Get Al Gerheauser, left-hand pitcher, for ‘Strikeout King’
By Chester L. Smith, sports editor
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Barons trip Hershey, 3-2, gain first leg in series title play
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Wants proposals accepted ‘without any crippling amendments’
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1945 season to get early start
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But they aren’t in the war.
Wait… no way! They are going to the join the war?
Life Magazine reviews his career – He’s not the type his readers imagine
Sunday, April 1, 1945
Ernie Pyle and friend ‘Cheetah’ enjoying the sun whole Ernie was home from the wars. (Photo by Bob Landry)
Success thrust itself upon him… he cares nothing for the money it has brought, and is embarrassed by the fame… but he keeps going because he feels that he must.
That’s Ernie Pyle, columnist of The Pittsburgh Press and 676 other newspapers, as he is described by Lincoln Barnett in this week’s issue of Life Magazine.
Life devotes parts of nine pages to Ernie, reviewing his career, appraising his success, and adding considerably to the general fund of knowledge about this self-effacing, individual who has become the outstanding war correspondent of World War II.
Not saintly or sad
“By his articulate admirers,” says Mr. Barnett, “Ernie has come to be envisaged as a frail old poet. a kind of St. Francis of Assisi wandering sadly among the foxholes, playing beautiful tunes on his typewriter.
“Actually,” “Mr. Barnett continues, “he is neither elderly, little, saintly nor sad.”
He is 44, stands 5 feet 8 inches tall; weighs 112 pounds, and although he appears fragile, he is a tough, wiry man who gets along nicely without much food or sleep.
His sense of humor… assumes a robust earthy color in conversation. His laugh is full-bellied. His profanity is strictly G.I.
Likes to just sit
Although Pyle is America’s No. 1 professional wander, he is fundamentally a sedentary person who likes nothing better than to sit in an overheated room with a few good friends. Sometimes he appears to find conversation less pleasurable than the simple circumstance of being seated.
His apparent agoraphobia is a byproduct neither of war nerves nor a swelled head. He has always been self-effacing, and he finds himself uncomfortable in his current eminence as the nation’s favorite war reporter, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of two bestsellers.
He has been called shy, but he is not timid. His reticence is marked by quiet dignity.
He likes people as individuals and writes only nice things about those he mentions by name in his column. “But there are a lot of heels in the world,” he says. “I can’t like them.”
Apostle of underdog
The Life article points out that Ernie has always been an apostle of the underdog. Seven years ago, after visiting a leper colony, he wrote that “I experienced an acute feeling of spiritual need to be no better off than the leper.”
“And so in war,” says Mr. Barnette, “Pyle has felt a spiritual need to be no better off than the coldest, wettest, unhappiest of all soldiers.”
The article relates that when Ernie gave his consent to the making of the movie, The Story of G.I. Joe, he stipulated that (1) the hero of the picture must be the Infantry and not Pyle; (2) that no attempt be made to glorify him, and (3) that other correspondents be included in the story.
The movie, in which Capt. Burgess Meredith plays Ernie, will be seen by troops overseas in June and be released to the civilian public in July.
Huge earnings
In spite of his refusal to capitalize on his fame when he returned from the European fronts, Ernie has made close to half a million dollars in the past two years, Mr. Barnett estimates.
While he was home, he wore one suit, which he bought for $41.16 when he landed in New York. His home is a modest house in Albuquerque, which cost about $5,000. He puts his money into war bonds and, according to Mr. Barnett, “quietly bestows substantial sums upon friends, relatives, G.I.’s and anybody else he likes.”
“Although Pyle disdains his affluence,” the article continues, “he is keenly appreciative of the aureole of national esteem and affection that now envelopes him.”
Hundreds pray for him
The emotions Pyle evokes in his public go beyond detached admiration. He is probably the only newspaper columnist for whom any notable proportion of readers have fervently prayed. The volume of prayer put forth for him each night can only be estimated by the hundreds of letters he receives from mothers and wives who declare they include him in their bedtime supplications.
