With The Old Breed - E.B. Sledge

Wow, I missed this  WW II classic.  Being mostly associated with the US Air Force for most of my life I’ve missed some of the details of the ground war in the Pacific.  I’m well versed in the use of Air Power in the Pacific and of course Europe. And of course many of the Navy battles, Midway, etc.  I’m much more familiar with the land war in Europe and Africa, having studied many of those battles.  As for the Pacific, we all know what happened at Iwo Jima, as I pass by the Memorial frequently in Arlington.  But, what of Peleliu which I’ve never heard of until reading EB Sledge's classic, “With the Old Breed”.  And then onto Okinawa.  EB Sledge gives us the play by play from the ground.  When a 3-4 day predicted timeline on Peleliu turns into a horrific 30 day bloodbath and then onto the saturated foxholes on Okinawa that was battled ridgeline to ridgeline  against an enemy swore to fight to the death.   I have to get this book 5-Stars, not just because Tom Hank’s endorsement and I’m assuming production credit for the HBO Mini series, “The Pacific”, based on this book and one other.  

E.B Sledge is a scribe.  His writing ability is fantastic.  He  never mentioned whether he kept a journal, or not.  Which, given the circumstances in a fox hole seems highly improbable. But he did write letters, as there is mention that he received letters.  As with any good writer, he has a fine memory, and the ability to observe the events around him, and take mental notes.  His observations of the other things taking place around him, seem to have no counterpart.  The combat yes, his descriptions are graphic, gory, and horrific right down to the battle wounds and the gore of war.  The constant fear he expresses, underscoring the ability of a common man to will himself into battle, follow orders without question, and do what has to be done. Which he accurately attributes to Marine corps training and the every vital esprit de corps of a brotherhood.  He wills himself into battle every minute, while still, trying to maintain that ounce of humanity, from which crossing over means certain insanity.

As a case in point, the taking of trophies from the dead adversary’s lain strewn about being one graphic detail where a line must not be crossed.  The line seems to be, knocking out the gold teeth of a dead combatant, which was widely seen as valid.  However the taking of a body part, was over the line.  EB Sledge, distraught and angry, was going to take such a souvenir (a gold tooth)  when a senior NCO questioned him and brought him to his senses, lest he cross that first line of humanity. He settled for the rank lapel of the dead soldeir.

No better example of the ineffectiveness of airpower exists when the enemy is fighting from every ridgeline and every cave in the vicinity.  Boots on the ground is the only way to take and hold territory and when the enemy is committed to fighting to the death the assaulting forces must oblige, at the sacrifice of their own flesh and blood. Fear in the foxhole was constant, with the soldier questioning their duty in concert from their shear unrelenting misery, from the battle raging around them, to the continuous physical effort to resupply and remove the injured and fallen, to staying alive through a night full of treacherous enemy infiltrations, in a cold, wet, and muddy fox hole.

The book is written in three parts.  His Marine Corps training, at boot camp, in San Diego, is reminiscent of any of the many fine descriptions of training.  Early in my career I had the privilege to spend a week at the MCRD in San Diego, drilling daily, walking “fire watch”, and running the obstacle courses, in particular the confidence course where you must do things by sheer will alone.  I am not a Marine, it was just an opportunity to catch a glimpse of what training was like.

The second part of the book is the play by blood play taking Peleliu.  The battle for that island, or coral atoll that seems to be somewhat strategically questionable.  Principally because after the 30 day battle, Sledge discovers, unfortunately, that MacArthur has already landed in the Philippines.  Peleliu, previously given by MacArthur as a must have, prior to his landing.

The third part of the book is the assault on Okinawa, and truly a pivotal battle of the Pacific, on the way to Japan.  At this point, Truman has already authorized the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which would bring about the Japanese surrender.

Since there are many fine reviews of this book, I will not recount the play by play as many have.  It’s an important read.  It’s well written.  You will turn page by gory page to discover the mind of EB Sledge in combat.

One artifact I will leave you with, is that not only is Sledge the right scribe documenting the right things from his observations, we are granted the serene knowledge that this philosopher, similar to the observations of Victor Frankel, in his epic “ Man’s Search for Meaning”, a great observer who witnessed the brutality of horror of several concentration camps, Auschwitz, etc, and survived great odds, yet lived to tell us about it. So did Sledge, surviving countless odds, with bullets passing within inches of his head, continuously.  Sledge gives us the ability to see beauty from the midst of dark despair and  deeply depressing conditions, including maggots, and the unrelenting stench of the dead.   He gives us this, “I walked under a low tree that had a pair of man-o-war birds nesting on its top.  They showed no fear as they cocked their heads and looked down from their bulky stick nest.  The male saw little of interest about me and began inflating his large red throat pouch to impress his mate.  He slowly extended his huge seven-foot wingspan and clicked his long hooked beak”.  Simply stated, Viktor Frankl would be proud of Sledge for including this observation.