With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by E.B. Sledge
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Book Reviews of With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa
Book Review: As the Grunt sees it
Summary: 5 Stars
Omigosh. As a former Marine, even though I never saw combat, Mr. Sledge made me feel right at home. I was amazed to see the similarities between WWII Marines and my Viet Nam-era peers. It took me back to my time and I know he was telling it like it was.
I've read so many books about various wars, including the Pacific Theater in WWII. I've also read several histories of the Marine Corps. This was the first book I've ever read that told it plainly from the grunt's point of view. I couldn't put it down.
With the typical book about the War, you see the campaigns, the strategies, the successes and failures; but they're all at the highest level. All those books left me asking questions about the details of how things are accomplished.
For example, one can talk all day about the strategy of island hopping, what the strategy of both combatants at Okinawa was, how many troops were involved, etc. But I've always wondered about the many details of making the thing work. How did the ammunition get into the rifleman's hands? How did they get their food? What about personal sanitation when bullets are flying over your head? How and when were units rotated in and out?
While the individual grunt doesn't see the intricacies of the entire chain of supply, he is involved in carrying the ammo to his unit. He does care about eating. And he must take care of himself.
This book provided a point of view that really helped me to understand these and so many other things that heighten my understanding of what it must have been like to be a ground combat Marine in WWII (or any war, for that matter).
I would highly recommend this book to anyone.
Book Review: Amazing account of WW2 Maries life.
Summary: 5 Stars
An amazing view of the war in the Pacific. It's horrific, not in the language but in the details of life on the front line. Digging a fox hole though a battlefield graveyard, yuck!
And I'm currently reading "Ship of Ghosts, The Story of the USS Houston, FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of her Survivors" and in that book the Admiral complains that the men have been driven to their limits by a 21 hr on watch detail with only coffee and ham sandwichs for meals! The marines of the 5th would have killed for a ham sandwich and stone cold coffee! Weeks in the mud & rain, not a measly 21 hrs on watch! I guess it's all based on your perspective, still though they come off sounding like whiners.
Another good reason to read this book is as an uplifting perspective on your own life. How good you really have it, even living under a bridge in a cardboard box would be better than the hell holes those fox holes were.
What also comes through loud and clear is that while there is no pity for the soldiers he kills, there is respect. And in someways this is an anti war book. No one dies in glory for their country in this story. And with the ratio of deaths of the Japanese vs the Americans, it's amazing that they held on to the last man.
The other clear message, is that this war was won by killing the enemy one at a time. Yeah occasionally they shelled some group of soldiers but most of them died with a last single bullet finding it's mark. What a dirty business.
Book Review: THE Classic WWII Memoir
Summary: 5 Stars
I was first aware of this book when it was published (without little or no fanfare) in 1981. A few years later, Sledge was interviewed by Studs Terkel for his Pulitzer Prize account, "The Good War." Since then, his book gathered steam. Paul Fussell singled it out in his book "Wartime," and John Keegan said in his book "The Second World War," that the book was "haunting." Now the book is regarded as a classic and rightly so. I read it in 1995 and while Sledge's prose may not be as polished as a professional writer, it's his total honesty the keeps you going. To me, this was the best kind of writing, it's written from the gut. It also seems like a personal excorcism, a way to purge the demons and tell people of what he saw and what we, our country lost in this war.
Ken Burns was right to select Sledge for his documentary, "The War." Though the extracts they use makes Sledge seem bitter. Reading the book it seemed to me that he was proud of his service, but haunted by the terrible things he was forced to endure.
Also, read for what Sledge doesn't say. His friend Sam Phillips (also in Burns' "The War,") said, "We never took a prisoner." Sledge says the same thing. One can only assume the worst in a war where life was regarded so cheaply.
This book should be required reading for Political leaders who are so callous to send young men to war so quickly over so little.
Book Review: Outstanding personal account of war in the Pacific
Summary: 5 Stars
The late Mr Sledge 'hammer' wrote this compelling and often brutal account of his experiences during the grim and bloody battles on Peleliu and Okinawa. He was one of a scant handful of Marines that made it through both battles without a wound. His first hand account draws the reader into the daily routine of Marine life but also splashes mud and blood into your face when he lands on the two contested islands. Although a 60mm mortarman, he shared many of the same brutal conditions the infantry did: enemy snipers, artillery, personal misery, mud and incredible filth. Sledge writes in a straight forward style and a few times, he himself mentions that we was confused and puzzled about just where he was during advances and barrages, bringing this story to an even more personal level.
One of the best WWII related memoirs you will read, right up there with 'Storm of Steel' and 'Goodbye, Darkness'. Powerful, gripping, head-shaking and amazing are a few words to describe his experiences amid slashing shrapnel, Nambu bullets, artillery fire, carrying loads of ammo and hauling wounded Marines in knee-deep mud. Some scenes are horrific and brutal, just as they happened to him and his buddies. Well worth reading and you will not soon forget his book.
Sadly, Eugene Sledge passed away in 2001.
Book Review: Realistic Portrait of War
Summary: 5 Stars
I have told people that war is the Second worse thing that could happen to a human. The first? Slavery - which is the battlefront against Hitler's National Socialists and the Imperial Japan in World War II.
That's where this story takes place. I have read few books that convey the realism and horror of war so well, without reservation. This is one.
Eugene B. Sledge, an Alabama boy, heads into War in the Pacific as a member of the U.S. Marines. He lands with the famous 1st Marine Division - 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines. His training was concentrated and intense - but still nothing prepares one for the onslaught of Pelilieu. He was a vet when he hit Okinawa where the fighting got even tougher. The image that sticks with me about Okinawa is a Marine who has to head back to get ammo. He slips in the mud and slides down the hill, rising to discover that he was covered in the maggots uncovered by his slid that were gnawing away at the dead bodies in the mud. This Marine, inured to death and destruction, is rattled badly. That image has stayed with me to understand the horror of this generation's sacrifice and their quiet acceptance of Duty.
By the time Sledge hit the hell of Okinawa, he was a combat vet, still filled with fear but no longer with panic.