Brave Men

by Ernie Pyle, David Chrisinger (Introduction)

The classic, human-scale account of the soldiers who fought in World War II, by Pulitzer Prize winner Ernie Pyle—America’s most famous and most loved war correspondent—featuring a new introduction by David Chrisinger, the author of the new Ernie Pyle biography, The Soldier's Truth

A Penguin Classic

When America entered World War II, Ernie Pyle followed the soldiers into the trenches. Long before television and the internet beamed combat footage directly to us, his dispatches from the front lines augmented the coverage of the war’s politics, strategies, and macro-level mobilizations to give the American public what he called his “worm’s-eye view” of the day-to-day life of the war. He captured, as John Steinbeck described it in Time magazine, the “war of the homesick, weary, funny, violent, common men who wash their socks in their helmets, complain about the food . . . and bring themselves through as dirty a business as the world has ever seen and do it with humor and dignity and courage—and that is Ernie Pyle’s war.” A number-one bestseller upon its publication in 1944, Brave Men remains unmatched in its clarity, sympathy, and grit as a portrait of America’s boys who fought in Europe, and lives on as a testament to the enduring value of embedded journalism in reporting the truth.

For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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

532 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1944

About the author

Ernest Taylor Pyle was an American journalist who wrote as a roving correspondent for the Scripps Howard newspaper chain from 1935 until his death in combat during World War II. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944.

His articles, about the out-of-the-way places he visited and the people who lived there, were written in a folksy style, much like a personal letter to a friend. He enjoyed a following in some 300 newspapers.

On April 18, 1945, Pyle died on Iōjima (Iwo Jima), an island off Okinawa, after being hit by Japanese machine-gun fire.

Reviews

[Mikey B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Page 99 (my book) Italy 1944

Then the nearer guns would fire and the ground under our bedrolls would tremble and we could feel the awful breath of the blast push the tent walls and nudge our bodies ever so slightly. And through the darkened hodgepodge of noise we could occasionally pick out the slightly different tone of German shells bursting in our valley.

It didn’t really seem true. Three weeks before I had been in Miami eating fried chicken, sleeping in deep beds with white sheets, taking hot baths and having no sound more vicious than the ocean waves and the laughter of friends. One world was a beautiful dream and the other a horrible nightmare, and I was 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.


Ernie Pyle is an exquisite writer. He captures so many details and nuances of life in the American Army, Navy and Air Force during World War II. This book takes us through the campaigns in Sicily, Italy, a brief stay in England prior to the D-Day invasion, and finally the Normandy battlefield.

Ernie Pyle primarily focuses on the normal “little guy”. There is a brief interview with Omar Bradley.

The chapter “Mountain Fighting” in Italy was very poignant and so emotional. There is always a strong feel of the human element in Ernie Pyle’s writing – and in this chapter more so, with the soldiers trekking supplies up steep mountains with mules – and then the death of a Captain. The compassion always shines through in his writing.

The chapter on the Anzio-Nettuno beachhead brought to life the deadly predicament of those trapped there.

Ernie Pyle also shows us aspects of the military we don’t often think of.

Page 417-18

One of the things the laymen doesn’t hear much about is the Ordnance Department. In fact, it is one of the branches that even the average soldier is little aware of… And yet the war couldn’t keep going without it. For Ordnance repairs all vehicles of an army and furnishes all ammunition for its guns. There were more vehicles in the American sector of our beachhead then in the average sized American city. And our big guns on an average day were shooting up more than $10,000,000 worth of ammunition…

Ordnance personnel is usually about six or seven per cent of the total men of an army. That means we had many thousands of ordnancemen in Normandy… Ordnance had millions of items in its catalogue of parts… We had scores and scores of separate ordnance companies at work there – each of them a complete firm within itself, able to repair anything the Army used. Ordnance could lift a 30-ton tank as easily as it could a bicycle.

This brings to mind the endless supplies flowing to the battlefront from the enormous industrial output of the United States. It is often said that the German soldiers were the best – but they never came close to matching the constant supplies and war materiel on the Allied front.