For some time after D-Day, 90 percent of all reader queries that came into Scripps-Howard offices were: “Did Ernie get in safe?”
His success has been achieved without much push on Ernie’s part, the article maintains.
It declares that he took journalism at the University of Indiana because someone told him it would be an easy course.
He quit college a few months before he would have graduated, and went to work on a small newspaper in Indiana. Four months later, he went to the Scripps-Howard Washington Daily News as a copyreader.
Married ‘that girl’
“He was an excellent headline writer,” says Mr. Barnett, “but so mousey-mild his associates never dreamed he would ever be more than a pencil slave on the rim of the desk.”
Two years after going to Washington, he married Geraldine Siebolds, an attractive girl from Minnesota who had a job with the Civil Service Commission, Later, when he became a roving reporter, she was known to mullions as “that girl.”
He became managing editor of The News in 1932, but declared that he “hated the damn job.” Three years later, convalescing from influenza, he and Jerry took a motor trip to the Southwest. When they returned, Ernie turned in some articles about his trip and asked for an assignment as roving reporter.
Gets his wish
“They had a sort of Mark Twain quality and they knocked my eyes right out,” the Scripps-Howard editor-in-chief declared afterward. Pyle got his wish. His salary was raised from $95 to $100 a week and on August 8, 1935, his first travel column appeared in Scripps-Howard newspapers.
For the next five years Pyle roamed the Western Hemisphere. Those itinerant pre-war years were the happiest of his life. “The job would be wonderful,” he once said, “if it weren’t for having to write the damned column.”
Meanwhile he was evolving his special reportorial capacities and style. When war came, he had no need to revise his technique, His farmers, lumberjacks and bartenders had become privates, sergeants and lieutenants. And Phoenix, Des Moines and Main Street were Palermo, Naples and Rue Michelet.
He goes to war
“A small voice came in the night and said Go,” Ernie wrote in the fall of 1940. It was the same voice that had spoken to him in the leper colony in Hawaii. So he went off to war.
Pyle’s first overseas trip in the winter of 1940-41 multiplied readers of his column by 50 percent. Stirred by the spiritual holocaust of London and his own relentless instinct for self-immolation, he produced columns of great beauty and power. But it was not until he reached North Africa the following year that the Pyle legend began to evolve.
The article tells how Ernie, afflicted by one of his periodic colds, remained in Oran while the other reporters went to the front. There he met some obscure civilians who told him about the turbulent political situation in North Africa, and he scored an important scoop.
The doughboys’ saint
Gradually, as he moved about among the soldiers, covering the “backwash” of the war, he became the patron saint of the fighting foot soldier, the article relates. But he didn’t know it for a long time.
He thought, when he wrote it, that his famous column on the death of Capt. Waskow was no good.
He went on to Normandy, and went on suffering the privations and dangers of the soldiers. Gradually the suffering he saw began to get under his skin. He had premonitions of death. Finally, he had to come home. Soldiers wrote saying they didn’t blame him.
After a long rest he pushed off again, this time to the Pacific. He chose a small carrier because he knew he would feel more at home there – and because such ships hadn’t been receiving much notice.
“I dread going back and I’d give anything if I didn’t have to go,” he said. “But I feel I have no choice. I’ve been with it so long I feel a responsibility…”
U.S. Navy Department (April 1, 1945)
The United States Tenth Army, whose principal ground elements include the XXIV Army Corps and the Marine III Amphibious Corps, invaded the west coast of the island of Okinawa in the Ryukyus in great force on the morning of April 1 (East Longitude Date). This landing is the largest amphibious operation of the war in the Pacific to date.
ADM R. A. Spruance, USN, Commander Fifth Fleet, is in overall tactical command of the operation. The amphibious phase of the operation is under command of VADM Richmond Kelly Turner, USN, Commander Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet. The Tenth Army is under command of LTG Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., USA.
