With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa

E B (Gene) Sledge's memoir of his time in the Pacific War has been an incredibly rich source for for television history. Ken Burns drew extensively upon his account for his brilliant series "The War" particularly in Episode 9 "FUBAR" and his words are read and quoted. Now it extensively figures again in the what will be one of the great series of modern television, HBOs "The Pacific" a 10-part mini-series from the creators of "Band of Brothers" telling the intertwined stories of three Marines during America's battle with the Japanese in the Pacific during World War II. "Helmet for My Pillow" by Robert Leckie is the other key primary source and you may wish to read the reviews elsewhere of that excellent book. It is Sledge's memoir however that in my subjective opinion is the definitive account of this terrible conflict. Gene Sledge was no backseat General or causal observer, he gave up a graduation course leading to a commissioned officer's position to serve as a Private First Class in the Pacific Theater and saw combat at the raging infernos of Peleliu with its controversial airfield and Okinawa. He played others roles such as a stretcher bearer and constantly throughout his service, Sledge kept extensive "unauthorised notes" of what happened in his pocket sized New Testament. If you go over to the US Amazon site you will see that this book has nearly 300 reviews and Sledge is rightly compared to Robert Graves as a war author. This is no American hyperbole. Gene Sledge aside from his military feats is a great writer and remembrancer. This is by no means a "jolly romp" war memoir it is a brutal and often terrifyingly honest account of a soldiers experience and the deep fear and boredom that underpins this. Slegdes account of the first man he kills throws into sharp relief the the unimaginable dread of taking another life. His deep reflections and anxiety about whether he might turn out "yella" are brilliantly articulated. His sheer dismay at the "terror compounded" of being out in the open in an artillery barrage is almost heart rending and you wish he wasn't there. Indeed Joseph Conrad's immortal phrase "Oh the horror" in the Heart of Darkness could be subtitle for this book. Sledge in one sense also prefigures the some of the disillusionment that would be rampant in the later Vietnam War. He talks of the "awesome reality that we were training to be canon fodder", the word "expendable" is used and the sheer ruthlessness of the combat and treatment of soldiers is set out in raw detail. Sledge was deeply religious but combined his faith with sharp intellectual analysis of his own and his comrades precarious situation. "Something of me died at Peleliu" he states in capturing an island which was deemed by the military planners to be a four day "in and out" exercise that eventually took 2 months and thousands of lives. The Japanese were blasted and burned out of these Islands but in turn gave new meaning to the term "never give an inch". The battle rolled onto the mainland but not before the "two scorpions in a bottle" to use Sledge's term went from island to island slugging it out in increasingly brutal combat. Sledge ended up in the the apocalypse at Okinawa in a mortar section which went into battle singing "Little Brown Jug" at the top of their lungs. When you write a review of America's role in World War 11 some British reviewers get upset about the fact that our soldiers are often ignored or written out of history. The failure of British television in particular to undertake contemporary and exhaustive historical TV series of both World Wars and properly recognise the sheer effort/contribution of the British people is a travesty. The Thames production "World at War" is now nearly 40 years old and "The Great War" produced by the BBC in the early sixties. HBO should therefore be thanked alongside with recent American documentary makers for the important role they are playing. The same is true of Gene Sledge's brilliant book "With the old breed" since the messages it contains are timeless and universal, and we ignore them at our peril.

very interesting, couldnt put down... a very brave young man as are the other characters too. well worth reading

This book is a very simple honest look at the life of the US marine in the Pacific campaigns of Peliliu and Okinawa.# This books brilliant narrative is what impressed me the most. I found that the sheer honesty with which Sledge tells his story makes the entire reading expreince very real to the reader. One sees the true thought processes of the Marines as they fought a suicidal and highly tactical enemy, in what must be described as some of the worst campaigns of WW2. Little is known aboout the Pacific theatre of WW2, and it is only now thanks to HBo's The Pacific, that the history of it all is seeing a revival of sorts. This is absolutely necessary to do justice to the men who fought and died and indeed those who like Sledge survived a horrendous ordeal. The book to me tapped into another aspect through its honesty. It engaged in the psycology of warfare. It showed how in fighting a suicidal enemy who showed no respect for their foe, i.e. the US Marines, they then also lowered their moral standards top the point that they too became entirely desensitised to barbarity and cruelty to their enemy the Japanese soldier. This book is not just about the pacific in WW2, it is about the effects war can have on the human psyche and how thankful we should all be that those men gave all they had so that we can live as we do today. A true salute to the bravery of the men of the US Marine Corps. "Semper Fi" !!

This is an easy book to read in that it maintains a brisk, matter-of-fact pace and retains your interest throughout but that doesn't make it a great one. There was no attempt to glorify the Pacific War or garnish it with heroics and, though there is plenty of heroism (and gritty realism), it is all under-stated and I liked that. However, Sledge is not a writer, as such. The prose is bland and not really engaging. The characters are mostly thinly portrayed, almost cyphers, and no-one ever utters a cuss-word. Someone decided (whether the author or the publisher) that the Marines should not swear, so not a single f-word. Does this matter? Well, if you're using reported speech and there is fair amount of it in the book, I would want to get as close to the original sense of what was said. Back to the positives: it is an honest account of a brutal conflict from the point of view of a private who made no effort to conceal the inadequacy and mindless adherence to the rules of some of the junior officers who led men like Sledge and that it is to his credit.

