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Ernie Pyle columns available to commemorate end of World War II

September 2 marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. To help mark this historic milestone, the Ernie Pyle World War II Museum in Dana, Indiana, is sharing four of the Pulitzer Prize winning war correspondent’s columns for possible inclusion in the nation’s newspapers. It’s a reminder to all of the ultimate sacrifice made by so many Americans to maintain the freedoms we enjoy.
The four columns included in the package are:
• The last column written by Ernie Pyle. The uncompleted work was found in the shirt pocket on his body on April 18, 1945, the day he was killed by a Japanese machine gun bullet on Ie Shima during the battle for Okinawa. Ironically the subject matter was the anticipated end of hostilities in Europe, or V-E Day, which occurred on May 8, 1945. Click here to download
• The God-damned infantry column, which earned Pyle the Pulitzer Prize in 1944. Click here to download.
• The death of Capt. Waskow column, which was declared the best column ever written, according to the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Click here to download
• The liberation of Paris, which captures the joy of a city freed from Nazi occupation. Click here to download.
Also included are four photos of Pyle:
• Mugshot 1 - click here
• Mugshot 2 - click here
• Ernie Pyle writing a column while visiting the Anzio Beachhead, March 18, 1944 - click here
• Pyle visiting with a tank crew of the 91st Tank Battalion in the Anzio Beachhead, March 1944 - click here

Ernie Pyle bio
The son of tenant farming parents in west-central Indiana, Ernie Pyle became history’s greatest war correspondent. When Pyle was killed by a Japanese machine gun bullet on the tiny Pacific island of Ie Shima in 1945, his columns were being delivered to more than 14 million homes according to his New York Times obituary.
During the war, Pyle wrote about the hardships and bravery of the common soldier, not grand strategy. His description of the G.I.’s life was more important to families on the home front than battlefront tactics of Gens. Dwight Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, or George Patton.
Prior to the United States’ entry into World War II, Pyle traveled to England and wrote about the Nazi’s continual bombing of London. His columns helped move the mood of America from isolationism to sympathy for the stubborn refusal of Great Britain to succumb to the will of Adolf Hitler.
The Pulitzer Prize winning journalist’s legacy rests in his words and the impact they had on Americans before and during a war that threatened to take the world behind a curtain of fascism. His columns open a window to the hardships endured by the common U.S. soldier during World War II and serve today to honor what has been called “The Greatest Generation.”
The Ernie Pyle World War II Museum features the famous journalist’s birthplace and a museum dedicated to Pyle’s life and writings as a war correspondent. It is owned by the Friends of Ernie Pyle, who are dedicated to preserving and expanding the legacy of the writer whose columns linked the soldiers on the front line to worried families on the home front. To preserve Ernie Pyle’s memory is to preserve the sacrifices made by what has been dubbed “The Greatest Generation.” 
To learn more about the Ernie Pyle World War II Museum located in Dana, Indiana, or make a donation to assist the efforts of the Friends of Ernie Pyle to honor him and that generation, click here.

 

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