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Media Relations

Ernie Pyle's WWII writing comes to life for students in Europe

When Rosemary Pennington arrived at Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, she was not prepared for the emotions that overwhelmed her.

Pennington's grandfather fought during World War II and was an infantryman in the U.S. Army. He served in Italy at Anzio Beach, which is where he became shell-shocked. Thousands of American soldiers died during the D-Day invasion on Omaha Beach. For Pennington, it was all she could think about -- the thousands of men who gave up their lives that day.

"It was difficult to be there amidst all that beauty and to think of all those dead," said Pennington, a research track master's student at the Indiana University School of Journalism. "The time on Omaha Beach and at the American Cemetery affected me most. WW II is something we grew up with; we read about it in Ernie Pyle's columns or in history books. It's an abstract thing to us. Going to Omaha, seeing the actual place where so many died on D-Day and then seeing the graves of all those dead soldiers -- it makes it all real in a way nothing else can."

The dead soldiers Pennington thought about during her 2008 spring break trip to Europe were the same soldiers famed war correspondent Ernie Pyle wrote about during WW II. This spring, journalism students have studied Pyle's life as well as his war dispatches and American travel columns.

On March 7, IU students left Indiana for a 10-day trip abroad to retrace the footsteps of the famed war correspondent. Five graduate students and 25 undergraduates visited Normandy, France, observed sites impacted by the Blitz in London, and envisioned the liberation of Paris from the Champs-Élysées. The trip included visits to a variety of historical WW II sites and other points of interest.

The trip was part of a semester-long IU School of Journalism course, "London to Paris: In the Footsteps of Ernie Pyle," offered for the first time. Owen V. Johnson, associate professor of journalism, said he believes it is the only class being taught at any school of journalism that is devoted to the life of a single journalist.

Johnson, who also is an adjunct associate professor of history at IU, has researched the life and writings of Pyle for nearly a decade and soon will complete a book of the reporter's personal letters.

"I believe the students appreciated seeing the history of World War II come alive," Johnson said. "In the process, I hope they gained a greater appreciation of Ernie Pyle's ability to transmit and record the war experience. I look forward to accompanying another group of students next year."

Pyle studied journalism at IU before becoming a reporter for the LaPorte Herald and then the Washington Daily News. He loved to travel and succeeded in persuading Scripps Howard executives (the company that owned the Daily News) to allow him to be a roving reporter. In 1940, with war raging in Europe, Pyle went to England to report on the Battle of Britain, and from 1942 to 1945, he covered the U.S. troops in the war.

Today, many reporters, consciously or otherwise, try to emulate Pyle, whose columns often told the stories of ordinary people.

Lara Streyle, a senior majoring in journalism and communications and culture, said the trip helped her understand Pyle's writing in a way that no classroom setting could emulate.

"This trip made me realize what Pyle went through in his travels overseas," Streyle said. "Actually going to London, Normandy and Paris brought to life Pyle's descriptions and experiences in those places. The tours and history also more clearly defined what it was like in WWII Europe, which I think is hard for many people to understand today."

Ethan Cirmo, a junior majoring in journalism with a second concentration in music, said the visit to Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery in Normandy made the biggest impact on him.

"The perspectives that I took in made Ernie Pyle and all of WWII more real for me, more imaginable and relatable," Cirmo said. "The situation that the soldiers and war journalists were in was both terrible and extraordinary. They were truly lucky people to experience a thing of such epic proportions, even though I'm sure they would not consider themselves as such.

"Visiting the places that Pyle visited made him more real, more human," Cirmo continued. "That's not to say he wasn't real before. We all knew well his influence and importance and realness before we left, but seeing the places he saw, and reliving in our minds what he must have experienced first-hand was a very humbling ordeal, very cerebral experience."

Tracie Ortman, a junior majoring in journalism, echoed the sentiment of her classmates. For her, the Omaha Beach and American Cemetery visits were the most poignant experiences.

"Everything was so breath-taking and beautiful, but heart-breaking at the same time because you knew what horrors had taken place there less than 70 years ago," Ortman said.

Not only did students visit Normandy, but they also learned about the war while visiting the Imperial War Museum, Winston Churchill's cabinet room and Cabinet War Rooms in London. Students also met Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John F. Burns at the Frontline Club -- an organization of war and foreign correspondents. Burns is the New York Times' London bureau chief, and he reported on the rise of the Taliban in mid-1990s Afghanistan and conflicts in Iraq and the former Yugoslavia.

In Paris, students went to John G. Morris' apartment to hear an informal talk about his experiences during WWII when he was a photo editor for Life magazine. Morris met Pyle one night when the two shared a tent and knew photographer Robert Capa so well that he called him his "Hungarian brother."

A portion of a morning was devoted to Mont-Saint-Michel Cathedral, which was unharmed during the war. In Paris, students saw Notre Dame Cathedral and took a guided walking tour of the city, hearing stories about the French involvement in the war.

Olesia Oleshko, master's student on the professional track, enjoyed the trip because she was able to see some of the major WWII sites Pyle wrote about.

"Basically the trip was a visualization of Pyle's stories -- St. Paul's Cathedral in London, which survived through heavy bombardment; hotel Savoy, where he wrote his powerful piece on that night in December 1940; beaches in Normandy where one of the most crucial military operation of the 20th century took place; and, of course, Paris, which keeps memory of those fallen."

Visit the trip Web site and read students' blogs at http://journalism.indiana.edu/resources/erniepyle/.

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