With the Old Breed

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With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa is a World War II memoir by former United States Marine Eugene B. Sledge. It was originally published in 1981 and reprinted in 1990 and 2007.

Nicknamed "Sledgehammer," Sledge experienced horrific combat during the battles of Peleliu and Okinawa. To many readers, this memoir is the definitive account of front line infantry combat from the Pacific war.

Sledge writes extensively of the lack of restraint among United States Marines and Japanese soldiers, during the battles. He discusses Japanese soldiers desecrating the bodies of dead United States Marines including one instance of a Japanese soldier having cut off the penis of an American soldier and placing it into his mouth. He also details the actions of some American Marines towards dead Japanese, including the removal of gold teeth from dead soldiers (and in one account, a Japanese soldier still barely alive.)

This book is considered to be one of the better first hand accounts of combat in the Pacific during World War II. The book is based on notes Sledge kept tucked away in a pocket sized Bible he carried with him during battle. Extensive research was also done in order to allow a clearer picture of the role of his division in the overall war.

[edit] About the author

Born Eugene Bondurant Sledge in Mobile, Alabama (November 4, 1923 - March 3, 2001), served as a PFC with K Company, 3rd Battalion 5th Marines during the Peleliu and Okinawa battles. His lesser-known second book, China Marine: An Infantryman's Life after World War II, was published posthumously in 2002 and covered his post war service in Beijing and his return home to Mobile where he became a Professor of Biology at the University of Montevallo. He died after a long struggle with stomach cancer.