This is the second time I have read this,this time on kindle. Great read.a true account of the horrors of the war in the pacific

“War is brutish, inglorious, and a terrible waste... The only redeeming factors were my comrades' incredible bravery and their devotion to each other. Marine Corps training taught us to kill efficiently and to try to survive. But it also taught us loyalty to each other - and love. That espirit de corps sustained us.” Eugene B. Sledge, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa A candidate officer flunks out of college to get into the action as an enlisted man, breaks regulations by keeping a secret journal and after the war gets a Phd and becomes a scientist. He goes on to write an incredible account of the horrors and savagery of island warfare in the Pacific that has no equal. Eugene "Sledgehammer" Sledge has left us a brutally honest and unvarnished account of personal combat and survival against all the odds in conflict where no quarter was given on both sides. Prisoners were seldom taken and men fought hand to hand day and night on baking coral rock, in swamps full of the rotting and decaying bodies of the casualties from both sides against an enemy that always fought to the death. “To the non-combatants and those on the periphery of action, the war meant only boredom or occasional excitement, but to those who entered the meat grinder itself the war was a netherworld of horror from which escape seemed less and less likely as casualties mounted and the fighting dragged on and on. Time had no meaning, life had no meaning. The fierce struggle for survival in the abyss of Peleliu had eroded the veneer of civilization and made savages of us all.” It is difficult to quantify the viciousness of the hatred felt by the men for the enemy or the idiocy of the generals and senior officers who threw the men of the 1st Marine Division into the grinder over and over again with little or no strategic purpose. Sledge writes with pithy insight that “As I looked at the stains on the coral, I recalled some of the eloquent phrases of politicians and newsmen about how "gallant" it is for a man to "shed his blood for his country," and "to give his life's blood as a sacrifice," and so on. The words seemed ridiculous. Only the flies benefited.” This heartrending memoir written from the foxhole is a stark and timely reminder to future generations that old men start wars and young men fight and die in them. “I am the harvest of man's stupidity. I am the fruit of the holocaust. I prayed like you to survive, but look at me now. It is over for us who are dead, but you must struggle, and will carry the memories all your life. People back home will wonder why you can't forget.”

Over the years I have read many books on warfare, but this book is significantly different in that it was written by a Private soldier, and not an officer, the author is not glorifying his own achievements nor does he seek to judge friend or foe. This is in many ways a brutal book, stripping away any illusions of the glory of war, instead giving the reader a sense of the horror of the experience by the description of sight, sound and smell. Unusually, Sledge is extremely frank in his descriptions of his fellow Marines and of their behaviour, which to some of us will appear barbaric. He admits openly to a hatred of the Japanese and how that hatred impacted on his and others behaviour, but he does not judge, merely explain what he saw. What also comes out strongly is the esprit e corp of the Marines, and how that helped them achieve a victory, all be it at a terrible price to both sides. It is also a fabulous study of leadership, but seen from the bottom up, rather than the top down. Sledge praises great leadership, but is also tactfully critical of those charged with the responsibility of leadership, but who manifestly failed in their duty. All managers should read, digest, learn and reflect. This book should be compulsory reading for all students, but more importantly, for all politicians who still are ready to sacrifice the life of other to achieve their own aims. This book could just help them realise just what they are asking others to do on their behalf.

There are many other great reviews of this excellent book already in place, but having finished it, I felt moved to write my own. I can only imagine how horrific it must be to serve on the frontline in any war. Some books convey that horror better than others. Guy Sajer's iconic account of WW2 German army life on the Russian front, The Forgotten Soldier , is without doubt one of the best. But this book can stand proudly, four square alongside it. The author, Eugene Sledge, kept illicit notes of his experiences on the islands of Pelelieu and Okinawa, and later used them to write this book. Written in an unassuming but compelling way, it lays out in horrifying detail the depravities of modern war, and the depths to which man can stoop when surrounded by utter carnage. Those with weak stomachs, stay away. I still have some of the images that I read about engraved in my mind's eye. Yet the book is not just about violence. It's also about the comradeship and love that the soldiers felt for each other, and the humour they used to help them survive. It's an incredible read. I heard about the book because of the HBO miniseries The Pacific . I'm currently reading another book, written by a contemporary of Sledge's, Robert Leckie. Helmet for my Pillow is another absorbing read, although it's written in an entirely different style. Like other reviewers, I've also wondered why there aren't more accounts of WW2 by British soldiers. I've read the brilliant The Railway Man by Eric Lomax, but not seen much else. Thanks to Amazon's lists, I've recently come across First Light , an account of the Battle of Britain, by a former fighter pilot. I aim to read it soon, and hope and expect that it will live up to the American books. Ben Kane, author of The Forgotten Legion.