Ernie Pyle
Ernest "Ernie" Taylor Pyle (born August 3, 1900 in Dana , Indiana ; † April 18, 1945 in Iejima ) was an American journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner , who became known primarily as a war correspondent in World War II .
Life
Pyle was from the state of Indiana. During the First World War he enlisted in the US Navy , from which he was discharged after the war ended in 1918 as Petty Officer Third Class . He then studied at Indiana University , where he editor of the student newspaper and a member of the fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon was. However, he dropped out to take a job as a newspaper editor in La Porte . This was followed by a position at The Washington Daily News , where he was quickly promoted to the editorial board. After his wedding to Geraldine "Jerry" Siebolds in 1925, he toured the United States in 1926 and then returned to Washington, DC as a columnist . His newspaper articles, which often dealt with the experiences of his journey across the country, soon aroused great interest and were extremely praised.
After the United States entered World War II in 1941 , Pyle resigned from his position as editor and became a war correspondent. He traveled with the troops of the US Army to North Africa and later accompanied a. a. the Battle of Anzio and the Normandy Landing . His reports, which were created under the impression of the fighting, were praised for their high level of authenticity. In recognition of this, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. As a result of post- traumatic stress disorder and depression , he returned to the United States after the liberation of Paris in August 1944, only to take part in the Pacific War a little later . In April 1945 he experienced the Battle of Okinawa from a ship of the US Navy. On April 16, 1945 he landed with the 77th Infantry Division on Iejima, a strategically important island near Okinawa . Pyle was killed on April 18 when he was in a jeep on the way to a command post of the 305th Infantry Regiment and came under Japanese machine gun fire. He was buried in Iejima and then in Okinawa before being transferred to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu , Hawaii . Posthumously he received the Purple Heart .
Ernie Pyle's works were collected after his death and published in the books Ernie Pyle In England , Here Is Your War , Brave Men and Last Chapter . Its deployment in Italy was filmed in 1945 as a battle storm on Monte Cassino ; the actor Burgess Meredith impersonated his role. Furthermore, in his honor a. a. Ernie Pyle Island in Indiana named after him.
literature
- James Tobin: Ernie Pyle's War: America's Eyewitness to World War II (1997)
Web links
- Ernie Pyle in the database of Find a Grave (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Contribution by Indiana University
- ^ Lee G. Miller: The Story of Ernie Pyle , New York: Viking Press 1950
- ↑ Death report from The New York Times
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Pyle, Ernie |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Pyle, Ernest Taylor (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 3, 1900 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dana , Indiana |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 18, 1945 |
| Place of death | on Iejima |