The landings were made by ships and landing craft of the United States Fifth Fleet supported by the guns and aircraft of that fleet.
The attack on Okinawa has also been covered and supported by attacks of a strong British carrier task force under VADM Sir Bernard Rawlings against enemy positions in the Sakishima group.
Troops of the XXIV Army Corps are commanded by MG John R. Hodge, USA, and the Marines of the III Amphibious Corps are commanded by MajGen Roy S. Geiger, USMC.
The attack on Okinawa was preceded by the capture of the islands of the Kerama group west of the southern tip of Okinawa which commenced on March 26. The amphibious phases of this preliminary operation were commanded by RADM I. N. Kiland, USN. The troops consisted of the 77th Army Division under command of MG Andrew D. Bruce, USA. The capture of these outposts was completed prior to the main landings on Okinawa and heavy artillery is now emplaced there and in support of the Okinawa attack.
The amphibious support force is under command of RADM W. H. P. Blandy, USN, who was also present at the capture of the Kerama group of islands and in general charge of those operations. The battleships which form the principal gunfire support element are commanded by RADM M. L. Deyo, USN.
Fast Carrier Task Forces of the U.S. Pacific Fleet which are participating in the attack are under command of VADM Marc A. Mitscher, USN. The escort carriers which are supporting the attack are under command of RADM C. T. Durgin, USN.
More than 1,400 ships are involved in the operation. The landings were preceded by and are being covered by heavy gunfire from battleships, cruisers and light units of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. U.S. carrier aircraft are providing close support for the ground troops. Strategic support is being given by the shore‑based air forces of the Southwest Pacific Area, the Pacific Ocean Areas, and by the 20th Air Force.
The operation is proceeding according to plan. The troops who went ashore at 1830, Tokyo Time, advanced inland rapidly and by 1100 had captured the Yontan and Kadena airports with light losses.
The capture of Iwo Island gave us an air base only 660 miles from Tokyo and greatly intensified our air attacks on Japan. The capture of Okinawa will give us bases only 325 miles from Japan which will greatly intensify the attacks by our fleet and air forces against Japanese communications and against Japan Itself. As our sea and air blockade cuts the enemy off from the world and as our bombing increases in strength and proficiency our final decisive victory is assured.
United States forces on Okinawa advanced inland rapidly throughout the first day of the assault and by 1800 on April 1 (East Longitude Date) forward elements of the XXIV Army Corps and Marine Third Amphibious Corps had expanded the beachhead to a three-mile depth at several points. Enemy resistance continued to be light. Sporadic mortar and artillery fire fell on the beaches early in the day. The landing beaches were made secure against small arms fire as our forces deepened their positions behind the beaches. Heavy units of the Fleet continued to shell enemy installations on the island and carrier aircraft gave close support to the ground troops throughout the day. Four enemy planes attacking our surface forces were destroyed. Unloading of supplies on the beaches has begun.
Installations on Ishigaki and Miyako Islands in the Sakishima group were heavily hit by carrier aircraft of the British Pacific Fleet on March 31 and April 1. Of 20 Japanese aircraft which landed in the Sakishimas during these attacks, 14 were destroyed and 6 damaged by British aircraft.
Mustangs of the VII Fighter Command bombed Susaki airfield and harbor installations at Chichi Jima and other targets on Haha Jima in the Bonins on March 31.
Corsair and Hellcat fighters bombed supply areas in the Palaus on March 31. One of our fighters was destroyed but the pilot was rescued. On the same date, Marine fighters bombed the airstrip on Yap in the western Carolines.