The other aspect I found interesting was the adaptability of all levels of American society to the differing requirements of war. Remember that this, unlike today, was not a volunteer army, but one chosen from all ranks of society. For example, there were men recruited from the mid-west who successfully went into the navy and were piloting small boats.

This book is essential and provides a real human feel to the American front in Europe during World War II. So many different aspects of war are so well depicted.

Page 226-28 in Naples 1944

All day long the dock was a riot of Italians grouped below to catch cookies and chocolates and knickknacks the sailors and soldiers threw down to them. There must have been two hundred people on the dock, either participating in the long-shot chance of actually catching something or just looking on…

It was the old woman in the crowd that I could hardly bear to look at. Throughout the day there must have been a couple of dozen who came, tried for half an hour to catch something, and finally went dejectedly away. They were horrible specimens of poverty and uncleanliness. They were old and pitiful and repulsive. But their hunger most surely was genuine.

One elderly woman, dressed in tattered black and carrying a thin old shopping bag on her arms, stood at the far edge of the crowd, vainly beseeching a toss in her direction. Finally one sailor, who had just started on a box of Nabiscos, piece by piece, changed his mind and threw the entire box toward the old woman.

It was a good throw and a good catch. She caught it like an outfielder. But no sooner did she have it in her arms than the crowd was upon her. Kids and adults both tore at the box, scratched and yelled and grabbed, and in five seconds the box was empty and torn.

The poor old women never let go. She clung to it as though it were something alive and precious. And when the last cracker was gone she walked sort of blindly away, her head back and her eyes toward the sky, weeping, her face stricken just like that of a heartbroken child, and still gripping the empty box.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A frank and honest depiction of the reality of front-line warfare in the second World War and the soldiers that fought it through the eyes of celebrated journalist Ernie Pyle. A legend even at the time for his camaraderie with the average enlisted men in the infantry, navy, air force, artillery, and others with whom he slogged through mud, huddled in foxholes, and chatted through countless sleepless nights, his descriptions are vivid, real, and poignant more than fifty years later. Building throughout the book from the invasion of Sicily, the grueling mountainous fighting in Italy, preparation for and landing on D-Day in Normandy, and the triumphant push and march through Paris, Pyle's words portray the increasing wear and tear of war on the humanity involved, both as combatants and civilians, coming to its peak in the final brief and beautiful chapter, "The Last Word". Simple, straightforward, and immortally relevant, he credits thousands of soldiers with a sentiment that echoes through the decades: "If only we could have created all this energy for something good."

[Joy D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ernie Pyle was a war correspondent during WWII, traveling with the American invasion forces. This book is a collection of his news columns dating from June 1943 to September 1944. It provides a vivid sense of what life was like for the troops, covering such events as the naval crossing to Sicily, fighting at Anzio, the Italian campaign, a stint in England waiting for D-Day, the invasion at Normandy, and the liberation of Paris.

While there are descriptions heroic acts, this account focuses on the everyday life of regular soldiers. It puts the reader in their shoes. They wanted to do what had to be done in the most efficient and effective way possible – the mantra was “get it done and get home.” It is filled with intense, memorable, and powerful scenes. His writing is direct and animated. This was a time before television coverage of wars and Pyle’s syndicated columns provided people on the American home front a portrait of what it was like to be there. He reports on medical processes, demolition projects, ordnance, shelling and shrapnel, food and water supplies, and, truly, almost every aspect of the war – on the front lines and behind the scenes.

Some of the most moving accounts involve sketches of individuals and what they went through. As was done back then, he often mentions people by name, civilian occupation, and residence. He records the perspectives of soldiers, sailors, airmen, combat engineers, artillerymen, nurses, Red Cross workers, various civilians, and a few officers. There are also elements of humor and lighter segments when the pressure was less intense, so it feels particularly authentic, covering the gamut of emotions.

Sadly, Ernie Pyle was killed by enemy fire near Okinawa in 1945. How wonderful that we have his writings, which document his contributions to the wartime efforts. Brave Men serves as an eyewitness account. If you are a history buff, this book needs to be on your list.

