Episode 119: Ernie Pyle's War, Part VII

In June 1944, Ernie Pyle hit the beach in Normandy, France just one day after the D-Day invasion. He followed ally forces through six weeks of hard fighting over difficult terrain before breaking out of hedgerows and driving the Germans east. He was on hand for the liberation of Paris in late-August and then decided that he had seen enough of war. But that didn't last; by late-December he was in the Pacific covering that theater of the war

When he got back from this trip to Europe, his newspaper bosses commissioned a bust by renowned sculptor Jo Davidson which Pyle sat for while on a layover in New York City.

Today, the bust is at the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

I was planning on finishing Pyle's story this week until I heard of the passing of golden-age-of-space-exploration astronaut Air Force Lieutenant General Tom Stafford and deviated from my plans a little to eulogize him as well. Final funeral arrangements are still pending so it is unknown if Stafford will be interred alongside other astronauts at Arlington National Cemetery at this time.

Episode 118: Ernie Pyle's War, Part VI

 

After retuning to Italy from his R&R, Pyle gets a tip from a pre-war friend - who also happens to be the senior US Army air forces commander in the Mediterranean - that he should return to London because the long awaited invasion of western Europe is going to happen sooner rather than later. It's nice to have friends in high places!

Pyle returns to England, is awarded the Pulitzer Prize, graces the cover of Time magazine (which more or less does a smear article/hatchet piece) about him, and then he sails with the Allied armada across the English channel toward France and the D-Day invasion. He is one of only 55 war correspondents to accompany the initial invasion.  

Episode 117: Ernie Pyle's War, Part V

After spending a year and a half in war zones, Ernie Pyle finally makes it back to Albuquerque, New Mexico for some much needed rest and relaxation with his wife, Jerry. Unfortunately, he finds little of either and has to return to the war far sooner than he would have liked to. 

When he does make it back to the front lines in Sicily, he pens what his usually considered his best article, "The Death of Captain Waskow" which I read in its entirety to close out this week's podcast.