Führer HQ (April 2, 1945)
Südwestlich des Plattensees und in der Grenzsteilung südwestlich Steinamanger wehrten unsere Verbände heftige Angriffe der Bolschewisten ab. Im oberen Raabtal konnten die Sowjets dagegen nach Nordwesten Boden gewinnen. Westlich des Neusieder Sees wurden feindliche Panzerspitzen in harten Kämpfen am Leitha-Abschnitt und am Südrand des Leitha-Gebirges aufgefangen. Nördlich der Donau leisteten unsere Truppen zwischen dem Ostrand der Kleinen Karpaten und der Waag dem nach Nordwesten drängenden Gegner erbitterten Widerstand.
Erneute feindliche Durchbruchsversuche in Oberschlesien scheiterten zwischen Schwarzwasser und Jägerndorf an der Standhaftigkeit unserer Divisionen, die in der zweiten Märzhälfte mit dem Abschuß von 952 Panzern einen bedeutenden Abwehrerfolg errangen. Die Besatzung von Breslau schlug starke, von Panzern und Schlachtfliegern unterstützte Angriffe ab.
Mit unvermindert starkem Kräfteaufwand setzten die Sowjets an der Danziger Bucht ihre Angriffe in der Oxhöfter Kämpe und gegen die westliche Weichselniederung fort. Sie konnten jedoch nur wenig Gelände gewinnen und verloren 39 Panzer.
Nordwestlich Dohlen zerbrachen die mit neu herangeführten Kräften geführten Angriffe des Feindes am entschlossenen Widerstand unserer Kurlandkämpfer.
Im Westen dauern die schweren Abwehrkämpfe im holländischen Grenzgebiet zwischen dem Niederrhein und Enschedes an. Östlich Burgsteinfurt hielten unsere Truppen das Vordringen des Feindes auf. Auch bei Münster behaupteten sie sich gegen starke Angriffe. Östlich und südöstlich. Davon konnte der Gegner bis an die Ränder des Teutoburger Waldes beiderseits Bielefeld durchstoßen, wurde dann aber unter hohen Panzer- und Menschenverlusten zum Stehen gebracht. Von Süden hervorgehend, haben die Amerikaner den Raum Söst-Lippstadt erreicht. Am Nordrand des Industriegebietes sind um Recklinghausen heftige Kämpfe im Gange.
An der unteren und mittleren Sieg wurdet durch harten Widerstand und im Gegenangriff ein Vordringen des Feindes verhindert. Auch am Rothaargebirge und im Raum von Winterberg wurden zahlreiche Angriffe abgewiesen.
Eine weit im Rücken der Amerikaner stehende Kampfgruppe der Waffen-SS, durch eine Fahnenjunkerschule des Heeres verstärkt, hat in den letzten drei Tagen dem Gegner schwerste Verluste zugefügt und mehr als 35 Angriffe bis zu Regimentsstärke zurückgeschlagen. 38 Panzer und gepanzerte Fahrzeuge, zahlreiche Lastkraftwagen und Mannschaftstransportwagen wurden erbeutet oder vernichtet und mehrere hundert Amerikaner, darunter 50 Offiziere, als Gefangene eingebracht.
Angriffe auf Kassel scheiterten unter starken. Panzerverlusten für den Feind. Zwischen der Werra und dem Kinzigtal hat sich der Druck des Gegners vor allem nördlich der Rhön verstärkt. Im Spessart sowie zwischen der unteren Tauber und dem Maindreieck sind erbitterte Abwehrkämpfe entbrannt. Aus dem Gebiet zwischen Bad Mergentheim und der Rheinebene südlich Heidelberg drückt der Feind weitet nach Süden. In der Rheinebene selbst gelang den Amerikanern ein Einbruch bis Bruchsal doch wurden ihre den ganzen Tag über wiederholten Angriffe auf die Stadt selbst blutig zurückgeschlagen.
Tag- und Nachtangriffe unserer Luftwaffe richteten sich mit nachhaltiger Wirkung gegen die feindlichen Nachschubverbindungen.
An der Westalpenfront konnte der Gegner erst nach siebenmaligen starken Angriffen einen Stützpunkt am kleinen Sankt Bernhard nehmen.