“Our troops were living in almost inconceivable misery. The fertile black valleys were knee-deep in mud. Thousands of the men had not been dry for weeks. Other thousands lay at night in the high mountains with the temperature below freezing and the thin snow sifting over them. They dug into the stones and slept in little chasms and behind rocks and in half-caves. They lived like men of prehistoric times, and a club would have become them more than a machine gun.”

[Ian Beardsell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although Pyle, one of the first "embedded" journalists in wartime, could get a bit repetitive, his account of the American GIs in the European theater during WWII will rightly stand as one of the best portrayals of the common soldier in these epic times.

Written shortly after the fall of Paris as the western allies began to chase the German army back over the Rhine and the war's end seemed inevitable, I especially found his last words in this book rather poignant and perhaps reflective of the challenges of our own times.

In the emergency of war our nation's powers are unbelievable. The strength we have spread around the world is appalling even to those who make up the individual cells of that strength. I am sure that in the past two years I have heard soldiers say a thousand times, "If only we could have created all this energy for something good." But we rise above our normal powers only in times of destruction.

Were it only so that western society, and especially the US, could muster its energy to create something good without the need of coming face-to-face with obvious self-destruction. The world really needs that creative foresight and action now.

[Jeffrey Zygmont · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of dispatches from renowned WWII correspondent Ernie Pyle can grow almost tedious and repetitive at times, because it deals solely with the experiences of U.S. soldiers fighting the Germans, first in north Africa, then in Sicily and Italy, and finally in Normandy, France. But the book faithfully redeems itself and steps back from the brink of tedium, first by its organizational structure, which changes focus to different branches of the Service and different military occupations, and secondly by the respect, deep reverence and sympathy expressed by Pyle for his subjects, ordinary U.S. soldiers.

And let's face it, those are darn compelling subjects. Pyle relates their experiences using plain language and straightforward prose. But there is nothing simplistic about his understanding and empathy for the fighters, and I found that the spareness of his prose very often elevated the writing to the level of some of the master stylists, especially Ernest Hemingway. Consider this excerpt, near the end of the book, which describes Pyle and a group of soldiers sent to the front line to retrieve two disabled tanks. They arrive as darkness falls. They're very near the fighting, but they can't tell for certain how near. Pyle writes:

One officer went into an orchard to try to find where the tanks were. In wartime nobody ever knows where anything is. The rest of us waited along the road beside an old stone barn. Three jeeps were parked beside it. The dusk was deeper now. Out of the orchards around us roared and thundered our own artillery. An officer lit a cigarette. A sergeant with a rifle slung on his shoulder walked up and said, "You better put that out, sir. There's snipers all around and they'll shoot at a cigarette."

The officer crushed the cigarette in his fingers, not waiting to drop it to the ground, and said, "Thanks."

The book made me feel closer to my father (requiescat in pace), who flew as a crew member over Europe in the Army Air Corps (pre U.S. Air Force) during the war. My dad had a dog, Roscoe. In sections on the Air Corps, Pyle mentions how so many fliers kept dogs.

But beyond the personal, I recommend Brave Men wholeheartedly for at least a couple of reasons. It illustrates total war. Also, it is unambiguous in identifying the good guys (us), and the bad guys (them). There are some lessons there, when you compare how we approach such concepts today, versus Pyle's celebration of American men at arms only about 65 years ago.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Update 7/15/23. Starts out compulsively readable, but the daily combat reports get grim in a hurry. Book of its time. I'm not at all sure I will finish it. . .

I did finally finish the book, with some skimming. Definitely a worthwhile read, but may be more than you really want to know. These are, basically, the author's newspaper columns from WW2 in North Africa and Europe in 1943-44, edited into a book.

Pyle's Wikipedia article is worth a look, especially the introduction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Pyle
Pyle "was a Pulitzer Prize–winning American journalist and war correspondent who is best known for his stories about ordinary American soldiers during World War II." He was a famous reporter then. He was killed by enemy fire in the Okinawa campaign in April 1945. Per the review that follows, "As a combat reporter, Pyle surpassed all others working during the Second World War...."

