Combat in the Pacific, and the reality of War.

books:

	• With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa E.B. Sledge Presidio Press, 2007 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 246 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

War Classic

This book deserves that sixth star. It should share the spotlight with the likes of Iron Coffin. E.B. Sledge paints a true picture of war with all of it smells, gore and humane reactions and personalities. As a Viet Nam vet I can relate to the authors story and realize that the conditions of WWII and WWI were exponentialy worse.

Combat in the Pacific, and the reality of War.

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.

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Semper Fi

It would be a foolhearty attempt on my part to attempt to add any superlatives not already offer by other highly favorable reviews of this book. Like any great work, I did not want it to end. ----RIP Mr. E. B. Sledge; scholar, gentlemen, Marine.

With the Old Breed by E. B. Sledge

Recommended by Nathaniel Ficke, author of "One Bullet Away," and it is one of the most compelling war biographies I have ever read. His humanity couldn't be overwhelmed by the "abyss" of combat.

The old breed

This book was highly recomended to me and it was an eye opener for me as I haven't read much about the pacific war, and this certainly was just that. The conditions that these guys lived and fought under were appalling,I always felt that the bulge fighting was tough, but the island fighting seemed like endless misery both from the elements and the fighting.I think comparisons with the Band of Brothers are not fair in the sense that BoB was a combined story of an entire company, a lot of personalities,events and the like making it a richer narrative,Sledges book is the perspective of one mans experience and observations and is more gritty as a result.
This book gets five stars in my opinion.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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?3d 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.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

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