"Ernie Pyle at Normandy: They Weren’t Warriors, They..." Topic

… Were American Boys.

"Accompanying American troops on a rainy mission a month after D-Day, Ernie Pyle perfectly captured the fear, uncertainty, and determination that filled every soldier.Shop ▾
The original embedded journalist, reporter Ernie Pyle wrote intimate, distinctive stories about American soldiers during World War II. He worked for the Scripps-Howard wire service and his articles were carried in more than 300 newspapers.

His extraordinarily vivid reporting concentrated on the foot soldiers with whom he spent most of his time. Old enough to be the father of most of the men he covered, Pyle managed somehow to write about his callow subjects with a tender—but never sentimental—honesty, and the day-to-day reality he captured in a thousand little details has retained its immediacy even as it has proven immortal.

Here is an example of the kind of work Pyle routinely delivered, bringing American readers close to the excitement, danger, and terror of the war. "Dispatch from Normandy" was originally published on July 13, 1944—and is featured in The Library of America's sterling anthology, Reporting World War II: Part Two: American Journalism 1944‒1946, published by The Library of America. Nine months after filing this story, Pyle was killed by Japanese machine gun fire while covering the battle of Okinawa. He was one month shy of his 45th birthday…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

I've read a lot of Ernie Pyle's writing. He was a hell of a journalist.

one of the best, really captures the emotion. Reminds me of David Howarth, the British author – same type of talent

Thank you for sharing the link!

A votre service mon ami!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Nothing against Ernie Pyle but every time I hear or read soldiers called "boys" I want to howl. MEN, for God's sake. Boy soldiers there have been in plenty and they don't last long enough to become men or they get there lightning fast if they survive.

My son is an adult now but he will always be a boy – Ernie was speaking from the same perspective.

it's really a matter of the perspective you are writing from and/or the point you want to make – I think Pyle was trying to convey the idea that these were young people caught in the maelstrom of war who nonetheless did their duty – by the way, he refers to them as men several times throughout the piece as well. He was also considerably older than most of the soldiers he encountered at the front lines.
for those reasons, he was by no means denigrating his subject or suggesting that they were not "men" in the sense you seem to be concerned about