Here's the review that led me to read it, at the Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/books/arc...
Excerpt:
"What Pyle looked for, and then conveyed, was a sense of what the war was really like. His columns connected those on the home front to the experiences of loved ones on the battlefield in Africa, Europe, and the Pacific. For readers in uniform, Pyle’s columns sanctified their daily sacrifices in the grinding, dirty, bloody business of war. Twelve million Americans would read about what it took for sailors to offload supplies under fire on a beachhead in Anzio, or how gunners could shoot enough artillery rounds to burn through a howitzer’s barrel. Pyle wrote about what he often referred to as “brave men.” And his idea of courage wasn’t a grand gesture but rather the accumulation of mundane, achievable, un-glamorous tasks: digging a foxhole, sleeping in the mud, surviving on cold rations for weeks, piloting an aircraft through flak day after day after day."

[CASPER HILEMAN · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Pyle is a personal hero of mine. The original publication of "Brave Men" was the first non-fiction book I read as a nine-year-old young man. Mr. Pyle was the voice of the fighting man on various fronts. This is a great reissue that I hope many people read when it is published in May of 2023. I will visit his grave in Punchbowl National Cemetery in Honolulu Hawaii buried next to so many of the men he represented and continues to introduce new generations too.

[Land Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. To read this book is to understand why soldiers love Pyle. He understood them, and he told it like it was. Pyle does not describe the big picture of the war in Europe. He describes the day-to-day experiences of the GI. The infantry. The artillery. The air corps. The tankers. They are all here. Anyone with an interest in World War II must read this book.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third book we've read (car book - read out loud) of Ernie Pyle's WWII dispatches, this time from Sicily, Anzio and into Italy, and Normandy (as part of the first wave of D-Day invasion forces). It blew me away (sorry for the cliche but it was the only thing I could think of to describe my amazement at what the WWII news correspondents did) that he was part of the first wave at Sicily, Anzio, and Normandy (as were other news correspondents) and he stuck with individual units, documenting what their experiences were. He was a strong and engaging writer.

[Joe Rodeck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wish I could rate this higher though it's not Ernie Pyle's fault. This compendium of all Pyle's WWII columns from the front cries for a "best of" treatment. By the time I had to go through trench foot for the fourth time, I was ready to quit. Get's too redundant.

Pyle's writing is great. Good sense of humor and irony. OTOH, you can tell he was under very strict 1940's editorial control.

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly engrossing. I was well aware of Ernie Pyle’s contributions to the press coverage of WWII—which included his own life, as he died in battle on Okinawa—but had never read any of his material. Wow. His folksy, humorous style belies an incredible sensitivity towards his subjects and a deep sense of the nature of war. This took me far longer to read than a book like this normally would, simply because I had to stop often to ponder the soldiers, sailors, and airmen with whom Pyle lived, fought, and yes, even died. The section in which Pyle walked the beaches of Normandy the day after the invasion moved me to tears.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating insight into military units and behind the scenes aspects not mentioned in most WW2 books

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ernie Pyle (a fellow Midwesterner) was one a group of American reporters that were allowed to accompany US troops as they fought the Nazis in Northern Africa, Italy and France, from 1942 to 1944.

The war was a long, hard struggle where it seemed like everyone was working with singular resolve for victory. And that “I’ll do my part” attitude comes across loud and clear in Pyle’s plain language dispatches.

Pyle describes in an easy conversational style the men and women he meets and their experiences of battle, support operations, and the aftermath of battle. It is uplifting to hear these people talk—he lets them speak in their own words. We can see that the virtue of bravery is a more commonly shared characteristic than perhaps is typically thought these days. And these men and women are more than just brave. He shows them to be generous, kind, honest and well mannered.

I can imagine how welcome these dispatches must have been, where we see how life is for the average solider and meet many of them, including their names and addresses! They came from all over America and seemed to work together very well.

