30 pages • 1 hour read
Eugene SledgeWith the Old Breed
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1981A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 14-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 14 Summary: “Beyond Shuri”
As they move out from Shuri Castle, the Marines encounter a group of Japanese POWs who refuse to move out of their way. Company K Marines are angry and eager to shoot them but are reminded of the Geneva Code, which officially disallowed the killing of prisoners. An admired corporal is hit and killed when they are back on the move. They proceed rapidly into open country and begin to check houses, huts and all former Japanese encampments that they pass. In one, they find an elderly woman who has been wounded, likely by an explosion, and whose infection has turned hideously gangrenous. A Marine shoots the woman and is reprimanded for killing a civilian.
As they proceed up the peninsula, supplies are airlifted to them. They have the chance to change into clean pants and shoes. They walk through empty towns and Sledge is almost hit by a hidden enemy gunner.
The troops are ordered out onto Kunishi Ridge, where carnage and constant shelling awaits them. Snipers are everywhere and impossible to locate. Most of the newly-arrived soldiers are killed. By the time Company K is relieved, their numbers have been decimated.
Chapter 15 Summary: “End of the Agony”
Though the island is officially secured, some fighting remains. The Marines use loudspeakers and capture Japanese soldiers and civilians in order to persuade the more diehard members of the Japanese military to surrender. Eventually, high command informs the troops that the island is secured and Sledge receives two oranges from Admiral, smokes a pipe, and looks out admiringly at the beautiful blue sea. The men hope to be moved out to Waikiki but are told they first need to bury enemy dead and salvage U.S. and enemy equipment. The men resent the work but begin to attempt to move past the fear and terror that has dogged them, and begin to try to process all they have been through and all they have lost. The 1st Marine Division is moved to North China, where Sledge spends five months prior to returning to the U.S.
Chapters 14-15 Analysis
The final leg of the battle is fraught with danger. Travel through towns and villages offers Sledge and his fellow Marines a change of scenery and the change to see Okinawan civilians, some of whom are suffering gravely. He is sympathetic towards the confusion he sees on their faces. Observations of nature seem to preserve the author’s sanity, as he appreciates the birds, the sea and the uniqueness of the landscape.
At Kunishi Ridge, the fighting again grows brutal and chaotic, a blur in which Sledge must try and survive. Snipers are omnipresent and the coral slopes are difficult to traverse. The ending cannot come soon enough. Still, when it does, the work is not quite over. There are still enemy dead to bury and equipment to salvage. The men initially resent this work but it turns out to be the respite that they need at this moment. As they walk the space of the island together, Sledge feels himself and his company returning to civilization and gradually feeling something akin to their former selves, even beginning to whistle and sing. It is a positive sign that they can move on, despite all that they have seen and done at Peleliu and Okinawa.
The book’s conclusion is concise and direct. He reports that later he was sent to China and then back to the States. The author wraps up quite simply, without dramatic gesture, noting that there was much valor displayed during the bloody conflicts at Peleliu and Okinawa but, overall, that war is brutish and a waste.
