Ernie's War: The Best of Ernie Pyle's World War II Dispatches

by David Nichols, Studs Terkel (Foreword)

Beautiful deluxe leather-bound collector's edition with gilt decoration on cover and spine, satin end papers, gold on all edges of text block, and ribbon page marker.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, War, World War II, Military Fiction, Journalism, Biography

432 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Michael O'Brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best known journalist of World War 2, this is an excellent compilation of Ernie Pyle's dispatches. In a time over seven decades past, it's hard for many of us today to imagine a time when news and images of major events ---- to say nothing of more minor ones -- might arrive days or even weeks after when they actually happened --- and even more so with photos and film footage of these. Ernie Pyle's writings played a role in the home front on bringing the story of those doing the fighting such that those reading his dispatches could almost "see" what their friends, loved ones, neighbors, sons, relatives were doing overseas in our fight against the Axis powers ---- his writings are photos and film put onto the printed page.

I loved reading these dispatches because, in his role as what we might now call an "embedded journalist", Pyle has little more picture of the general "big picture" of what's going on strategically than do the grunts on scene --- yet he does so well in telling their stories and their perspective that I really think it does as well as any writings might be able to do in visualizing what it must have been like in the various settings of the War that he covers.

While Pyle has gone down in history quite rightly as the "GI's journalist", to his credit, Pyle's coverage never was limited just to the front line grunts --- he also covers the stories of those in the support and other combat arms like Medical, Ordnance, Artillery, Air Defense, Armor, and the Army Air Force in such a way that the value and contribution of the men and women in these is fully realized.

Also to his credit, Pyle never engages in hagiography of the subjects he covers. He tells plainly what he knows and what he does not --- gives credit to the men, yet never over or understates the magnitude or hardships of their tasks and daily lives while at war.

As the grandson of a WW2 artillery man and nephew of a P38 pilot, I was too young when I knew them to really hear or grasp fully what their experiences in the War were like, yet I felt that reading Pyle's dispatches filled in some of the gaps I had in their stories in better understanding what their lives back then must have been like.

I highly recommend this book for any readers with a love of World War 2 or other military history. I really enjoyed it very much. Absolutely fascinating. A treasure to read!

[Tara Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given a copy of this book to aid in my research on WWII for one of my Lash novels. I thought that it was simply going to be transcripts of Ernie’s dispatches sent in from the front lines of WWII that later were published in America. I hoped to get some eyewitness accounts and maybe some interesting anecdotes. Ernie’s War was that and more.

The first part of the book is history on Ernie himself. I’d assumed to have done what he did, he had the loving support of family back home and was off reporting on the brave fight. Instead I discovered that he was dealing with a mentally disturbed wife and had a host of other problems, one of them being alcoholism. These did not tarnish the image of him as a hero, but only made him more human, as well as made what he said in some dispatches more emotionally evocative.

World War II is the first well-documented war, and there are a ton of documentaries describing the facts of the battles, including footage shot there. I have watched dozens of these, and it is not the stats on weapons, the strategic maneuvers, or the sheer scope of countries and people involved that I find compelling. It’s the personal stories that come through in bits and pieces that dig into me and take hold. Likewise in this, Pyle’s descriptions as an eyewitness are what make this book such emotional reading. I could not even reread the below excerpts to type them into the computer for this review without being moved all over again.

Here are several excerpts:

Pg 173. "It is one of our popular heroic myths that anybody who comes back from the combat zone begins to itch after a few weeks...Nonsense, Pyle wrote. I've never hated anything in my life as much as I hated going back to the front. I dread it and I'm afraid of it. but what can a guy do? I know millions of others that are reluctant too and they can't even get home."