[Howard Jaeckel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Along with all those who fought or resisted Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, the American soldiers who served in the Second World War helped preserve for us a world in which human decency and liberty are possible. In “Brave Men,” Ernie Pyle, a war correspondent embedded with our forces in North Africa, Italy and France, helps us understand, eighty years on, what they did and endured. An account of the war can serve no higher purpose than to inspire our abiding gratitude to those soldiers, and in this “Brave Men” succeeds magnificently.

A well-known human-interest columnist during his early career in journalism, Ernie Pyle became truly famous during World War II. His columns were read by millions of Americans, appearing in 400 daily newspapers and 300 weeklies, and many were republished in the Army newspaper “Stars and Stripes.” He was one of 28 correspondents selected to accompany the first wave of soldiers landing on Omaha Beach. After surviving that honor, he was caught in the disastrous bombing of our own troops near Saint-Lô during the massive American operation to break out of the Normandy beachhead. One comes away from “Brave Men” realizing that the prime requisite for surviving combat was repetitive good luck recurring beyond any reasonable likelihood.

In his columns, and in “Brave Men,” Pyle did not write of grand strategy, but of the experience of the common soldier. He wrote with knowledge derived from facing the same hardships and dangers. He, like they, had slept in wet clothes on hard, wet ground. He knew the soreness of muscles that had tightened with fear all through the night before a major operation. He had felt the same desperate hope that an ordered period of rest before resuming pursuit of the enemy might go on for another 15 minutes. He knew that grief over a friend’s death must yield almost immediately to the continuing demands of war.

The rare occasions when there was time for reflection could be even harder. On the day after the D-Day landings, Ernie Pyle took a walk along the beach and wrote of what he saw:

"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 . . . . Here are toothbrushes and razors, and snapshots of families back home staring up at you from the sand. Here are the pocketbooks, metal mirrors, extra trousers and bloody, abandoned shoes . . . .

I picked up a pocket Bible with a soldier’s name in it, and put it in my jacket. I carried it half a mile or so and then put it back down on the beach. I don’t know why I picked it up, or why I put it down again."


The respect – indeed the love – Pyle felt for the American GI shines through on just about every page. They came from every town and hamlet in America, frequently from places of which one had never heard, and did an infinite variety of things in civilian life. Yet somehow they seemed to possess, collectively, every skill necessary or useful in fighting the greatest war humanity had ever known. Plucked from ordinary and unheroic life, and without verbalizing grandiose patriotic sentiments, they knew what had to be done and they did it.

Ernie Pyle wrote about individuals with names, home towns and often street addresses. He gave the folks back home a real picture of what their loved ones and friends were experiencing. If he loved our soldiers, he was loved in return.

In addition to showing us the magnificence of our GIs, our officers and our top commanders (with whom Pyle was also on very friendly terms), one of the great things about “Brave Men” is the appreciation one gets of the immensity of our war effort. It took so much of so many different things; one wonders how it all could possibly have been organized, just as one wonders where we found the millions of brave men who did the fighting. Of Normandy, Pyle wrote:

"One could not help but be moved by the colossus of our invasion. It was a bold and might thing, one of the epics of all history. In the emergency of war our nation’s powers are unbelievable . . . . But we rise above our normal powers only in times of destruction."

Sad but true. Still, it is the times of destruction that I most worry about. A reading of history makes it hard confidently to believe that humanity has seen the last of the likes of Hitler and Stalin. If faced with such powerful evil again, could our nation still manage what we did in World War II? I don’t know.

By September 1944, Ernie Pyle had hit the wall. With sheepish apologies to his readers, he returned home. “For me,” he wrote, “war has become a flat, black depression without highlights, a revulsion of the mind and exhaustion of the spirit."

Yet after a rest, he returned to join our forces in the Pacific. He was killed during the battle of Okinawa.

President Truman paid tribute to Ernie Pyle, saying: “No man in this war has so well told the story of the American fighting man as American fighting men wanted it told. He deserves the gratitude of all his countrymen." And General Eisenhower surely spoke for all the men who regarded Pyle more as a buddy than a reporter when he said “The GIs in Europe––and that means all of us––have lost one of our best and most understanding friends."

