WITH THE OLD BREED
At Peleliu and Okinawa

VG+/VG. Decent copy of first edition (true first, not book club). Jacket has a half-inch jagged tear, now closed, with a little creasing, on upper right corner of front jacket cover (does not show in photo). No pieces missing; protected in mylar. Original $15.95 price still on jacket flap. (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1981). Foreword by BGen Walter S. McIlhenny, preface, Part I: Peleliu: A Neglected Battle, Foreword by LtCol John A. Crown, Part II: Okinawa: The Final Triumph, Foreword by Capt Thomas J. Stanley; 45 b&w photos & illus., 9 maps, appendix: Roll of Honor (Peleliu Veterans with K/3/5 at the End of Okinawa), Bibliography, Index, 326 pages.

In his own book, Wartime, Paul Fussell called With the Old Breed "one of the finest memoirs to emerge from any war." John Keegan referred to it in The Second World War as "one of the most arresting documents in war literature." And Studs Terkel was so fascinated with the story he interviewed its author for his book, The Good War. What has made E.B. Sledge's memoir of his experience fighting in the South Pacific during World War II so devastatingly powerful is its sheer honest simplicity and compassion.

With the Old Breed presents a stirring, personal account of the vitality and bravery of the Marines in the battles at Peleliu and Okinawa. Born in Mobile, Alabama in 1923 and raised on riding, hunting, fishing, and a respect for history and legendary heroes such as George Washington and Daniel Boone, Eugene Bondurant Sledge (later called "Sledgehammer" by his Marine Corps buddies) joined the Marines the year after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and from 1943 to 1946 endured the events recorded in this book. In those years, he passed, often painfully, from innocence to experience.

Sledge enlisted out of patriotism, idealism, and youthful courage, but once he landed on the beach at Peleliu, it was purely a struggle for survival. Based on the notes he kept on slips of paper tucked secretly away in his New Testament, he simply and directly recalls those long months, mincing no words and sparing no pain. The reality of battle meant unbearable heat, deafening gunfire, unimaginable brutality and cruelty, the stench of death, and, above all, constant fear. Sledge still has nightmares about "the bloody, muddy month of May on Okinawa." But, as he also tellingly reveals, the bonds of friendship formed then will never be severed.

Sledge's honesty and compassion for the other Marines, even complete strangers, sets him apart as a memoirist of war. Read as sobering history or as high adventure, With the Old Breed is a moving chronicle of action and courage.

This hardcover First Edition with jacket, in collector's condition, is priced according to demand and scarcity. If what you are looking for is just a good copy to read, the paperback edition (check Amazon or Barnes & Noble), can be had for about $16. Nice hardcover copies with jackets, not First Editions, can often be had for about $50.