With the Old Breed-At Peleliu and Okinawa
ISBN: 0-19-506714-2
Reviewer: Bryan Hiatt
Review Date: 25 Jul 2005
E. B. Sledge's With the Old Breed - At Peleliu and Okinawa is a difficult book to describe. Memoirs from World War II are generally descriptive and paint a reasonably detailed view of the subject in question. Sledge, however, takes With the Old Breed to an entirely different level of description and analyses.
A biology professor after the war at the University of Montevallo in Alabama, Sledge brings an academic style to the text that flows easily from chapter to chapter. Sources are used, Sledge suggests, "to orient the reader to the larger war that raged around me and to be sure I had the names and places right" (319). But he is quick to point out that the text is a personal view of combat as he experienced it, from the ground as a infantryman (as part of a mortar team) in K/3/5. That's Company K, Third Battalion, Fifth Marines, 1st Marine Division (29).
Sledge begins his memoir admitting, like many men of his generation, he was "prompted by a deep feeling of uneasiness that the war might be over before [he] could get overseas into combat..."(5) so he joined the Marines. He initially found himself in Atlanta, continuing his college studies at Georgia Tech, and upon graduation, he would enter the Corps as an officer. But 90 men, nearly half of the student detachment, flunked out of the program, earning a trip to basic training in San Diego. Sledge was among them, still anxious to do his part (6).
Perhaps the book's most evident theme is the "feeling" of being of a Marine, what Sledge calls "esprit de corps." Readers will see it in many examples through the book, through Sledge's initial training, preparations for combat overseas, and in the grim Peleliu and Okinawa campaigns, where Marines regularly exposed themselves to fire to retrieve their wounded. From his training just prior to entering combat, we see this "esprit," played out on a dusty island road, from an army guy no less.
"Hey soldier," a dogface called to Sledge as he rested for a moment on the side of the road during a march. "You look tired and hot, soldier. Why don't you make the army get you a truck like me?"Go to hell," Sledge yelled.
Straightaway, a another dogface yelled "stop calling that guy a soldier. He's a Marine. Can't you see the emblem? He’s not in the army. Don't insult him" (27). And so it is through this book. Sledge and his buddies in Company K did their best to live up to the difficult standard of being a Marine.
With the Old Breed is an especially graphic book and there are many examples here of downright awfulness (there is no better word for it). Sledge's company often fought in the same confined jungle areas for days on end and were witness to the decaying of corpses in all kinds of weather, from unbearable heat on Peleliu to the near constant rainfall on Okinawa. His descriptions of fat blow flies feasting on the corpses is particularly disgusting, as is his admission of being ordered to dig a fox hole in a particular spot on Okinawa, right where a Japanese soldier happened to be buried. Sledge made the discovery as he dug THROUGH the corpse, and was ordered to continue digging, until finally relieved of the task. And there are many more examples of similar awfulness, and Sledge does a remarkable job of detailing what he saw. There is no glorification of combat here. Just the facts.
Sledge also relates a few instances of fellow Marines extracting gold teeth from the Japanese dead. In one case, Sledge witnessed an extraction while the Japanese soldier was still alive. A Marine Sledge did not know drifted in after an engagement to take some "spoils." As the Marine drove his knife into the still live soldier, He was promptly shouted down by Sledge and others in Company K, and another Marine ran over and shot the Japanese soldier. The Marine took his prize and drifted away (120), cursing the others for their humanity.
Sledge refrained from extracting gold teeth from the dead for a while, but then decided to give it try, thinking his father (a doctor) might find the teeth interesting. Pulling out his KABAR knife, he leaned over to take his "spoils." A hand on his shoulder stopped him and pulled him back to his senses.
"'What are you going to do, Sledgehammer?' asked Doc Caswell. His expression was a mix of sadness and reproach as he looked intently at me." (123).
Caswell suggested to Sledge that extracting the teeth might expose him to unwanted "germs" from the corpse. Sledge continues:
"Reflecting on this episode after the war, I realized that Doc Caswell didn't really have germs in mind. He was a good friend and a fine, genuine person whose sensitivity hadn't been crushed out by the war. He was merely trying to help me retain some of mine and not become completely callous and harsh" (124).
From examples like this, Sledge proves again and again that With the Old Breed is a book with heart.
Sledge served with distinction through two campaigns without being wounded, and for him, this was a miracle considering all that he witnessed. Though he didn't win a medal, he won the respect of his fellow Marines, from his peers to the "old salts" of previous campaigns. He went on to serve in the post war Corps in China and his book China Marine recounts those experiences. Among World War II memoirs, With the Old Breed is one of the finest I've read. It will no doubt give readers an appropriate introduction to what Marines like Sledge endured in the Pacific.