Pg 178. "Tragedy has struck twice in my battery since it came to Italy a few weeks ago. Number two gun blew up from a premature explosion as they were putting in a shell. Three men were killed and half a dozen wounded. Not long after, some German raiders did get through. A Bomb explosion killed 3 men and wounded half a dozen others... has his legs blown off clear up to hi body. He stayed conscious...when the medical man went to help him, he raised what was left of himself up on his elbows and said,'I'm done for, sir, so don't waste time on me. Go help the other boys.' He lived for seven minutes, conscious all the time."

pg. 183 "this regiment has a lottery on...for one bottle of Coca cola. that he'd raffle it off and give the proceeds to some worthy cause. So he started selling chances at two bits apiece. From there on the thing got big. they decided to adopt an orphan with the money and the child of some man in this regiment killed in combat. The recipient hasn't been picked yet....The receipts have already passed a thousand dollars."

pg. 280 "It was a lovely day for strolling along the seashore. Men were sleeping on the sand, some of them were sleeping forever. Men were floating in the water, but they didn;t know they were in the water, for they were dead.
I walked for a mile and a half along the water's edge of our many-miled invasion beach. You wanted to walk slowly, for the detail on that beach was infinite. The wreckage was vast and startling. The awful waste and the destruction of war, even aside from the loss of human life, has always been one if its outstanding features to those who are in it. Anything and everything is expendable. And e did expend on our beachhead in Normandy in those first few hours."

pg 283 "Here in a jumbled row for mile on mile are soldiers packs. Here are socks and shoe polish, sewing kits, diaries, bibles and hand grenades. Here are the latest letters from home...toothbrushes and razors, snapshots of family members back home..pocketbooks, metal mirrors, extra trousers, and bloody abandoned shoes...each soldier was issued a a carton of cigarettes...and today these cartons by the thousand, watersoaked and spilled out, mark the line of our first savage blow.
Always there are dogs in every invasion. there is a dog still on the beach today, still pitifully looking for his masters. He stays at the water's edge, near a boat that lies twisted and half sunk at the water's edge. He , then runs back in vain to wait for his own people at his own empty boat."

In summation, THIS is the kind of book that needs to be taught in history classes, and should probably be mandatory reading for all US children. It shows better than anything else what a World War is really like. When I was in school, I learned about WWII, but it was a bunch of names of countries, numbers, and dates to me; something I had to memorize for an exam. It didn’t apply to me, really, and it didn’t come across as a terrible thing, just an inevitable conflict that our society could not avoid. If you think that war is in any way a glorious battleground, read this book. A man who actually saw war close up and person will show you differently.

[Zane · Rating 5 out of 5]

“One world was a beautiful dream and the other a horrible nightmare, and I was still a little bit in each of them. As I lay on the straw in the darkness they became mixed up, and I was confused and not quite sure which was which.”

The trouble with war literature is that you want to read the experiences of those who went through the conflict, but those who are engaged in war often don’t have the literary skill to articulate what they went through. You can have a so-so memoir that is written by someone who was fortunate enough to go through hell and make it out alive, or you can have a book that is written well by someone who perhaps heard it from someone else or researched it decades after the events concluded. The only exception to this rule that comes to mind is Eugene Sledge’s masterful “With the Old Breed”. What was so enthralling about “Ernie’s War” is that it broke this rule, giving readers a remarkable account of the European, Mediterranean, and Pacific theaters of the Second World War. It blew me away.

Pyle’s dispatches don’t read as dry accounts of military campaigns, but intimate portrayals of life in war. His work is astoundingly honest. There is no oorah, flag-waving, God-bless-America patriotism, except for when describing scenes that warrant it. He doesn’t pretend that the men fighting and dying around him are doing it for any reason other than to survive. I felt as though I was reading a diary or confessional, not a work of journalism. When Pyle is scared, he talks about how scared he is. When he is weary and worn down from living in the midst of death on a daily basis, he tells you that. Pyle was in the United Kingdom, North Africa, Italy, France, and Japan. After reaching his limit in France, he decides to go home. His reason for doing so is simple and poignant: “I do hate terribly to leave right now, but I have given out. I’ve been immersed in it too long. My spirit is wobbly and my mind is confused. The hurt has finally become too great”.