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books about which you say, “I should have read this a long time ago.” The prose is clear, concise (economical), and very descriptive. The flowing narrative covers all aspects of the war and a wide variety of units. Ernie made friends of everyone, regardless of rank, fame or fortune. The stories are personal with many individuals identified by name and home address. The experiences are real and give one a sense of the totality of war and the spirit of the American citizen warrior. There is a real wealth of information about war, human character, life and meaning here and should be required reading for professional soldiers.

Pyle interspersed his story-telling with wit and humor; here is a short example. Speaking with a young soldier (Paul Schneider) who drove a “duck” [sic] or amphibious carrier, which he let Pyle drive off shore. When Pyle introduced himself, Paul said that he had just finished Pyle’s first book and thought it “alright.” Pyle concludes that Schneider was “the champion duck driver of the American Army. A man of perspicacity and acumen…” He later noted that Schneider had been in three invasions and “said he would just as soon drive a duck as do anything else.” Pyle concludes with “This was exactly the fine philosophy you’d expect of a man who read good books.”

[Eden · Rating 5 out of 5]

2021 bk 258. All honor is due the name of Ernie Pyle and the hundreds of thousands of soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen and women with whom he spent time and recorded the details of life in the fight known as World War II. Pyle was drawn to those enlisted, drafted, and lifetime military - mostly of the U.S., but he did give kudos others he met along the way. He carefully crafted his newspaper accounts with frequent references to his notepads where he had written details of names and hometowns so loved ones would know that on such and such a date that person had been alive and had met Ernie Pyle. His focus on the men and women was so detailed and so determined to remind people of their individual-ness that there is an index of every name and every home town in my copy.

[Steven Latour · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely breathtaking and astounding look at the lives of ordinary men during World War II written by a news correspondent who lived among them. There is only a little bit of the actual war written here, but instead there are many small stories and instances that made up the day-to-day occurrences of those who served on land, sea, and air. From supporting roles to bombing missions to the front lines the author visited and talked to them all, from privates to generals, and shared their stories with folks back home. A must-read for anyone who wants to know what the war was like for the men who served.

[Chainsaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's easy to see why this author was one of World War II's most beloved reporters. His self-effacing, subtle wit, combined with his commitment to tell the true story of America's "common" men amidst the not-so-glamorous aspects of warfare, provide insight not easily obtainable by those who haven't lived it. His reporting was from a personal, authentic level rarely achieved by others. Highly recommended!

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

close-up view of WW2 from this celebrated journalist.

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am joining the throngs of readers who love the brave, witty, and humble war correspondent, Ernie Pyle, who “brought” me to the front lines of WWII and introduced me to the heroic Americans who fought for me.

[Jim Cumming · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent look at the front line fighting men of WW2.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The quintessential book of the daily lives of soldiers, sailors and airmen during WWII. They truly were “The Greatest Generation.”

[Anthony Louie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An on the ground insight into what my dad might have experienced from D + 1 to the end of the war in Europe.

[Kip · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Brave Men" sees war correspondent and infantry everyman Pyle follow the American army through Italy and into France. The reader sees the invasions of both Anzio and Normandy through Pyle's signature tight but descriptive prose. The book includes perhaps Pyle's most famous essay, "The Death of Captain Waskow," written in December 1943. It also includes his observations of the D-Day invasion as well as a horrific account of the Operation Cobra bombings that killed 111 soldiers in friendly fire bombings.

Throughout the work, you can start to see the cracks of Pyle's psyche, particularly in the final farewell of the book written in August 1944, just a few months before Pyle was killed in combat in Okinawa. Fans of his writing will see perhaps his most accomplished prose in this work, and the beautiful but horrific description of the conditions of men in the air, on the ground and at sea.

If you're a World War II buff, a journalist or looking for some of the best examples of descriptive historic prose, you could do much worse than picking this one up.

