Southern Oregon Miner, Thursday, May 10, 1945
With Ernie Pyle in the Pacific:
German Cities in the Path of Allies’ Advance
Strange Sounds of War
Fill Night on Okinawa
Intermittent Gunfire Breuks Eerie
Silence Below Star - Bedecked Sky
WORLD LEADERS PICTURE
By the thread of one man’s life
hung personal relationships which
affected nations. Prime ministers
and potentates, once close to Frank­
lin Roosevelt, now must learn how
By Ernie Pyle
to get along with an unknown gentle­
man In the White House. Certain
F.dilnr’t ViUt: F rnir P yle aws te te m l dityotcKe» «/><-«</ uhen he m el death
from a Jap machine gun on /< island. This neu spaper u ill continue Io print
army-navy officials, who alwsys
there lor ■ fetr Kwl».
knew how Roosevelt would react on
this and that, now must do business
OKINAWA (by navy radio).—Our first night on Okinawa
with a man they once criticized.
was uncanny and full of old familiar sounds—the exciting,
To Illustrate how the pendulum
sad, wearv little sounds of war.
of fate has swung, here are some
It had heen six months since I’d slept on the ground, or
of those who will miss Franklin
heard a rifle shot. With the marines it was about the same.
Roosevelt most:
.
* ----- -------------------------------------------------
WINSTON
CHURCHILL — was
I was tagging along with a head
seemed to me as I lay there that I ’d
able to call the late President on
quarters company of a regiment
the telephone at any time night or
We were on a pretty, grassy coun­ never known anything else in my
day. Their relationship was more
try The front Unes were about a life. And there are millions of us.
intimate than with moat members
thousand yards ahead Other troops Spend» Night in
of their own cabinets. When Church-
were bivouacked all around ua.
G y pay Hideout
ill couldn't get Roosevelt, he talked
There were still a few snipers hid­
The company commander. Capt.
to Harry Hopkins. Their friendship
ing around. An officer was brought
was equally close
Hopkins and
in just before dark, shot through the Julian Dusenbury. said I could have
my choice of two places to spend
Churchill used to stay up late at
arm. So we were on our toes
t
Ity
after
city
in
Germany
Is
being
leveled
to
the
ground
by
the
Allied
air
forces
and
the
advancing
artil­
the first night with his company.
night sipping brandy long after
Just at dusk three planes flew
lery and infantry units. Among the cities to which war has been brought home by the advancing vic­
FDR had gone to bed. and it was
One
was
with
him
in
his
command
slowly overhead in the direction of
torious Allies are: upper left, Aschaffenburg; lower left, Buren receives its quota, little remaining of city on
those late-hour talks that sometimes
the beach. We paid no attention, lor post. The command post was a big, Roer river after saturation bombing, ('enter: View of Wesel, focal point of American forces en Rhine. Upper
worried U. S army-navy men. For
we thought they were ours. But round Japanese \u n emplacement, right, Limburg railroad marshalling yards after bombing. Lower right, Kltburg.
vital policy sometimes was moulded
made of sandbags. The Japs had
they weren’t.
fter midnight.
never occupied it, but they had
In a moment all hell cut loose
Churchill had planned to hold na­
stuck a log out of it. pointing toward
from the beach. Our entire fleet
tional elections, probably In June,
the sea and making it look like a
and the guns ashore started throw­
and Roosevelt's friendship would
gun to aerial reconnaissance.
ing stuff into the sky
I ’ve never
have been one of his great cam­
Captain
Dusenbury
and
a
couple
seen a thicker batch of ack-ack.
paign assets. That asset Is now out
of his officers had spread ponchos
As one of the marines said, there on the ground inside the emplace­
the window. Instead he must do
were more bullets than there was ment and had hung their telephone
business with a man he doesn't know
sky
Those Jap pilots must have i on a nearby tree and were ready
and who chalrmanned a committee
thought the world was coming to an for business. There was no roof on
whose members were quite critical
end to fly into a lead storm like
of certain British lend-lease and In­
the emplacement. It was right on
that only 10 hours after we had land
ternational air policies ubroud
top of a hill and cold and very
ed on'Okinawa. All three were shot windy.
Some political observers believe
down.
that makes Churchill's political fu­
My other choice was with a cou­
As deep darkness came on wd got ple of enlisted men who had room
ture very uncertain.
into our foxholes and settled down for me in a little Gypsy-like hideout
A DM IRAL ERNEHT KING—The
for the night. The countryside be­ they’d made.
Commander of the Fleet and Chief
came as Silent as a graveyard—si
of Naval Operations really ran the
It was a tiny, level place about
lent, that is. between shots. The only
navy under Roosevelt, and he ran
halfway down the hillside, away
sounds were war sounds
There from the sea. They’d made a roof
it with a high hand. He ignored the
were no country sounds at all. -The over it by tying ponchos to trees
late Secretary Frank Knox when­
sky was a riot of stars.
and had dug up some Japanese
ever he felt like it. knowing he would
Capt. Tom Brown was in the fox­ straw mats out of a farmhouse to
get a sympathetic ear at the White
hole next to me. As we lay there lay on the ground.
