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Title: With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by E. B. Sledge, Joseph H., Col Alexander ISBN: 1-55750-747-3 Publisher: Naval Institute Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1996 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.97 (95 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A soldier's mindset
Comment: "With the Old Breed" chronicles Dr. Sledge's life as a Marine in the Pacific Theater of World War II. The book is divided into two sections describing the campaigns that Sledge took part in: Peleliu and Okinawa.
Sledge's writing style is straightforward and his descriptions are vivid. The thing that impressed me most was his ability to convey the mindset of himself and his fellow soldiers throughout the war. The progression of fear, horror, confusion, disgust, and resolve are all described in a way that you will understand exactly what he felt.
Sledge gives just enough coverage of the high-level progression of the campaigns to give the reader context for the story he is telling. At first I wished for a more complete description, but I came to realize that this information was rarely available to the soldiers at the time. To include it would detract from his objective: to show what war is to a front-line soldier. "With the Old Breed" accomplishes that objective better than anything else that I have read.
As an aside: I would recommend skipping the Introduction. I felt that it revealed several key events out of context, and thus lessened their effect when I reached them in the book.
Rating: 5
Summary: A masterpiece written by a front-line combat Marine
Comment: When reading about historical events, one must consider the source. Dr. Sledge is an excellent source on the subject of Marines in combat in WWII. Dr. Sledge was really there at Peleliu and Okinawa, and on the front lines. No post-war historian could possibly describe the realities of combat with the accuracy of one who was really there. This book is a treasure not only because of its accuracy, but because it is so rare. Bookstores today are full of first-person accounts of Vietnam War veterans, but similar writings by veterans of WWII are extremely rare. If you want to read a generalized, sanitzed version of combat in the Pacific war, pick up a typical history book. However, if you want a definitive description of young American Marines fighting the ghastly horrors of combat-the worst reality of war-then this book is a must read. In my opinion, books such as this should be mandatory reading for high school students, so that they might have some understanding of how many Americans have fought and died to preserve the freedoms they now enjoy.
Rating: 5
Summary: ¿kaleidoscope of the unreal¿
Comment: 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.
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Title: Utmost Savagery by Col. Joseph Alexander ISBN: 0804115591 Publisher: Ivy Books Pub. Date: 27 November, 1996 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War by William Manchester ISBN: 0316501115 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 12 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Strong Men Armed: The United States Marines Against Japan by Robert Leckie ISBN: 0306807858 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: October, 1997 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: China Marine by E. B. Sledge, Stephen E. Ambrose, Joseph H. Alexander ISBN: 0817311610 Publisher: Univ. of Alabama Press Pub. Date: June, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: China Marine: An Infantryman's Life After World War II by E. B. Sledge, Stephen Ambrose ISBN: 0195167767 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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