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: Awesome
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the best books, of any genre, that I have ever read. What a profound new respect I have for combat veterans. With crisp, unadorned prose, Sledge describes what it was like to be a Marine in the Pacific during WWII so vividly, that on more than one occasion, I found myself hunkered down in the chair, my shoulders tight and my teeth clenched. If reading about the battles on Peleliu and Okinawa can make me that tense, I cannot begin to fathom how the Marines and soldiers actually in the fights did not crack up. And, in Sledge's honest telling, many did. Unlike a lot of books where ALL Americans were noble and heroic, Sledge does not pull any punches. His description of a Marine in a fox hole who loses it one night and can't be made to shut up is haunting. I imagine many scenes in the book will stay with me.
My brother is getting a copy of this for his birthday. Highly recommended - even if you think you don't like "war stories." If you're human, this is worth reading.
Book Review: Combat in the Pacific, and the reality of War.
Summary: 5 Stars
EB Sledge survived one of the bloodiest and most brutal campaigns in world history, nearly being killed a number of times. This account provides a ground-level narrative of just what that experience is like. Later in life he becomes a research scientist, and the book is written very matter-of-factly, from that kind of detached observer viewpoint. Yet the humanity comes through powerfully; the descriptions are vivid and detailed, confirmed by historical research, making the story that much more compelling. If you've ever wondered what combat is really like, this is it: week after week of grinding fear, friends dead and maimed, inhuman acts performed daily by ordinary people. The author describes it as a pestilence on the human landscape, like a vision of hell. I'll go out on a limb and recommend that every American should read this book or one similar, to have a taste of what the common soldier may experience while serving the interests of the nation.Book Review: What it takes to defeat a capable and determined enemy
Summary: 5 Stars
Sledge describes the ferocity and hatred and horror of the Pacific war on Peleliu and Okinawa. What he has to say is very consistent with the experiences of veterans that I have known concerning the unrelenting toughness and brutality of Japanese soldiery they encountered. Where pertinent, he inserts interesting remarks about command relationships, lists specific units involved, and describes enemy equipment. His is one of the few books to mention psychological casualties and possible ways for men to cope when thrust into the inferno. His book is unique in convincingly describing the emotional enormities of getting shot at. His observations include many "pearls" about functioning in combat. The work also forms a bulwark against the kumbaya generated lately about the war against the Japanese in those days. It is an important account and one of the best reads in military history.
Book Review: You Are There.....
Summary: 5 Stars
In his telling of his experience in some of the most intense battles of WWII in the Pacific, Eugene Sledge takes you into the foxhole for an incredible journey through two battles fought by US Marines. Between the equatorial heat, cement hard coral landscape, intense relentless enemy fire, dead and rotting enemy bodies baking in the sun, bad K rations for food that is made worse by the smell of gunpowder, sweat, human waste and rotting bodies, and the 75% chance you will either be killed or wounded, you somehow can't leave his side as the reader or it would somehow be dishonorable. Through Sledge's storytelling you grasp a real sense of what "team", "core" and "band of brothers" mean to a Marine. It is the absolute best recount of war that I have ever read. We as the next generation of "free" Americans owe it to the men and women who fought for our freedom to read this book.Book Review: Prayer of gratitude
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the best war memoir I have ever read. I was drawn to E.B. Sledge's "voice" during the viewing of Ken Burns' mesmerizing documentary on WW II. I checked his book out from the library in both audio and print version, listened to it all the way through, then read it. I wanted to loan it to my grandson (19) so I bought a copy. Grandson loved it too and son-in-law gets it next. I liked it for all the same reasons others have mentioned: Sledge's clear, direct style (one hesitates even to use the word "style," the book flows so organically), his decency and courage, his honesty (he gives his "worst of thoughts the worst of words"), his abhorrence of the necessity of this or any war. The desolation of knowing your government has deemed you "expendable."
I wish I could have thanked this man. He passed away in 2001.