Ernie Pyle was one of the most famous war correspondents of World War 2. He was born on August 3, 1900, in Indiana and would later study journalism at Indiana University. Before he began reporting the war, Pyle traveled throughout the United States writing columns that chronicled Americans during the Great Depression. During the war, he covered campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and France.
In his Columns, Pyle would write in a way that made the reader feel as though they were listening to a friend talk and reported the war through the eyes of the soldiers. Pyle would write about the food, weather, and living conditions. For example in his writing he described the despair that came with living in slit trenches during rainy winters. Additionally, he would ask soldiers for their names and hometown addresses and included this information in his articles. Millions of Americans followed Pyle’s column in around 400 daily newspapers and 300 weekly newspapers across the United States.
In his writing, Pyle also tended to omit facts to reassure readers that the allies were on track for a victory. An example of this is that when talking about the withdrawal of American troops from Sidi Bou Zid in Tunisia he wrote that it was “a majestic things” and stated how the process “was carried out so calmly and methodically” that it “was hard to realize, being a part of it, that it was a retreat”. Pyle, however, failed to include the fact that 100 American Tanks were destroyed nor did he include the loss in confidence the soldiers were feeling towards their command.
Pyle’s first column about D-day had a positive outlook similar to his previous columns. He gave readers an account of how daunting the invasion had been and how it was a miracle that the allies had taken the beaches at all. In regards to the German defenders, Pyle wrote that “the advantages were all theirs,” but despite this “[they] got on.”
However, Pyle’s follower columns about D-Day strayed from this positive outlook. He started his second column about D-Day drawing the reader in with a positive and cheerful opening stating how “it was a lovely day for strolling along the seashore” however this was followed by news of the destructiveness of the war. In his column Pyle included how “Men were sleeping on the sand, some of them sleeping forever”, and also how “men were floating in the water” but did not “know they were in the water, for they were dead”. This showed his readers “the awful waste and destruction of war.”
The Darker column that revealed the realities of D-Day was not met with rejection or censorship. Newspapers continued to run his columns and life magazine requested permission to run an expert from them. In fact, Pyle’s account was used in commercials on the radio to encourage listeners to buy war bonds.
D-Day, as it was for everyone involved, was a traumatic event for Pyle, so much so that he left the frontlines in Europe. After having spent 29 months overseas and writing an estimate of 700,000 words about the war Pyle wrote his final column from Europe, less than two weeks after witnessing the liberation of Paris. In this final column, he wrote how he had “been immersed in it too long. The hurt [had] finally become too great.”
This was not the end of Pyle’s wartime columns. He eventually returned to reporting the war at the end of 1944 going to report in the Pacific in lieu of returning to Europe. Unfortunately on April 19, 1945, 20 days before the war ended in Europe, Pyle was shot and killed by a Japanese machine gunner in Ie Shima, a tiny island off the northwest coast of Okinawa.
Pyle’s contributions have not been forgotten. He is recognized as the war’s most popular correspondent and as a voice that spoke for the common infantryman. In the words of President Truman Pyle “told the story of the American fighting man as the American fighting men wanted it told.”
Sourceshttps://www.businessinsider.com/world-war-ii-photos-ernie-pyle-2018-4
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