In Mittelitalien scheiterten zahlreiche Aufklärungsvorstöße der Amerikaner südwestlich Bolognas.
Nach längeren schweren Kämpfen in Kroatien ist sowohl im Raum von Bihac wie in Ostbosnien eine Kampfpause eingetreten.
Bei Angriffen amerikanischer Terrorverbände gegen Orte in Südostdeutschland entständen Personenverluste und schwere Häuserschäden vor allem im Stadtgebiet von Marburg an der Drau.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (April 2, 1945)
FROM
(A) SHAEF MAIN
ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section
DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
021100A April
TO FOR ACTION
(1) AGWAR
(2) NAVY DEPARTMENT
TO (W) FOR INFORMATION (INFO)
(3) TAC HQ 12 ARMY GP
(4) MAIN 12 ARMY GP
(5) AIR STAFF
(6) ANCXF
(7) EXFOR MAIN
(8) EXFOR REAR
(9) DEFENSOR, OTTAWA
(10) CANADIAN C/S, OTTAWA
(11) WAR OFFICE
(12) ADMIRALTY
(13) AIR MINISTRY
(14) UNITED KINGDOM BASE
(15) SACSEA
(16) CMHQ (Pass to RCAF & RCN)
(17) COM ZONE
(18) SHAEF REAR
(19) SHAEF MAIN
(20) PRO, ROME
(21) HQ SIXTH ARMY GP
(REF NO.)
NONE
(CLASSIFICATION)
IN THE CLEAR
UNCLASSIFIED: Allied forces advancing from the west and from the south have linked up in the vicinity of Lippstadt, 75 miles east of the Rhine, and encircled the whole of the German Army Group B. The destruction of this large enemy force in the densely populated area of the Ruhr and in the mountainous district to the south, will take time but will not preclude the advance of allied armored columns farther into Germany. North of the Ruhr, our forces continued to make good progress advancing more than 15 miles in some sectors. Geseke, southeast of Lippstadt, has been captured and our units are mopping up in Paderborn where resistance from enemy tanks, bazookas and small arms fire has been stiff. Farther to the southeast, our armored elements advanced three and one-half miles east of Warburg.
In the vicinity of Rimbeck, northwest of Warburg, our infantry encountered resistance from an estimated 1,000 enemy troops.
Our infantry in a six-mile advance, reached a point north of Besse, six and one-half miles south of Kassel. Armored units crossed the Fulda River in the area 15 miles south of Kassel and entered Adelshausen. We encountered strong enemy resistance in this area from assault guns and tanks.
Farther to the southeast, our armored elements advanced eight miles to the vicinity of Nesselröden, west of Eisenach, while other units reached the vicinity of Heringen, 13 miles southwest of Eisenach. In these advances, we encountered road blocks and resistance from assault guns and tanks. Hersfeld has been cleared by our infantry, and north of Fulda we captured Langenschwarz and entered Lüdermünd. Northeast of Fulda, we reached the vicinity of Obernüst.
In the area northeast of Hanau, our cavalry entered Eidengesass. Mopping up proceeds in the area north of Frankfurt against strong resistance from enemy groups. Rail and road communications in the areas of Iserlohn, Holzminden, Siegen, Mühlhausen, Eisenach, Erfurt and east of Fulda were attacked by fighter-bombers. Fanatical resistance continued in Aschaffenburg.
At Shweinheim, the enemy continued to resist by infiltrating after the town had been cleared. Our rapid armored advance up the Main River continued and gains of up to 18 miles were made.
Our forces control more than 14 miles along the Main River southeast of Würzburg and generally have broken out of the Odenwald into the Wurzburg-Heilbronn plain. In the action near Bad Wergentheim, we captured a lieutenant general, commander of a corps.
South of Mannheim, the last units which crossed the Rhine advanced eastward up to 18 miles and crossed the autobahn.
