With the Old Breed (Paperback)

from fourbears

This is a great memoir if you want to understand what it was like to fight in the Pacific in WWII. It affected me very much as my reading of Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead did when I first read that. I could feel the pain-the dirt or worse yet on Peleliu the coral one couldn't dig into-th...

from marshapetry

Excellent. One of my favorite war history books ever. Quite gruesome in parts but, hey, it's about war! One of my favorite things: this book answers all those daily life questions about being in fighting action in a matter-of-fact manner. Really, you want to know what WWII was like for a fighting...

from read.to.live

The strength of this memoir rests on three pillars. One, Eugene Sledge's memory for detail is so vivid that I wonder if he had that rare condition known as autobiographical memory. Two, he had a masterful ability to put his detailed memories into words. Three, he experienced actual hell and lived...

from jcbrunner

E.B. Sledge is one of the few who absolutely merit the label of Greatest Generation. With a humble devotion to duty, Sledge declined to complete his officer training while his fellow citizens died in battle and joined the marines as a private soldier instead. It is a dirty secret of warfare that ...

from bboomer1952

Fantastic book! My Dad was in the 1st Marines on Peleliu and never spoke much about his experiences. Now I understand why; Sledge's account of this battle weary band of men pushed to the limits of their endurance against a fierce and determined enemy is both rivetting and frightening.