[J.S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent compilation of newspaper columns written by WWII war correspondent Ernie Pyle from the fighting in Europe and published in 1944. Pyle was killed the following year on Iwo Jima, but he was especially popular for his intimate style of reporting that focused on the perspective of soldiers instead of the generals.

He says about D-Day: "I want to tell you what the [invasion] entailed, so that you can know and appreciate and forever be humbly grateful to those both dead and alive who did it for you" (pg. 360). And reading this book really gives you a feeling for what they went through, both the grueling horror and the intense boredom. He covers not only the infantrymen on the front lines but the artillerymen behind them and the fighter and bomber pilots above. He tells what their days were like, what they ate, what kind of reception the locals gave. He shares his experiences at sea with the Italian invasion, how the supply chain worked, and how difficult it was to rebuild bridges that were blown up by retreating Germans. He tells not only of "GI Joe" but of "Sad Sack" and all the others who served, no matter how gloriously or not. It was surprising at first to see soldier's names and home addresses, and I can imagine people watching his columns, hoping to see a familiar name or even writing to strangers. It's all done in his folksy way that must have forged a stronger connection between home and the front.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in WWII and/or had family members that served. You can't get much better than this first person account, primary source of the war. Ernie Pyle details the lives of everyday men, and the occasional woman, who served overseas in the Sicilian and Italian campaigns, in England, and in the beginnings of the Normandy battles.
He writes in plain language, and sometimes his stories and observations took my breath away they were so vivid. He is also very humble, which was gratifying considering that he was a very famous and beloved correspondent.
Some people didn't like that he took the time to name hundreds of individuals soldiers, including their hometown addresses many times. I personally enjoyed each name and hometown, because it shows the wide range of Americans who served over there. I also got excited when he mentioned someone from my state, Mississippi.
This book is a classic. The modern, flashy books written by historians today are well-written and well-researched, but there is no good substitute for the real thing-- and this book is it. I wish Ernie Pyle had survived the war, but he left behind a wonderful collection of stories that people like me can enjoy today.
I wish I had read this sooner; it is now one of my favorite books.

[Socraticist · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable book, written by a remarkable human being. Ernie has the perfect temperament to despise war and yet write about it brilliantly. Of course, it is from the soldier’s point of view and that tempers all the victories by remembering the hardships and sacrifices. You can tell he was thrilled to be a part of it and to share in the soldiers’ sense of duty, but he is as anti-war as a human being can be.

The writing style, to me, is as if a good friend comes home to America for a while and, over dinner or over drinks, tells you all about his experiences, good and bad. Scrupulously honest, but I sense he just leaves out opinions or judgements if they are negative about a person (“If you cannot say anything nice . . . “. or, maybe censorship?). He is self-deprecating and humble but also the greatest of all storytellers. I feel now like I knew him personally. I think millions of his readers probably felt the same way.

[Robin Hobb · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a gathering of the columns of war correspondent Ernie Pyle. It's an up close and personal look at World War II from a fellow who took his typewriter and went right to the front with the soldiers. The sections have headings such as Personalities and Asides, Light Bombers, Beachhead Fighters and Stand By. A bit from Beachhead Fighters. "That particular tank had everything in it from much-handled comic books to a pocket edition of the Bible. I saw old socks, empty tobacco cans, half cups of cold coffee. The boys used the top of the tank for tables and shelves, and this too was littered. But all the disorder didn't keep it from being a good tank, because that crew hedl the battalion record for firing its entire ammunition lad in the shortest time." This book is full of these little windows on the past. Highly recommended.

[Joel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pyle was what all journalists aspire to be, or should. He was succinct, funny, gritty, spared no details, honest, and kind. His writings were above all else poignant about what was happening in World War II and to whom it was happening. This book is a collection of his writings that he sent back from the front. For all intense and purposes, he was a soldier who wrote.

[Sonny · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the first and one of the all-time best of the "embedded reporters." Pyle became at one with the front lines and the units around him. The man traveled everywhere and even began to become a victim of the conflicts. Ernie's prose is magnificent and an inspiration to any would-be journalist. It is a shame that it is not required reading, these days...