r/WorldWar2

The famous war correspondent Ernest Taylor Pyle, better known as "Ernie Pyle" to veterans and their loved ones, lost his life during the fighting on the island of Ie Shima on 18 April 1945.

A Navy veteran of World War I, Pyle majored in journalism and entered that field after graduating from Indiana University. He wrote a regular column of mainly human-interest stories that was carried by newspapers across the country.

He became a war correspondent when the United States entered World War II, and filed many stories as he covered the campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, and western Europe. His "everyman" perspective enabled him to write poignant eyewitness accounts of soldiers in combat that quickly became popular with the troops as well as the folks back home and earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1944.

Pyle paid particular attention and tribute to average "dogface" infantrymen. In his writing he urged that they receive a "fight pay" stipend like the "flight pay" given to airmen, which resulted in "combat pay" for ground combat soldiers.

As the war against Germany concluded, Pyle wanted to see the conflict to its ultimate end and went to the Pacific Theater. He landed on Ie Shima (a dependency of Okinawa) with the Army's 77th Infantry Division in April 1945.

Americans were saddened to read the bulletin, dateline "COMMAND POST, IE SHIMA, April 18 (AP) \_ Ernie Pyle, war correspondent beloved by his co-workers, GIs and generals alike, was killed by a Japanese machine-gun bullet through his left temple this morning ...”

"He was buried where he fell, with a special monument that read: " AT THIS SPOT THE 77th INFANTRY DIVISION LOST A BUDDY – ERNIE PYLE, 18 APRIL 1945."

An aerial view of a POW camp in Germany filled with captured Germans. This camp alone held 160,000 German POWs. April 1945.

A former concentration camp inmate drags a concentration camp guard by the hair while American troops look on at the newly liberated Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp, April 1945.

Comparison of domestic Soviet production during WW2 with American Lend Lease supplies. During the Cold War, US government propaganda tried to push the narrative that the USSR would not have won without so-called "American aid". (Paid by Soviet gold)

The contents of a WWII breakfast ration box, 1940s.

A 240mm Howitzer of Battery B, 697th Field Artillery Battalion, shortly before firing on German positions at Mignano, Italy. January 1944. [3000x2404]

This is the British cruiser Edinburgh. Which was sunk with 5 tons of Soviet gold on board in 1942. (Payment for Lend Lease)

Hitler always wanted the get the USSR. So on April 20, 1945, on his birthday, the Red Army came to Hitler. Today is the anniversary.

What was the main reason The Pacific theater was more brutal then the European theaters?

US Soldiers with the 84th Infantry Division "Railsplitters" advance in Duisburg, Germany - April 1945

Weary Marines just off the front lines after 23 days on Cape Gloucester, January 1944

U.S. Army Corporal Larry Matinsk puts cigarettes into the extended hands of newly-liberated prisoners behind a stockade in the Munich-Allach Concentration Camp in Allach-Untermenzing, Germany, on April 30, 1945.

M4 Mortar Carrier nicknamed “LUCIA” with HQ Company, 3rd Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division, in front of the Hexenbürgermeister House in Lemgo, Germany - April 1945

The breakthrough (Aachen, Oct 1944) - Iconic scene spot revisited 82 yrs later

“Hell on Earth”- Lagoon at Betio after the assault on Tarawa, November 1943

Douglas TBD Devastator on the flight deck of USS Enterprise CV-6 with a torpedo loaded during the Doolittle Raid - April 1942

81 years ago today- 18 April, 1945 – The death of beloved war correspondent Ernie Pyle on Okinawa

VE Day on Okinawa- While Europe rejoiced at the end of the war in the west, these Marines found no respite from the bitter struggle on Okinawa. Through the mud of a narrow road, one file moves up to the front line past a column of returning men on the road to the capital city of Naha, May, 1945.

Wounded GI recovered by comrades (Aachen, 1944) - Same spot 82 years apart

I am learning about my great grandfathers time spent in World War II, and I am wondering if anybody could point me in the direction of where I could learn more about his experiences.

GIs advance through Kongressstraße, Aachen, in company with Sherman Tank - Spot revisited 82 yrs later