His job and aim was to give Americans back home an accurate portrayal of the trials that plagued those overseas. He achieved that and more. Pyle was from Indiana and had a distinct folksy prose. Some may find that to be an inappropriate juxtaposition to the content. But I loved it. My favorite example being when he describes a German general surrendering as “sourpuss”. It is likely this style is what contributed to his success and celebrity status in the States, which Pyle himself hated.

Ernie Pyle’s writing is a must-read for anyone interested in World War II. His “worm’s-eye view” of the war, focusing on individual experiences rather than the greater conflict, paints an intimate picture of what the lives of those who served were like. I read history to be transported back to a time that I don’t know. Reading Pyle’s descriptions of interactions with soldiers, the names and hometowns of whom he often gives, made the war so much more real in my mind. I’m sure that anyone else who reads it will have the same experience.

[Martin Pepe · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books. Ernie Pyle was the greatest front line reporter this nation has ever had. He lived with the troops on the front lines and developed an esprit de corps with the G.I.'s that has never been matched by another reporter. He conveyed the experience of war and loss that is missing in todays reportage of our modern conflicts with some exceptions like Sebastian Junger. Every G.I. read Ernie's dispatches (he was published in Stars & Stripe the G.I's own paper and lifeline to home) from the front and everyone on the home front hung on his every word. His writing is conversational and makes you feel the boredom, pain, loss, and moments of extraordinary terror that punctuate every war. He was dedicated to the men and after he traveled through Europe to VE day, when he could finally stop risking his life and go home, He instead went to the pacific theater to cover his brothers in arms there. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has read all the macro views of WWII and really wants to see what day to day life was like for the men who fought it.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a WWII buff, do yourself a favor and read this! It is simply amazing and indispensable. I've read many books about WWII, but this added something new.

Pyle of course was on the front lines of the war, which eventually cost him his life. Most importantly, he doesn't so much write about the generals or overall strategy as he does about the day-to-day life of the people who constituted the armed forces. He holds the infantry in particularly high regard, repeatedly mentioning that really just 10% of the Army does all the fighting... the rest are (importantly) there to support them. He writes about many aspects of war that you may not consider... how supplies are brought forward, how the medical system works, who repairs broken equipment. He gives many personal stories of individuals, some of which end tragically, thus humanizing the war in a way that casualty numbers can't do.

Of course, the biases of the time show themselves in this writing, exacerbated by the condition of being at war. But he is also funny and self-deprecating, eminently likable... which makes the end of his story all the more poignant.

At times, his descriptions are even poetic, such as when he describes the silence that occurs when an offensive has swept through an area. After the front line has rapidly moved forward, the support troops have not yet moved in, and silence reigns... shared only with the dead.

For a ground-level view of World War II, do read this book.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I sort of did a comparison of war correspondent journalism - I read Pyle's book alongside A.J. Liebling's WWII dispatches. Both are essential if you're the least bit curious about World War II. There's just something that comes with reading material as it unfolding - without the filter of history to change the style, prose, or content.

Liebling's work was the stuff of the New Yorker. Pyle was the stuff of the morning coffee table, or the article a 10th-grade teacher would circulate to her class to read as key events were unfolding. That said, Pyle's account definitely wasn't a "dumbed down" account of a soldier's view.

[John Terreri · Rating 5 out of 5]

The tactical outcomes of WWII can be read in the textbooks. Pyle's dispatches capture the day to day lives of soldiers and what it was like to serve during WWII. What makes this even more interesting is the fact that his words are the same as they were when first read by those back home during the war. A must read.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

All my life I have heard of Ernie Pyle but did not know who he really was or even what he had done during WWII. His reporting of the life and times of the common soldier is done in a very readable and informative style that I really enjoyed. Anyone who is interested in WWII history needs to read some of Pyle's dispatches. Well worth the time reading.

