With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa

WWII was triggered on the US when the Japanese attacked the military facilities at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December the 7th 1941 all of a sudden. The war between US and japan lasted for 4 years including destructive battles between both countries when it finally came to an end on August 1945 by an Atomic bomb on Hiroshima. During the war, Japan was already in a great battle with East Asia and it was a success for the Japanese and they were able to conquer Korea and China and the rest of the countries in Southeast Asia.

With the Old Breed, a book for Eugene Sledge describes how brutal was WWII between the US and Japan. The book describes couple of battles that the author went through.

At the beginning of the book, the author describes his personal life and experience as a Marine veteran of Peleliu and Okinawa, two of the most destructive battles in WWII. The author explains then how he had been attending Marion Military institute and decided to volunteer in 1942 and afterwards he left Georgia Tech and was sent to Boot Camp in San Diego, graduated from the Camp and next he was sent to Camp Elliot.

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The author then describes how different those two camps were from training, mentally and physically.

After finishing both camps, Eugene Sledge began his trip to combat in the Pacific. The author then describes how bloody the war in Peleliu was. Besides all the wounds that the troops had, the extreme cold was brutal for everyone.

One of the quotes revealing how bad the weather conditions were. “Most of us had serious trouble with our feet. An infantryman with sore feet was in miserable shape under the best of living conditions. During a period of about fourteen or fifteen days, as near as I can calculate the time (from 21 May to 5 June), my feet and those of my buddies were soaking wet, and our boondockers were caked with sticky mud.” (pg.224)

With all the war conditions that all words can’t describe how deadly it is, the author explains how the weather conditions themselves could simply make any human being drop dead. Even during war, the author describes how the scene itself brought so much fear and how they were emotionally damaged. “I felt myself choking up. I slowly turned my back to the men facing me, as I sat on my helmet, and put my face in my hands to try to shut out reality. I began sobbing. The harder I tried to stop the worse it got.” (pg.125)

Such an experience cannot be described unless people go through these hard times. People sometimes think that they are going through hard times or bad situations but compared to being actually in a war and it’s a matter of life or death, everything else could be solved. Through the entire book, Sledge was able to deliver how a soldier can be emotionally and physically damage through many scenes that were perfectly described. The book was really enjoyable to read and could be understood by anyone and comprehend what is the meaning of war.