Status
Available
Call number
Call number
940.542 pyl
Collection
Publication
Bison Books (2001), Edition: unknown, 513 pages
Description
History. Military. Nonfiction. HTML: Europe was in the throes of World War II, and when America joined the fighting, Ernie Pyle went along. Long before television beamed daily images of combat into our living rooms, Pyle's on-the-spot reporting gave the American public a firsthand view of what war was like for the boys on the front. Pyle followed the soldiers into the trenches, battlefields, field hospitals, and beleaguered cities of Europe. What he witnessed he described with a clarity, sympathy, and grit that gave the public back home an immediate sense of the foot soldier's experience. There were really two wars, John Steinbeck wrote in Time magazine: one of maps and logistics, campaigns, ballistics, divisions, and regiments and the other a "war of the homesick, weary, funny, violent, common men who wash their socks in their helmets, complain about the food, whistle at Arab girls, or any girls for that matter, 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." This collection of Pyle's columns detailing the fighting in Europe in 1943�??44 brings that war�??and the living, and dying, moments of history�??home to us once… (more)
Subjects
Original publication date
1944
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User reviews
LibraryThing member jackichan
An interesting book if you're interested in details, lots of details about every step taken in the advancement of the troops Pyle was with. His "shout outs" to random men including their full home address whom really aren't in the spotlight for usually more than that and his "My people can do no
In summary, FEEL GOOD ARMY BOOK, ♪♫HOO-RA♪♫.
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wrong." attitude lead me to believe that much of his work is based on mere fabrications and elaborations of what really was. Appealing mainly to people who have served in the military or those with a thirst for all things military.In summary, FEEL GOOD ARMY BOOK, ♪♫HOO-RA♪♫.
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LibraryThing member wenestvedt
This collection of contemporary WWII field reports from Ernie Pyle in the European Theater are plain-spoken, brief (newspaper column-length), and very affecting. In studying WWII from a vantage sixty years in the future, these columns are very useful for getting past the rosy halo that surrounds
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the WWII generation. (While I truly respect their sacrifices, there's a little to a lot of hagiography in many books, like Brokaw's "The Greatest Generation.") Michael Kelley is one of the few reporters today who come close to matching Pyle (see "Martyr's War" and the first part of "Things Worth Fighting For") but he died a year or two ago. Online, Michael Yon is writing this way, but he's just [late Sept. 2005] left Iraq for a while, so I fear that there won't be new pieces for some time. Show Less
LibraryThing member usnmm2
A must read for any WWII history buff. This is a collection of Pyles' columns about the every day G.I.
LibraryThing member MrsLee
Ernie Pyle is my favorite war writer, bar none. Sent to Europe to cover the war, he decided to interview those who were on the front lines instead relying on press releases from the officers. He wrote down what he heard, including stories, names and addresses. This touched the heart of those at
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home and brought the men who had gone to serve closer to them. His writing is endearing, filled with pathos, humor, patriotism and honesty. Show Less
LibraryThing member seoulful
Written with the quick, terse sentence structure of the front-line reporter, Brave Men gives an authentic impression of the atmosphere of war. The author, Ernie Pyle, overlays the harshness with a soft humor and love for the men he describes. From Sicily to Italy to England to France we travel with
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Pyle as he records great battles and small as told in vignettes of individuals or groups who make up the greater whole. Show Less
LibraryThing member datwood
Ernie Pyle recorded World War II on the day-to-day human level, from the standpoint of the citizen soldier. Brave Men is a collection of his columns for Scripps Howard Newspapers from the fighting in Europe during 1943-44. It gives an immediacy even now to the history of the war.
LibraryThing member Deb85
"Brave Men" is a collection of newspaper columns written by Ernie Pyle about the United States armed forces operations in Europe during 1943-1944. This book specifically covers fighting in Sicily, Italy, and France.
The great value of this book and Pyle's other war time compilations is that he was
All of the columns together give an overall view of the armed services in World War II. He traveled with medics, engineers, artillerymen, the infantry, and ordnance. He spent time on an LST, a hospital ship, and observing the supply line. He describes fighting in the mountains, on beachheads, around hedgerows, and in the streets. Spending time with the Army Air Corps, he describes dive bombers, light bombers, the flying wedge, and anti-aircraft fire. Sprinkled throughout his columns are the names of the soldiers he traveled with, giving them a shout out to the loved ones back home.
Considering the fact that Pyle produced enough 700-word columns to be printed six days a week year after year, not all of the columns are great writing. He knew that. That said, he did enough excellent writing that he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for his reporting.
Other works by Ernie Pyle are "Home Country" (columns about his travels through the United States, written between 1935 and 1940), "Ernie Pyle in England," "Here is Your War," "G. I. Joe" (compiled from "Here is Your War" and "Brave Men"), and "Last Chapter" (columns written from the Pacific from early 1945 until Pyle's death by sniper fire on April 18, 1945 on the island of Ie Shima). "Ernie's War: The Best of Ernie Pyle's World War II Dispatches" was compiled in 1987 by David Nichols.
