''With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa'' is a World War II memoir by

United States Marine The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through co ...

Eugene Sledge, first published in 1981. The memoir is based on notes Sledge kept tucked away in a pocket-sized Bible he carried with him during battles he fought at Peleliu and Okinawa. The book formed part of the basis of the material covered by

Ken Burns Kenneth Lauren Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American filmmaker known for his documentary film, documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle United States, American History of the United States, history and Culture of the ...

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educati ...

documentary '' The War'' (2007), as well as the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television, premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office busi ...

miniseries ''The Pacific'' (2010), in which Sledge was portrayed by

Joseph Mazzello Joseph Francis Mazzello III (born September 21, 1983) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Tim Murphy in ''Jurassic Park'', Eugene Sledge in the HBO miniseries '' The Pacific'', Dustin Moskovitz in ''The Social Network'', a ...

Origins

By his own account, Sledge began writing the memoir in 1944, "immediately after

Peleliu Peleliu (or Beliliou) is an island in the island nation of Palau. Peleliu, along with two small islands to its northeast, forms one of the sixteen states of Palau. The island is notable as the location of the Battle of Peleliu in World War II. ...

while we were in rest camp on Pavuvu Island" and continued working on it "as soon as I returned to civilian life" in 1946. Nicknamed "Sledgehammer" by his comrades, Sledge experienced combat during the battles of

and

Okinawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 Square kilometre, km2 (880 sq mi). ...

as a 60 mm mortarman while part of K Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines,

1st Marine Division The 1st Marine Division (1st MARDIV) is a Marine division of the United States Marine Corps headquartered at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. It is the ground combat element of the I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF). It is the ...

(''K/3/5''). The book's working title was ''A Marine Mortarman in World War II,'' which Sledge later changed to ''Into The Abyss.'' The book was first published under its final title by the Presidio Press in 1981.

Synopsis

Sledge's memoir gives a firsthand perspective on the Pacific Theatre. His memoir is a front-line account of infantry combat in the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

. It brings the reader into the

island hopping Leapfrogging, also known as island hopping, was a military strategy employed by the Allies in the Pacific War against the Empire of Japan during World War II. The key idea is to bypass heavily fortified enemy islands instead of trying to capt ...

, the jungle heat and rain, the filth and malaise, the fear of potential banzai attacks, and the hopelessness and loss of humanity that characterized the campaign in the Pacific. Sledge wrote starkly of the brutality displayed by Japanese soldiers during the battles and of the hatred that both sides harbored for each other. In Sledge's words, "''This was a brutish, primitive hatred, as characteristic of the horror of war in the Pacific as the palm trees and the islands.''" Sledge describes one instance in which he and a comrade came across the mutilated bodies of three Marines, butchered and with their severed genitals inserted into their mouths. He also describes the behavior of some Marines towards dead Japanese, including the removal of gold teeth from Japanese corpses (including, in one case, from a severely wounded but still living Japanese soldier), as well as other macabre trophy-taking. He details the process and mechanisms that slowly strip away a combat infantryman's humanity and compassion, in a manner accessible for a general audience. Sledge describes in detail the physical struggle of living in a combat zone and the debilitating effects of constant fear, fatigue, and filth. "Fear and filth went hand-in-hand," he wrote. "It has always puzzled me that this important factor in our daily lives has received so little attention from historians and is often omitted from otherwise excellent personal memoirs by infantrymen." Marines had trouble staying dry, finding time to eat their rations, practicing basic field sanitation (it was impossible to dig

latrine A latrine is a toilet or an even simpler facility that is used as a toilet within a sanitation system. For example, it can be a communal trench in the earth in a camp to be used as emergency sanitation, a hole in the ground ( pit latrine), or ...

s or catholes in the coral rock on Peleliu), and simply moving around on the pulverized coral of

and in the mud of

Reception

Describing it as an example of "the American procedure at its best, unashamed of simplicity,"

Paul Fussell Paul Fussell Jr. (22 March 1924 – 23 May 2012) was an American cultural and literary historian, author and university professor. His writings cover a variety of topics, from scholarly works on eighteenth-century English literature to commentar ...

said that ''With the Old Breed'' "is one of the finest memoirs to emerge from any war." ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' writer and editor

Dwight Garner Dwight Garner (born January 8, 1965) is an American journalist and longtime writer and editor for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, he was named a book critic for the newspaper. He is the author of ''Garner's Quotations: A Modern Miscellany'' and ...

describes the book's depiction of war as "surpassingly vivid", adding, "What puts '''With the Old Breed across is, oddly enough, Sledge's sensitivity. He offers many small, artful portraits of men he admires. (And a few he despises.) He chronicles small kindnesses and profound acts of friendship."

Printings

* 1981: Novato, California: Presidio Press. — * 1983: Paperback: Toronto; New York: Bantam Books. — — :::(The Bantam war book series) * 1990: New York, New York: Oxford University Press. — — :::(New introduction by Paul Fussell) * 1990: Novato, California: Presidio. — — * 1996: Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. — — :::(Classics of Naval Literature series; introduction by Joseph H. Alexander) * 2001: Prince Frederick, Maryland:

Recorded Books Recorded Books is an audiobook imprint of RBMedia, a publishing company with operations in countries globally. Recorded Books was formerly an independent audiobook company before being purchased and re-organized under RBMedia, where it is now an ...

. — — :::(Audio-10 cassettes) * 2006: Princeton, New Jersey: Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic. — :::(Audio-CD) * 2007: New York, New York: Presidio Press: :::(New introduction by Victor Davis Hanson) ::Trade paperback — (8.2" x 5.5"): — ::Mass market paperback — (6.8" x 4.2"): — * 2010: London, England: Ebury Press ::Trade paperback -

Translation into Japanese

* 2008: :title :size of 14.8 x 11 x 2 cm :

Translation into Thai

* 2010 แปซิฟิก สมรภูมิเดนตาย สหายร่วมรบ by Matichon press :

Translation into Czech

* Se starou gardou: na Peleliu an Okinawě, Universum ranslation Michal Ulvr:

Translation into German

* 2013 Vom alten Schlag: Der Zweite Weltkrieg am anderen Ende der Welt. Erinnerungen, riva Verlag :

Translation into French

* 2019 Frères d'armes, Les Belles Lettres ranslation Pascale Haas:

Adaptations

* 2007:

drew considerably from ''With the Old Breed'' for his World War II documentary '' The War''. * 2010:

used ''With the Old Breed'', along with Robert Leckie's ''

Helmet for My Pillow ''Helmet for My Pillow'' is the personal narrative written by World War II United States Marine Corps veteran, author, and military historian Robert Leckie. First published in 1957, the story begins with Leckie's enlisting in the United States Ma ...

'', as the basis for the miniseries '' The Pacific'', the successor to '' Band of Brothers'', during which Sledge (played by

) is seen occasionally writing notes in his pocket bible.

References

External links

* at the Internet Archive * * * * 6-part Interview, ca. 1979-1983 {{DEFAULTSORT:With The Old Breed 1981 non-fiction books Alabama culture Memoirs adapted into films World War II memoirs Non-fiction books about the United States Marine Corps American memoirs Non-fiction books adapted into television shows