Ernie Pyle

Ernie PyleErnie Pyle, 1944.

Ernie Pyle (born Aug. 3, 1900, near Dana, Ind., U.S.—died April 18, 1945, Ie Shima, Ryukyu Islands) was an American journalist who was one of the most famous war correspondents of World War II.

Ernie Pyle
Ernie PyleErnie Pyle (centre left) with a U.S. Marine patrol during the Pacific campaign in World War II.

Pyle studied journalism at Indiana University and left school to become a reporter for a small-town newspaper. Later, after various editorial jobs, he acquired a roving assignment for the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain; his daily experiences furnished him material for a column that eventually appeared in as many as 200 newspapers before World War II. His coverage of the campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and France brought him a Pulitzer Prize for reporting in 1944, as well as several other awards. The motion picture G.I. Joe (1945) was about Pyle’s coverage of the Italian campaign. He was with the U.S. forces in the Pacific on Iwo Jima, and during the Okinawa campaign he visited the nearby island of Ie Shima, where he was killed by Japanese machine-gun fire. Compilations of his columns appeared in book form: Ernie Pyle in England (1941), Here Is Your War (1943), Brave Men (1944), and Last Chapter (1946).

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Citation Information
Article Title: Ernie Pyle
Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published: 14 April 2024
URL: https://www.britannica.comhttps://www.britannica.com/biography/Ernie-Pyle
Access Date: November 21, 2024