A recommended biography of Ernie Pyle is "Ernie Pyle's War: America's Eyewitness to World War II" by James Tobin. The 1945 movie "G. I. Joe" is about Pyle's coverage of the Italian campaign.
The great value of this book and Pyle's other war time compilations is that he was
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given the right to travel with just about any military unit he chose. He would travel with them for a period of time, taking very few notes outside of soldiers' names, then find a place behind the lines where he could hole up and write and file several weeks of columns at once.All of the columns together give an overall view of the armed services in World War II. He traveled with medics, engineers, artillerymen, the infantry, and ordnance. He spent time on an LST, a hospital ship, and observing the supply line. He describes fighting in the mountains, on beachheads, around hedgerows, and in the streets. Spending time with the Army Air Corps, he describes dive bombers, light bombers, the flying wedge, and anti-aircraft fire. Sprinkled throughout his columns are the names of the soldiers he traveled with, giving them a shout out to the loved ones back home.
Considering the fact that Pyle produced enough 700-word columns to be printed six days a week year after year, not all of the columns are great writing. He knew that. That said, he did enough excellent writing that he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for his reporting.
Other works by Ernie Pyle are "Home Country" (columns about his travels through the United States, written between 1935 and 1940), "Ernie Pyle in England," "Here is Your War," "G. I. Joe" (compiled from "Here is Your War" and "Brave Men"), and "Last Chapter" (columns written from the Pacific from early 1945 until Pyle's death by sniper fire on April 18, 1945 on the island of Ie Shima). "Ernie's War: The Best of Ernie Pyle's World War II Dispatches" was compiled in 1987 by David Nichols.
A recommended biography of Ernie Pyle is "Ernie Pyle's War: America's Eyewitness to World War II" by James Tobin. The 1945 movie "G. I. Joe" is about Pyle's coverage of the Italian campaign.
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LibraryThing member l4stewar
Interesting, but a little dry.
LibraryThing member setnahkt
Although you run across his name in almost any WWII history that covers the American army, I’d never read anything by Ernie Pyle. Brave Men starts with the invasion of Sicily, jumps to the Anzio beachhead, then to England waiting for D-Day, then moves through France, ending with the liberation of
Pyle was an “embedded” war correspondent (I’m of the impression they all were until Vietnam). He didn’t stay with a particular unit, mingling with construction engineers, combat infantry, tank destroyers, artillery, dive bombers, stevedores, and ordnance repair units. Although he paints flattering portraits of a few generals (notably Omar Bradley) most of his reportage covers ordinary enlisted soldiers. Pyle frequently, almost obsessively, mentions soldier’s names and home towns; since he had been a travel correspondent before the war he knew a lot of places and could often mention a familiar spot to soldiers he was interviewing.
His writing is straightforward and “folksy”; the only case where he lets himself get emotional is while wandering amid the debris on the D-Day beaches and finding scattered bodies in the sand. He’s generally polite to the Germans, commenting (for example) about a scared young German soldier he saw in a field hospital; he never interviews any, though. He’s often close enough to the fighting to get near misses and mentions self-deprecatingly how scared he is (and, of course, he eventually bought a bullet that didn’t miss).
Brave Men doesn’t really add anything to the grand history of the war; Pyle avoided officer briefings and rear area command posts so he never really reported the “big picture” (to be fair, censorship probably wouldn’t have allowed it). But it does remind you that the war on the American side was fought by perfectly ordinary people in extraordinary situations – like all wars are fought, I suppose.
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Paris.Pyle was an “embedded” war correspondent (I’m of the impression they all were until Vietnam). He didn’t stay with a particular unit, mingling with construction engineers, combat infantry, tank destroyers, artillery, dive bombers, stevedores, and ordnance repair units. Although he paints flattering portraits of a few generals (notably Omar Bradley) most of his reportage covers ordinary enlisted soldiers. Pyle frequently, almost obsessively, mentions soldier’s names and home towns; since he had been a travel correspondent before the war he knew a lot of places and could often mention a familiar spot to soldiers he was interviewing.
His writing is straightforward and “folksy”; the only case where he lets himself get emotional is while wandering amid the debris on the D-Day beaches and finding scattered bodies in the sand. He’s generally polite to the Germans, commenting (for example) about a scared young German soldier he saw in a field hospital; he never interviews any, though. He’s often close enough to the fighting to get near misses and mentions self-deprecatingly how scared he is (and, of course, he eventually bought a bullet that didn’t miss).
Brave Men doesn’t really add anything to the grand history of the war; Pyle avoided officer briefings and rear area command posts so he never really reported the “big picture” (to be fair, censorship probably wouldn’t have allowed it). But it does remind you that the war on the American side was fought by perfectly ordinary people in extraordinary situations – like all wars are fought, I suppose.
Show Less
Pages
513