sledge "had tasted the bitterest
essence of war, the sight of helpless comrades being slaughtered, and
it filled me with disgust." Peleliu was a jagged coral island
which caused cuts and tears on contact with human flesh, and there was
a lot of such contact. "It was almost impossible to dig a
protective foxhole in the rock." Once inland one's senses were
overwhelmed by the sight and smell of corpses filled with maggots,
human excrement on top of coral everywhere, dysentery, rotting
American and Japanese rations, huge flies, knee deep mud, rainstorms,
tropical oven heat, snapping bullets, and exploding shells. More than
once Sledge saw a Marine slide down a ridge into rotting Japanese
corpses to find himself covered with maggots and vomiting from the
smell. Peleliu was an "assault into hell;" the landscape
"hell's own cesspool." After the landing, with Marines
suffering from heat prostration, even the water came from hell --it
came in old oil drums, and the oil residue caused the troops to retch
in the broiling sun. When Sledge sees his comrades cutting gold teeth
from the Japanese--some while they are still alive--he is disgusted
and sickened. But war, Sledge notes, made savages of them all, and
one day Sledge finds himself bending over a Japanese corpse with a
knife to cut out gold teeth. A corpsman tries to dissuade him, first
with one argument and then another, finally succeeding by pointing out
the threat from germs involved. Relentlessly, Sledge and his comrades
move steadily forward, forward into the "meat grinder,"
losing more and more men to injury and death, the grim
"inevitable harvest." The sight of dead Marines who had been
tortured and mutilated by the Japanese hardens Sledge and his comrades
against the enemy. Sledge tells of the terror of walking across an
open field facing Japanese machine gun fire while at the same time
receiving friendly fire from the rear from a Marine tank. But there
was something "Artillery is hell," and of all the terrors,
"the terror and desperation endured under heavy shelling are by
far the most unbearable." Sledge learned to steer clear of any
and all second lieutenants, who invariably did not know what they were
doing and were highly dangerous to the troops. Sledge made two
amphibious landings on Peleliu and one on Okinawa. The rule
recognized among the troops was that if you made more than two
landings you had used up your luck. Even so, Sledge was one of less
than 10 in his company of 235 men to escape alive and
unwounded--thereby beating the "mathematics of death."
("Statistically," Sledge tells us, "the infantry units
had suffered l50 per cent casualties in the two campaigns.")
Dr. Sledge, who is now a college biology professor, writes: "War
is brutish, inglorious and a terrible waste. Combat leaves an
indelible mark on those who are forced to endure it. The only
redeeming factors were my comrades' incredible bravery and their
devotion to each other." From Sledge's viewpoint, Peleliu and
Okinawa were very close battles. His experience showed him that the
success of the Marines was grounded on their discipline, esprit de
corps, tough training, the ability to depend on one's comrades, and
boot camp, which developed an expectation to excel, even under
stress. Of all the books on combat, this ranks in the very highest
tier. Reading it is an experience--a new and terrible experience--of
what Marine infantrymen went through during and after an amphibious
landing in the Pacific in World War II. Without Marines like
Dr. Sledge, who put their arms and legs and lives on the line in these
savage battles, history would have taken a far different course. I,
for one, am profoundly grateful for what he and his comrades did, and
want to thank him for what he endured. We owe him and his comrades
more than we realize.