For those seeking more information about Sledge, you can listen to the Studs Terkel (author of The Good War) interview here in six parts, and is worthwhile to hear the author speak about his experiences.
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Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, 16 March 1945
3 Oct 2007 01:00:14 PM
In THE WAR the words of Sledge were powerful for me. I weep for these men who had little help for their deep psychological wounds. How incredibly strong and resilient humans can be.
3 Oct 2007 03:52:30 PM
Finished watching The War by Ken Burns and wanted to know more about E. B. Sledge, I have not read his book but intend to. I spent about 2 hours this morning reading about Sledge and had a hard time pulling myself away. Powerful stuff.
4 Oct 2007 09:18:27 PM
I read With the Old Breed some years ago, but hearing the spoken words in The War made his insightful observations so much more powerful. His remark that to civilians all veterans were the same, the guy who tapped keys on a typewriter was placed on the same level as the frontline combat soldier. That had to gall and embitter all infantry soldiers who suffered so much, both physically and psychologically.
29 Oct 2007 07:50:26 PM
I just purchased With the Old Breed after watching Ken Burns documentary. It made me see WWII Veterans in an entirely different light. We pass by these Vets every day...now I intend to say Thank you.
7 Jan 2008 07:47:07 PM
Throughout my entire adult life I have felt that my generation owed a debt of gratitude to that generation of men and women that fought, endured and won WWII a debt that can never be repaid. With every WWII war story I read and every documentary I see that feeling is revisited. But, it wasn’t until I read the memoirs of E.B. Sledge in “With the Old Breed” that the front line soldier’s sacrifice and toil and his willingness to endure to the end became real to me. E.B. Sledge has personified the incredible accomplishment and gift of his generation to mine. Though he has passed, I hope to thank him someday.
7 Jul 2008 11:36:09 PM
Good ****
6 Dec 2008 09:04:41 AM
I knew Dr. Sledge when I was a student at the University of Montevallo. I was a wonderful caring man. However he was very quiet. You could always tell that his experiences were not very far from the surface.
18 Feb 2009 09:07:42 AM
This is the most profound WWII memoir you will ever come across, and easily the best book I've ever had the pleasure of reading. You will not be able to put down the book. Sledge's memoir is written in such a way that you will not even realize that you're reading a book. You will feel as if you are amidst Sledge and his fellow Marines. READ THIS BOOK NOW. God bless all our service men and women for all they do. Semper Fi.
23 Feb 2009 08:12:19 PM
Dr. Sledge is also interviewed in the documentary by The History Channel
Ultimate Collections
World War ll
Okinawa: The Final Battle
I have read the book twice and by far he brings the war home to where a guy born after the war can understand the pain and suffering that these heros withstood.
Fifteen hundred men a day are dying and there are not many men left from that era.
I talk to any guy who looks like he fought in the war from, they are a wealth of information that will be lost for good.
26 Feb 2009 06:17:11 PM
I first read "With The Old Breed" in 2000. I've read it every year since. Nothing that I will ever face in my life is likely to equal that which "Sledgehammer" faced at the age of 19 and 20. This short memoir is the most impactful book I've read on war, any war. You can smell the stench of it. His follow up memoir is very good as well and you can feel the resentment for those who stayed behind in the U.S. Though Sledge volunteered to go, his bitterness towards those who did not serve and his own battle with PTSD is clear. Read this book and nothing about war will seem trivial, glorious, or exciting. Only very, very real.
Also, try reading "Lieutenant Ramsey's War" by Edwin Price Ramsey. Ramsey led the last Cavalry charge in U.S. military history in the Philippines in WWII, then stayed behind to run guerrilla operations for MacArthur. Awesome book!
10 Jul 2009 12:31:20 AM
My Grandfather was there and is mentioned in the book. The pictures he had were enough to wrench my stomach. It's amazing what people can live through. Much respect
30 Jul 2009 09:19:26 PM
I've just finished "With The Old Breed" for the second time, yet again in awe of what men of my father's generation lived through fighting WWII. I grew up with stories of Tarawa,Saipan and Tinian, all be it not as graphic as Sledge's account. "With The Old Breed" should be required reading for high school seniors to put their lives into perspective.
19 Aug 2009 06:43:25 AM
An old Marine that slipped through between Korea and Vietnam, I read this book in many small doses. Had to take time off to, breath! If people want to know what war is like, up close and personal, and what Marines are all about, this is the book ... but be prepared for the shock and pain of it all.
26 Oct 2009 10:19:12 PM
A gripping book, I could not put it down. No less a historian than John Keegan calls this book "The greatest enlisted man's memoir of combat since the Civil War". Amen to that. Absolutely should be required reading in American high schools (but it probably never will be).