Allied forces in the west captured 22,877 prisoners 31 March.
Strongpoints, gun positions and fortified building impeding the progress of our forces in the sector east and northeast of the Main River were heavily bombed by fighter-bombers in great strength. Targets were in an area extending from Aschaffenburg to Königshofen, some 60 miles to the northeast.
Barracks and supply areas near Stuttgart including targets at Vaihingen an der Enz and Ludwigsburg were attacked by medium bombers.
Rocket-firing fighters hit a convoy of more than 100 vehicles, some loaded with ammunition, attempting to move northeast from Enschede on a partially blocked road. Scattered motor transport was attacked in the Lingen area. Twenty railyards were hit during the day. Nearly 800 transport vehicles and 43 tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed.
A number of airfields including those at Herzberg and at Grossen Behringen south of Mühlhausen also were bombed. Forty-seven aircraft were destroyed on the ground and others were damaged. One enemy aircraft was shot down. From all operations 31 of our fighters are missing.
COORDINATED WITH: G-2, G-3 to C/S
THIS MESSAGE MAY BE SENT IN CLEAR BY ANY MEANS
/s/
Precedence
“OP” - AGWAR
“P” - Others
ORIGINATING DIVISION
PRD, Communique Section
NAME AND RANK TYPED. TEL. NO.
D. R. JORDAN, Lt Col FA4655
AUTHENTICATING SIGNATURE
/s/
U.S. Navy Department (April 2, 1945)
Pacific Area.
The LCI (G) 974 has been lost in the Philippine Area as the result of enemy action.
Next of kin of casualties have been informed.
Elements of XXIV Army Corps moved across the island of Okinawa on April 2 (East Longitude Date) to a point on the east coast near the village of Tobara. Advances averaging several thousand yards were made along the entire Tenth Army line against scattered resistance. In the center of the island in rugged terrain increasing enemy activity was being encountered by some of our troops. In the northern sector advances were made throughout the day by the Marines of the III Amphibious Corps. The ground troops were supported in their drive by carrier aircraft, by gunfire from heavy units of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and by field artillery. Observation planes began operation from Yontan and Kadena airfields. During the night of April 1 and 2, five enemy aircraft were shot down. The unloading of supplies is proceeding satisfactorily.
Corsair and Hellcat fighters and Avenger torpedo planes of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing attacked houses, a causeway, and a bridge and set a supply dump afire in the Palaus on April 2.
Liberators of the 7th Army Air Force bombed runways on Susaki airfield on Chichi Jima in the Bonins on March 31.
For Immediate Release
April 2, 1945
MG James E. Chaney, USA, has assumed duty as Island Commander of Iwo Island.
BG Ernest M. Moore, USA, commanding general of the VII Fighter Command of the 7th Air Force has also been assigned duty in command of all aircraft of all services based at Iwo Island.
‘Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine’ – Timothy I, 4:16
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One of the war’s worst city battles half destroys the ‘Pearl of the Orient,’ pride of the Philippines
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5,000 anonymous spectators also turn in Oscar-worthy performances
Five thousand people, nearly all of them in various stages of hysteria, packed the bleachers and roped-off sections outside Sid Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood on the Academy Award night. What they would most like to have seen is shown above. Actually they had no hope of getting into the theater, which was filled with much of the world’s highest-priced entertainment talent. They were nevertheless content to get close-up glimpses of moviedom’s great figures arriving and departing, to get crumbs of recognition from them as they passed.
Inside the theater the stars and makers of Going My Way took seven of the 27 Oscar awards. Bob Hope made faces behind Bing Crosby’s back as the latter’s award was announced. Barry Fitzgerald, waiting to be photographed after accepting his award, untied a tight shoelace for comfort. A few days later, Mr. Fitzgerald, practicing his golf swing in his house, knocked over his Oscar, which, having been made of plaster this year instead of metal, smashed to bits.