China Marine

From the respected author of one of the best books on World War II combat comes an equally captivating saga of battle recovery healing and homecoming. China Marine is the long-awaited sequel to E. B. Sledges critically acclaimed memoir With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa. Picking up where his previous memoir leaves off Sledge a young marine in the First Division traces his companys movements and charts his own difficult passage to peace following his horrific experiences in the Pacific. He reflects on his duty in the ancient city of Peiping (now Beijing) and recounts the difficulty of returning to his hometown of Mobile Alabama and resuming civilian life haunted by the shadows of close combat. Distinguished historians have praised Sledges first book as the definitive riflemans account of World War II ranking it with the Civil Wars Red Badge of Courage and World War Is All Quiet on the Western Front. Although With the Old Breed ends with the surrender of Japan marines in the Pacific were still faced with the mission of disarming the immense Japanese forces on the Asian mainland and reestablishing order. For infantrymen so long engaged in the savage and surreal world of close combat there remained the personal tasks of regaining normalcy and dealing with suppressed memories fears and guilt. In China Marine E. B. Sledge completes his story and provides emotional closure to the searing events detailed in his first memoir. He speaks frankly about the real costs of war emotional and psychological as well as physical and explains the lifetime loyalties that develop between men who face fear loss and horror together. That bond becomes one of the newfound treasures of life after battle. With his hallmark style of simplicity directness and lack of sentimentality "Sledgehammer" has given us yet another great document of war literature.