http://www.journalism.indiana.edu/news/erniepyle/ en-us reprinted with the permission of the Scripps Howard Foundation No The Wartime Columns of Ernie Pyle In 1944 Ernie Pyle won a Pulitzer Prize for his stories about the ordinary soldiers fighting in World War II. This is a selection of his wartime columns in spoken versions. For many journalists, Ernest Taylor Pyle, an Indiana native better known as "Ernie," continues to be an icon of excellence decades after his death at the hands of a Japanese machine-gunner in World War II. For the last ten years of his life he wrote feature columns six times a week, primarily for Scripps-Howard newspapers. As his fame increased during the war, other newspapers, including weekly ones, published Pyle's work. In 1944 Ernie Pyle won a Pulitzer Prize for his stories about the ordinary soldiers fighting in World War II. At this website you will find a selection of his wartime columns in both written and spoken versions. In addition, you will find some pictures of Pyle and tips on where you can find more information about him. We welcome your comments about the site and stories you might have to tell about meeting Pyle or reading Pyle's columns. Pyle wrote this column nearly a year before the United States entered World War II. It describes the awe he felt as he watched the German air attacks on London. In this column, Pyle explains how servicemen going into battle will be changed by the experience. In this column Ernie Pyle writes knowingly about a pilot because Pyle spent several years before the war as an aviation correspondent. In this column Pyle emphasizes that the servicepeople in the war are ordinary folks, not career military folks. Those same servicepeople especially enjoyed this type of column because it showed that ordinary people could also be heroes. This is the first of several columns that Pyle wrote about a tank battle. More than once he broke up a longer story into several pieces, which ran in newspapers over several days. Some of Pyle's comments in the early part of this column are particularly interesting after the experience of the embedded journalists in the recent US-Iraq war. The modern reporters didn't need to deal with Pyle's challenge: telling the story of a defeat. This is the kind of column that endeared Ernie Pyle to the troops. He writes about soldiers digging ditches and grousing about folks back home living the easy life. This column shows how the war has turned soldiers, especially those in the First Infantry Division, into hard-nosed fighters and killers. From one of Ernie Pyle's most famous columns, these words celebrate foot soldiers Winning a battle and capturing enemy soldiers boosts morale, according to the final North African column in this series. Pyle chronicles the Allied invasion of Sicily, which was a lot easier than the Normandy landing would be a year later. This is one of several columns that Pyle wrote about the medical corps. This is one of several columns that Pyle wrote about the soldiers who kept the Army going. When Pyle took a break from the war in late summer 1943 and came back to the U.S. for a while, he had mixed feelings. This is the most famous and most widely-reprinted column by Ernie Pyle. Members of the Armed Forces admired cartoonist Bill Mauldin just about as much as they admired the writing of Ernie Pyle. Life for airmen might have been easier, Pyle wrote, but they and Pyle's beloved infantry were both necessary to win the war. Ernie Pyle wrote several columns about Eversole who was one of Pyle's favorite soldiers in the war. An interesting contrast to Pyle's columns is found in the letters he wrote to friends and relations. We offer excerpts from two of them that he wrote in the late winter and early spring of 1944, one to his immediate Scripps-Howard boss and later biographer, Lee Miller, in which he reacts to the death of a fellow correspondent; and the other to his Dad and Aunt, in which he tells them about his narrow escape from death. Being under fire on the beachhead at Anzio was not pleasant, Pyle wrote. Pyle didn't make many references to black troops, but he did in this story about the people who provided food, clothing and ammunition. In the first of three D-Day columns included in this series, Pyle marvels at and celebrates the Allied successes In the seconds of three D-Day columns in this series, Pyle sees the terrible cost of victory on the Normandy beaches. In the third and of three D-Day columns in this series, Pyle personalizes the losses on the beaches of Normandy. Once in a while, Pyle told funny stories. The quiet heroism of the troops getting ready for battle impressed Pyle. From time to time Pyle turned his attention from the infantry to the units that helped supply or support the infantry. Pyle marveled at the men who fixed things that were broken. The tactics that helped the Allies beat the Germans are described by Pyle in this column. Pyle finds joy as the Allied troops capture Paris. A week after the liberation of Paris, Pyle left Europe for the last time. Pyle views shipping out to the Pacific with apprehension. One of the things that endeared Pyle to his readers was the way in which he made his family part of their lives. In writing about his writing, Pyle showed elements of both ego and modesty. Pyle writes about the "The Story of GI Joe," a movie based on Pyle's columns Pyle describes the U.S. forces in the Mariana Islands. Reflecting the biases of his times, Pyle found the Japanese soldiers less than human. Pyle describes what it's like to return from a bombing run. Pyle writes about life on an aircraft carrier. This column, published posthumously, describes Pyle's first direct contact with Japanese soldiers. In his last published column, which was issued posthumously, Pyle honors the memory of a fellow war correspondent, whose outlook was similar to Pyle's. This column was never completed. A draft of it was found in Pyle's pocket, April 18, 1945, the day he was killed by a Japanese machine-gunner on the island of Ie Shima.