Sledge writes of his desire to retain his humanity as best he could amidst the unrestrained violence surrounding him. With the Old Breed is not a gory glorification of war, but the author’s attempt to come to terms with his experiences. Sledge does not shy away from describing the gruesome details of what he witnessed, but neither does he exaggerate them. The descriptions of the battles are intense.
The deaths of men like Captain Andrew “Ack Ack” Haldane, whom the reader has come to respect and admire almost as much as Sledge himself, come quickly, unexpectedly, and tragically. His descriptions of his fellow Marines makes the reader grow attached to them until we are reminded of their often tragic fates. Sledge recreates the people, places, and battles with which he was involved during his time as a mortarman with Company K, 3d Battalion, 5 th Marines.
It is a story about the humanity, and utter lack thereof, in war. His wartime memoir, With the Old Breed, chronicles his experiences in some of the bloodiest fighting of the Pacific war against Japan. Sledge, the son of a doctor from Alabama, enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942 and fought with the 1 st Marine Division on Peleliu and Okinawa.
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