Status
Call number
Collection
Publication
Description
Biography & Autobiography. History. Nonfiction. HTML:�Eugene Sledge became more than a legend with his memoir, With The Old Breed. He became a chronicler, a historian, a storyteller who turns the extremes of the war in the Pacific�the terror, the camaraderie, the banal and the extraordinary�into terms we mortals can grasp.��Tom Hanks NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In The Wall Street Journal, Victor Davis Hanson named With the Old Breed one of the top five books on epic twentieth-century battles. Studs Terkel interviewed the author for his definitive oral history, The Good War. Now E. B. Sledge�s acclaimed first-person account of fighting at Peleliu and Okinawa returns to thrill, edify, and inspire a new generation. An Alabama boy steeped in American history and enamored of such heroes as George Washington and Daniel Boone, Eugene B. Sledge became part of the war�s famous 1st Marine Division�3rd Battalion, 5th Marines. Even after intense training, he was shocked to be thrown into the battle of Peleliu, where �the world was a nightmare of flashes, explosions, and snapping bullets.� By the time Sledge hit the hell of Okinawa, he was a combat vet, still filled with fear but no longer with panic. Based on notes Sledge secretly kept in a copy of the New Testament, With the Old Breed captures with utter simplicity and searing honesty the experience of a soldier in the fierce Pacific Theater. Here is what saved, threatened, and changed his life. Here, too, is the story of how he learned to hate and kill�and came to love�his fellow man. �In all the literature on the Second World War, there is not a more honest, realistic or moving memoir than Eugene Sledge�s. This is the real deal, the real war: unvarnished, brutal, without a shred of sentimentality or false patriotism, a profound primer on what it actually was like to be in that war. It is a classic that will outlive all the armchair generals� safe accounts of�not the �good war��but the worst war ever.��Ken Burns.… (more)
User reviews
This book was quite a read.
Sledge’s descriptions of his experiences on Peleliu and Okinawa are incredibly honest and straightforward—there’s no sugarcoating or glorifying war. He puts emphasis on how miserable, ghastly and appalling the
Despite all the atrocious things he wrote about, he did have some warm, humorous and inspiring stories to share that were a good reminder that he and the other marines were all just young guys, and many of them were quite admirable and heroic.
I'm glad he was willing to share his (and the other marines') story so that what happened, what they accomplished and what they sacrificed will never be forgotten.
John Master's memoir, "The Road Past Mandalay" covers the Burma war against the Japanese from the British side (and is a great book), but Sledge's
Not much held back. War in all its gruesomeness.
It is a dirty secret of warfare that
Sledge gives a good, contrasting account of his two meat grinder battles, the battle of Peleliu and Okinawa. Two months of intense, close and lethal hell, made worse by nature. Peleliu was a waterless, rock-hard inferno. Okinawa a muddy exercise in frustration. Sledge's perspective out of the foxhole lets one appreciate the little creature comforts. Highly recommended.
A compelling read
I think that this story is a great book. If you love reading about World War 2, this is a deffinate pick up. I found Eugene's story easy to connect with, and a very moving story about his experiences during World War 2.
Sledge's book is a straightforward account of his beginnings as a Marine, and of the battles that he fought. Some of the movements of the troops were confusing to me, as were the references to various Marine regiments and divisions. I'm sure that readers who know more about the military wouldn't be confused at all. But Sledge's account isn't just a retelling of troop movements. Rather, it's his personal story of the sights, sounds, horrors, defeats and triumphs of war. It's graphic at time, but matter-of-fact. As I ended the book, I was overwhelmed with admiration and respect for the thousands and thousands of troops who have served so faithfully in combat for our country.
Many of the things that Sledge experienced were documented in the mini-series. If you haven't yet watched the mini-series, I would highly recommend reading With the Old Breed first.
There are those in public office that refuse to stand at the edge of this separation of experience, that view Americans in uniform as expendable instruments of ideological, unilateralist policy. Standing with them too often are the malevolent, the deluded, and the disinterested. Apart from them are the rest of us. We must heed our veterans' experiences and makes our voices heard.
Hard to find book, but a classic and a great read.
Highly reccomended.
Really, you want to know what WWII was like for a fighting