[Judy Tate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ernie Pyle was a war correspondent in the truest sense of the word. He went to the action and sent home vivid accounts of the reality of war. His pieces on the war are still gritty, gut-wrenching statements about the cruelties and vagaries of war.

[Dick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before reading this book – an “inheritance” from the late Tom Chettleburgh (my wife's Dad), I had read of Mr. Pyle and had read a few of his columns, but not many.

Ernie Pyle wrote nearly every day while in Europe and w as truly the best voice of the foot soldier of any reporters. He – simply – presents the war in Europe from literally the boots in the mud level. This is about foot slogging G.I.’S. This is front line reporting from those in fox holes or other places of cover. These articles cover the front from England, England, France, and North Africa, finally ending on Okinawa where Ernie Pyle was killed by a burst of machine gun on April 18 of 1945.

In this book he covers without any candy coating the cold, the filth, the exhaustion, the fear, the sickness, the wounds and death all around them.

His death was mourned by millions of Americans who had come to know and rely on him during the war. A close “relative” if you will. The outpouring of mourning was akin to that of FDR, just days earlier. A double blow to the country and morale.

He had an understanding of human nature, great eye for detail, making things very real to the reader. He had a capacity for identifying with the soldiers on whom he was reporting and in his mind, he adopted them as his own. He finished out the war in the ETO, and wanted to return the states and put it behind him. But he felt compelled to go to the Pacific and specifically Okinawa. At the center of that motivation was that there had not been the ETO. It ended on Ie Shima, an island off Okinawa by a burst of machine gun fire and he took a bullet in the temple. Instant death.
One thing that I remember my Uncle Bob – PTO – telling me was why he was living on a farm in a very rural area of the northern part of Michigan. I had asked him why he was so far from everyone. He finally told me that it was because he . . . “did not want to ever see another Jap, again.” From Ernie’s book is the statement “In Europe we felt our enemies, horrible and deadly they were, were real people. But he went on to say about the Japanese “ . . . they are looked upon as something inhuman and squirmy like some people feel about cockroaches or mice. I’ve seen one group of Japanese prisoners in a wire-fenced courtyard, and they were wrestling and laughing and talking just as humanly as anybody. And yet they gave me a creepy feeling and I felt in need of a mental bath after looking at them.” I have to wonder how my Uncle Bob felt after he found his Christian faith.

I was absorbed by this book. It has a lot of detail and while you might be tempted to skip some of it, you find that if you are so tempted that you feel like you are walking away from those G.I.’s.
Pyle’s personal story is another thing altogether. His personal life was a mess for sure. Drinking, failed marriage, etc. There is time for that maybe someday. Not important as it relates to this book.
I gave the book 5 stars. Loved it, but found it painful and very sobering at times. I knew a man who was at Normandy on 6 June 44 as well as my uncle Bob serving in the PTO and Dad was an instructor on B-24’s at Willow Run in Belleville, Michigan.

That generation came home and became known as the “Greatest Generation”

I will close with a quote from the author of the book “The Greatest Generation . . . “A book every modern journalist—and citizen—should read.”—Tom Brokaw

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've had this book for many years - I can't say how many exactly because I somehow forgot to put it in Goodreads - and I finally picked it up on a whim. It is well worth the read. Pyle was an excellent writer, who did the world a great service in providing an up close look at what our armed forces were experiencing during World War II, while they were experiencing it. I imagine it was a source of interest and hopefully some comfort to those waiting at home, too.

Unfortunately it did remind me of the casual racism of the time, how he sometimes had a "colored boy" to clean his room etc. And also I kept thinking how he writes how these were such good men, but in the context of the time that doesn't mean they weren't racist or homophobic or treated their wives terribly. When he describes people's background or what they are provided for entertainment it reminded me how much everyone was expected to conform to a fairly narrow range of behaviors and that's just how it was. That doesn't take away from the amazing efforts and sacrifices they made to win the war.

Pyle definitely humanizes the German and Italian foes more than the Japanese, and honestly that was baked into military policy at the time.

