With
the Old Breed : At Peleliu and Okinawa
by Eugene B. Sledge
Paperback - 326 pages Reprint edition (September 1990)
Oxford Univ Pr (Trade); ISBN: 0195067142
Also available from the UK
In his own book, Wartime, Paul Fussell called With the Old Breed
"one of the finest memoirs to emerge from any war." John Keegan referred
to it in The Second World War as "one of the most arresting documents in
war literature." And Studs Terkel was so fascinated with the story he interviewed
its author for his book, "The Good War." What has made E.B. Sledge's memoir
of his experience fighting in the South Pacific during World War II so
devastatingly powerful is its sheer honest simplicity and compassion.
Now including a new introduction by Paul Fussell, With the Old Breed
presents a stirring, personal account of the vitality and bravery of the
Marines in the battles at Peleliu and Okinawa. Born in Mobile, Alabama
in 1923 and raised on riding, hunting, fishing, and a respect for history
and legendary heroes such as George Washington and Daniel Boone, Eugene
Bondurant Sledge (later called "Sledgehammer" by his Marine Corps buddies)
joined the Marines the year after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and from
1943 to 1946 endured the events recorded in this book. In those years,
he passed, often painfully, from innocence to experience.
Sledge enlisted out of patriotism, idealism, and youthful courage, but
once he landed on the beach at Peleliu, it was purely a struggle for survival.
Based on the notes he kept on slips of paper tucked secretly away in his
New Testament, he simply and directly recalls those long months, mincing
no words and sparing no pain. The reality of battle meant unbearable heat,
deafening gunfire, unimaginable brutality and cruelty, the stench of death,
and, above all, constant fear. Sledge still has nightmares about "the bloody,
muddy month of May on Okinawa." But, as he also tellingly reveals, the
bonds of friendship formed then will never be severed.
Sledge's honesty and compassion for the other marines, even complete
strangers, sets him apart as a memoirist of war. Read as sobering history
or as high adventure, With the Old Breed is a moving chronicle of action
and courage. Amazon.com
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