Old school: The Second World War at the other end of the world. memories
Old school: The Second World War at the other end of the world. Memories (Original title: With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa ) is a novel that describes the experiences of the American Eugene Sledge in the Pacific War in World War II . It was released in 1981.
Sledge was an infantryman in the United States Marine Corps . Contrary to an order that banned soldiers or marines from taking written notes, he kept a diary during his mission by making notes in a small Bible .
background
Sledge, who took part in the Battle of Peleliu , was stationed in a camp on Pavuvu . According to his own statements, he started taking notes in 1944. In 1946, after his return to middle-class life, he began to process the notes on the memories. Sledge, who was nicknamed "Sledgehammer" by his comrades, took part in the Battle of Okinawa after the Battle of Peleliu as a mortar shooter (K Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division ).
The book was initially titled A Marine Mortarman in World War II , which Sledge later changed to Into the Abyss . But then the title With the Old Breed was chosen by the publishing house Presidio Press .
content
Sledge's memoirs provide an eyewitness account that soberly, honestly and unpathetically describes the experiences on the Pacific theater of war. The reader gets an idea of island hopping - the gradual and laborious conquest of individual Pacific islands against the fanatical resistance of the Japanese -, the unbearable weather conditions in the jungle, the everyday dirt and the diseases from which the fighting troops suffered. Sledge describes the American fear of the banzai attacks - assaults by Japanese infantrymen. Other topics are hopelessness and the loss of humanity. The author describes the brutality of the Japanese and, in a somewhat milder form, that of the Americans. He witnessed the mutilated American corpses and the barbaric torture of a Japanese man by an American who tried to remove his gold teeth while still alive (this scene is later mentioned in The War and The Pacific ). Sledge described the hatred that both sides felt for one another as primitive and bestial .
Sledge, who does not understand why the dirt aspect plays such a small role in many memories, describes how the Marines could not dig latrines and how difficult it was to move on the powdered coral on Peleliu and the mud on Okinawa.
expenditure
original language
- 1981: Presidio Press, Novato, California.
- 1983: Paperback: Bantam Books, Toronto / New York, ISBN 978-0-553-23055-0 .
- 1990: Oxford University Press, New York ISBN 978-0-19-506714-9 .
- 1990: Presidio, Novato, California, ISBN 978-0-89141-119-2 .
- 1996: Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, ISBN 978-1-55750-747-1 .
- 2001: Recorded Books , Prince Frederick, Maryland, ISBN 978-0-7887-4879-0 .
- 2006: Princeton, New Jersey: Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic.
- 2007: Presidio Press, New York
- Trade paperback (8.2 "x 5.5"). ISBN 978-0-89141-906-8 .
- Mass market paperback (6.8 "× 4.2"), ISBN 978-0-89141-919-8 .
- 2010: Ebury Press, London
- Trade paperback, ISBN 978-0-09-193753-9 .
Translations
The novel has been translated into Japanese, Thai, German and Czech, among others.
Adaptations
- 2007: Ken Burns used the novel as a basis for his documentary The War .
- 2010: HBO used this novel and Robert Leckie's Helmet for My Pillow as the basis for its television series The Pacific .
Web links
- Audio interview with EB Sledge (6 parts) - Studs Terkel (English)
- Eugene B. Sledge Collection - Auburn University Digital Library (English)
- Victor Davis Hanson's introduction to the 2007 edition of With the Old Breed (English)
- With the Old Breed Review (English) - WW2DB
Individual evidence
- ↑ With The Old Breed draft foreword . Eugene B. Sledge Papers, RG 96, Auburn University Libraries Special Collections & Archives Department. n. d .. Retrieved November 18, 2008.