This was an important job Pyle did, and I'm sorry he didn't live to see the end of the war. I think he left an amazing legacy behind.

[Miles Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a selection of Ernie Pyle's war correspondence during WW2. It begins with his coverage of London during the Blitz, then follows the American army through the campaigns in Africa, Sicily, Italy and France. The last part of the book is devoted to Pyle's brief tenure in the Pacific from January to April of 1945 - brief because he was killed there by a Japanese sniper, with the last of his columns appearing posthumously. Pyle was a terrific war correspondent who tried very hard to communicate to the American public what the everyday reality of war was like for the American soldier. He risked his life on countless occasions (and ultimately gave it) to bring the story home, and went to great lengths to cover every aspect of the war, from the infantryman up front to the truck driver or mechanic in the rear, from the ball-turret gunner overhead to the guy who buried the bodies after the battles. Over the course of the war he became increasingly depressed and fatalistic, not to mention emotionally and spiritually exhausted, but his devotion to the ordinary G.I. was so great he felt he could not "resign" any more than a G.I. in a foxhole could. His sense of responsibility seems almost inconceivable in this cynical and selfish age, and his death provoked an outburst of national mourning which was probably exceeded only by that of Roosevelt himself. In short, he painted some of the best portraits of the U.S. fighting men -- and women -- ever (so to speak) set to canvas.

[Paul Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

News articles (dispatches) from a journalist who was literally in the trenches with the U.S. fighting men during World War II. He was in Great Britain, North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, and the Pacific. He focused on individuals stories and names, instead of theaters, strategy, and generals. Anyone that thinks war is glamorous should read this.

I only gave it four stars because I don't know what to do with the information. I don't know that it changed me, except perhaps to deepen my appreciation of the solider (and sailor and airman) and the warrior.

His personal life had a bitter end. Maybe if he had not given himself to the war and those fighting it "on the ground", he could have saved his wife.

[Pauline Mountain · Rating 3 out of 5]

During a time of personal and societal uncertainty, I've been trying to get a handle on the national response to World War II. Ernie Pyle is a name that keeps coming up in any discussion of that era. According to this book, he is not the stainless hero that many people seem to need him to be. I appreciated the look into his flaws as well as his war reporting that sets the standard for conflict journalism even now. In the heroics model of the time period that has come down over generations, I learned that he was frustrated by his audience's indifference to world events that threatened their own ideals of democracy if it wasn't happening in their own backyards.

[Monical · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read a biography of Ernie Pyle a while ago, and was surprised to find he was not terribly likeable, given that he was such a beloved World War II reporter. So when I saw this book, which presents a collection of his wartime dispatches, I decided to read it to get a sense of his writing. I guess the stories haven't aged well-- or maybe I have become a bit more jaded, with the perspective of Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq.....

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

From these war dispatches it is easy to see why Pyle was so well likely and respected. His writing was simple and straight forward and though he was generally perceived as the voice of the front line infantry soldier, he always stressed that the war effort was a team effort with everyone contributing as best as they could.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting human interest war stories, mostly in Europe. Sad about his death no Okinawa. He had the human touch for sure.

[David Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging, both intellectually and emotionally.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel that we owe all of our Services Men and Women their due Respect for our Freedom!!! For they have more than earn their place in our History of being an American!!!

[Kirby Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book offers a unique perspective on World War 2. Though edited by military censors and tainted by Pyle's viewpoint, his insightful observations remain quite valuable.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably one of my all time favourite WW2 books. If you want to get up close and personal with both the infantry and it's support groups, this is an excellent book.

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ernie Pyle is the doyen of war correspondents, the poet of the infantry, a delightful and engaging friend. Everybody read Ernie's columns during the war, as he provided an honest on-the-ground look at the men who made up America's army. Ernie shared their dangers and hardships, sleeping rough, dodging bullets and shells while being drawn inexorably towards the front. This quest for the truest, closest picture of the war is what makes Pyle great, and also what got him killed in the invasion of Okinawa. This book is like having a incredibly observant and empathetic friend writing letters home, and should be required reading for student of WW2.

