With the Old Breed
by E.B. Sledge · first published 2007
100% recommend
Why HN recommends it
Raw first-hand account of a Marine infantryman's combat at Peleliu and Okinawa, conveying the fear, misery and perspective of ordinary soldiers. Suits readers of WWII Pacific history or fans of The Pacific miniseries.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
In The Wall Street Journal, Victor Davis Hanson named With the Old Breed one of the top five books on epic twentieth-century battles. Studs Terkel interviewed the author for his definitive oral history, The Good War. Now E. B. Sledge's acclaimed first-person account of fighting at Peleliu and Okinawa returns to thrill, edify, and inspire a new generation.An Alabama boy steeped in American history and enamored of such heroes as George Washington and Daniel Boone, Eugene B. Sledge became part of the war's famous 1st Marine Division--3d Battalion, 5th Marines. Even after intense training, he was
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…to a lot of interesting stories, and I have often thought of writing a book collecting these into a single work from the perspective of a programmer, simply putting thoughts to paper. There is a book, With the Old Breed https://www.amazon.com/Old-Breed-At-Peleliu-Okinawa/dp/08914... It's the perspective of a WW2 solider, and simply chronicles events one after another with very little personal flair. Simply a linear…
on “Steve Yegge Quits, Saying Google Is 100% Competitor Focused” ↗…locations. A U.S. loss at Midway, however, may have precluded any U.S. offensive into the Pacific. > a.) they seem more representative of what most war is like Yes, that's true. I'd highly recommend With The Old Breed. It's sort of the inverse of 100 Decisive Battles: a single soldier put his pen to paper and recorded everything he remembered about the Okinawa conflict, from start to finish. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Old-Breed-At-Peleliu-Okinawa/dp/08914...…
on “1938 vs. 1940 (2018)” ↗I will check out a summary and if it looks good I will give it a read. My googling makes it look a bit revisionist but I will check it out. Since we are starting a book club try 'With the Old Breed' by Eugene Sledge and/or 'Flyboys' by James Bradley to see the hell on earth the Japanese military had exported all over the Pacific. I was actually somewhat mentally exhausted by the end of 'With the…
on “Hiroshima (1946)” ↗With the Old Breed is a truly great book.
on “Lies We Tell Kids” ↗Tangential: a great source of perspective, humility and historical insight is E. B. Sledge's first hand account of the WWII battles at Okinawa and Peleliu. With The Old Breed, http://www.amazon.com/With-Old-Breed-Peleliu-Okinawa/dp/0891...
on “Entrepreneurship is hard but you can’t die” ↗E. B. Sledge's autobiography, With the Old Breed describes his combat experiences as a Marine in the Pacific and is worth reading if your interested in that history. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0891419195/ref=redir_mdp_mobil... My grandfather served…
on “World War II in the Pacific, narrated by my grandpa” ↗Exercise recommended: read a WW II memoir, for example With the Old Breed or Crossing the Line. Consider the constant dangers these guys faced and lived through, in combat or simply working on a flight deck. Then look at the bodies. The men are fit, with low body fat and good…
on “Why Every Man Should Be Strong” ↗…his soldiers. Another mind blowing tid bit was about a Japanese commanding officer that dug up buried American airmen that had been decapitated so he could eat their livers. While you're at it read "With the Old Breed" by EB Sledge. The Marines in the pacific had the joy of living in the mud next to their own excrement and the magot infested corpses of their best buddies for months at a time so that they could stop…
on “A Boy Who Became a World War II Veteran at 13 Years Old” ↗Well to be fair soldiers are humans and aren't just completely disposable. Read "With the Old Breed" by Eugene Sledge to see the fun and games a 19 year old kid from Mobile Alabama got to have as a US Marine in the Pacific. Spoiler alert, his experience was probably about as bad as anything a human…
on “Hiroshima (1946)” ↗…mostly it just tells the stories really well. It has several detailed accounts of Napoleon's battles, including the reversal at Moscow and the final stand at Waterloo. It goes up through the Iraq war. With the Old Breed: https://www.amazon.com/Old-Breed-At-Peleliu-Okinawa/dp/08914... I can't help but mention this one, even though it's not at all what you were asking for. It's just worth reading. It's unrelated to logistics,…
on “Napoleon’s Equine Strategy in 1813 (2013)” ↗…pilots to be successful, and that means demanding perfection. I don't want a cake and ice cream commander, I'd want one who was a hardass, and keep me and my buddies alive. You might also want to read "With The Old Breed" by Sledge. He thought boot camp was unreasonable, the drill sergeants too harsh, etc. In his combat at Tarawa, which was horrific, he realized that what kept him alive was the hardass training he got…
on “Apology” ↗…comes to mind in TV, and "Fury" in movies, even if it's very formulaic. Memoirs can be raw too: - https://gerikson.com/blog/books/read/Helmet-For-My-Pillow.ht... - https://gerikson.com/blog/books/read/With-the-Old-Breed.html And even before 1989 novels like Waugh's "Sword of Honour" trilogy problematized WW2.
on “The Real War 1939-1945 (1989)” ↗…Ambrose The men who built the transcontinental railroad 1863-1869 "The Pity of War" Niall Ferguson Explaining World War 1 "Steve Jobs" Walter Isaacson "The Wright Brothers as Engineers" Quentin Wald "With the Old Breed" Eugene Sledge "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" Richard Feynman "Small Wonder" Walter Nelson The amazing story of the Volkswagen Beetle. "Masters of Doom" David Kushner "Reach for the Sky" Paul…
on “Ask HN: Are books worth it?” ↗…more interested in The Pacific, which is the companion to Band of Brothers. The budget for that is supposed to be more than $150M, and it's set to premiere in March. One of the books it's based on, "With the Old Breed", is quite good. It should give Band of Brothers a run for the money, although I think they'll be fairly different as the source material, and the war in the pacific itself, was grittier than Band of…
on “HBO’s ‘Boardwalk Empire’ Cost $50 Million: How They Gonna Make It Back?” ↗…Rings, The Mote in God's Eye, Replay, Earth Abides, 20000 Leagues Under The Sea, 2001, Nothing Like It In The World, Reach For The Sky, Winnie The Pooh, The Last of the Mohicans, The Hunt for Red October, With the Old Breed, Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman, Moby Dick, Shogun, Romeo and Juliet I envy anyone reading these for the first time!
on “Intellectual Loneliness” ↗