Let me close with a few quotes that sum up Pyle's work.

"Tunisia - April 22, 1943.
When I got ready to return to my old friends at the front, I wondered if I would sense any change in them.
The most vivid change is the casual and workshop manner in which they talk about killing. They have made the psychological transition from the normal belief that taking a human life is sinful, over to a new professional outlook where killing is a craft. In fact it is an admirable thing.
As a noncombatant, my own life is in danger only by occasional chance or circumstance. Consequently I need not think of killing in personal terms, and killing to me is still murder."

[a draft of his last column, found on his body]
"On Victory in Europe - 1945
Those who are gone would not wish themselves to be a millstone of gloom around our necks.
But there are many of the living who have had burned into their brains forever the unnatural sight of cold dead men scattered over the hillsides and in the ditches along the high rows of hedge throughout the world...
Dead men by mass production.
Dead men in such familiar promiscuity that they become monotonous.
Dead men in such monstrous infinity that you come to hate them.
These are the things that you at home need not even try to understand. To you at home they are columns of figures, or he is a near one who went away and just didn't come back. You didn't see him lying so grotesque and pasty beside the gravel road in France.
We saw him, saw him by the multiple thousands. That's the difference..."

What a writer. What a human being.

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recently finished reading Ernie's War. I found the book in my Dad's library and decided to read it because I am somewhat of a WWII buff. I did not know much, if anything, about Ernie Pyle. After reading the book I have to say he was an amazing man and a wonderful writer.

The book does an excellent job detailing what the war was like for the infantry, and to a lesser extent many other areas of expertise in the armed forces. Pyle was also very good at describing the "ambiance" of war. My favorite was his description of the start of the US breakout in France in 1944. Simply amazing!

I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in WWII or military history. It was very easy to read, the type of book you can read put down for a week and start back up without missing a beat.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the mind blowing writing I hyped it up to be, but detailed, folksy, entertaining writing nonetheless.

A much better read than official histories of WW2 campaigns. Gives a much better understanding of the time, scale, and dirt of campaigns we don't think about that often (Italian/African campaign).

Don't read it cover to cover. Like a great deal of "collected writings," it's better read in very small doses daily, rather than cover to cover a.s.a.p. Thus, renting from the library and reading for the sake of finishing it didn't help its reputation in my own mind.

Still, if you have the time (and a friend has a copy you can borrow indefinitely), check it out.

[Mike Grady · Rating 5 out of 5]

A timeless book that tells the story of the everyday lives of the common soldier in wartime. David Nichols provides the framework and lets Ernie Pyle's dispatches tell the story. As a combat veteran, I could readily identify with the soldiers and situations described throughout the book. Equipment and places may change, but the trials and tribulations of the common soldier remain the same.

Frankly, I am kicking myself for not having read this book earlier. Heartily recommended for anyone interested in military topics or wanting an insight into the lives of an everyday soldier.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pyle wrote some of the very best narrative-descriptive words, sentences, paragraphs, and stories I have ever read. He was a tortured soul, but could lift others with his work. I really wish he had survived the war, and added more to his list of works.

This one, like Saturday's Children, was given away, but came back to me in a gift later on in the mid-1990s. Find your own copy!!!

[Madisson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ernie's War is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. It rapidly became a favorite. It has increased my understanding and appreciation for what "our boys" did and went through over there. If you're interested in WWII, you must read this book!

[Iain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pyle can give us an unsurpassed view of life on the front lines. The collections of his writing from his time in Italy and Western Europe are outstanding, but they comprise only about 40% of the book. Based on this I would read more by Pyle from his time in France.

[Ann Gabhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great up close look at the average soldiers in WW II. What those young soldiers went through is hard to imagine.

[Kelly Roman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Devastatingly vivid and insightful account of living through WW2. A must read for anyone who appreciates quality war reporting. Haunting, lyrical and soul shattering.