House. He even overruled Knox on
on our backs, looking up into the
such a trivial matter as a gray-blue
I chose the second of these two
starry sky. he said:
summer uniform for the navy,
places, partly because it was warm­
“There’s the Big Dipper. That’s er, and also because I wanted to
though Knox had decided it would
the first time I ’ve seen that since be with the men anyhow.
cut too heavily into the consumption
I ’ve been . In the Pacific,”
For.
of textiles.
My two “roommates” were Cpl
you see. marines of this division Martin Clayton Jr. of Dallas, Tex­
Knox's successor. Secretary of the
have done all their fighting under as. and Pfc. William Gross of Lan­
Navy Forrestal, has played In with
the Southern Cross, where our Big sing. Mich.
King. He had to. * If King didn’t
Dipper doesn’t show.
agree with him, the admiral came
Clayton is nicknamed "Bird Dog"
out bluntly in press conference and
As full darkness came, flares be­ and nobody ever calls him anything
said so.
gan lighting the country ahead of else. He is tall, thin and dark, al­
But now there is a new man in
He sports a
us over the front lines They were most Latin-looking.
the White House who wrote a caus­
shot in shells from our battleships, puny little mustache he’s been try­
In 1853 the Leatherneck complement of Commoiore Perry’s squadron accompanied him on a visit to tic report bitterly critical of the way
timed to burst above our lines, and ing to grow for weeks and he makes
Okinawa. The Devil Dogs, in the current assault, found the long narrow island made up of plateaus and the admirals slowed up the war by
float down on parachutes. That was fun of it.
Gross is simply called Gross. He ridge^ Most of the population of 443.000 is engaged in a substandard of agriculture. Centuries of being kicked failure to build adequate landing
to keep the country lighted up so
we could see the Japs if they tried is very quiet, but thoughtful of little around, «» the game of power politics, has produced a mixed race with strains of Malayan. Korean boats. The new President also did
to infiltrate, which is one of their things and they both sort of looked Chinese and Japanese—a people completely ignorant of the United SUtes. Photos above show the natives not hesitate to throw his hooks into
the navy whenever the brass hats
after me for several days. These after the American Invasion.
favorite tricks.
got Inefficient, especially on their In­
The flares were shot up several two boys have become very close
excusable procrastination in build­
per minute from dusk until the friends, and after the war they in­
ing destroyer-escort vessels.
So
moon came out full. It was very tend to go to UCLA together and
finish
their
education.
fellow-admirals
are
watching
to
see
bright after that and the flares were
just where King now sits.
The boys said we could all three
not needed.
GENERAL B. B. SO M ERVELL—
sleep
side
by
side
in
the
same
But all night long two or three
No army officer clashed with the
bed.” So I got out my contribu­
ships kept up a slow shelling of the
Truman committee more frequently
far hills where the Japs were sup­ tion to the night's beauty rest. And
and more head-on than the tough-
posed to be. It wasn’t a bom­ it was a very much appreciated con­
talking chief supply officer of the
bardment; just two or three shells tribution, too. For I had carried a
army Somervell differed with Tru­
over us and I found that passing blanket as well as a poncho.
man on all sorts of things, and the
These
marines
had
been
sleeping
shells have the same ghostly “win­
Truman committee reports are stud­
dow shade rustle” on this side of the every night on the ground with no
ded with criticism of the army's sup­
cover, except their cold, rubberized
world as on the other.
ply Job.
My foxhole was only about 20 feet ponchos, and they had almost frozen
Truman is not a man to nurse
to
death.
Their
packs
were
so
from where two field telephones and
personal grudges and won't demote
two field radios were lying on the heavy they hadn’t been able to bring
or transfer Somervell.
General
ground. All night, officers sat on the blankets ashore with them.
Marshall
always
maintained
that de­
Our
next
door
neighbors
were
ground at these four pieces of com­
spite mistakes he was the best man
munications and directed our troops. about three feet away in a similar
they had. But Somervell will never
level spot on the hillside, and they
As I lay there listening in the
become chief of staff, or rise any
had roofed it similarly with ponchos
dark, the conversation was startling­
higher in the army.
These two men were Sgt. Neil An­
ly fam iliar—the words and the
derson of Coronado, Calif., and Sgt
HARRY HOPKINS—Of all those
thoughts and the actions exactly as
George Valido of Tampa, Fla.
around
Roosevelt. Harry Hopkins
I ’d known them for so long in the
So we chummed up and the five of
will miss him most. Their's was
infantry.
us cooked supper under a tree just
a very close personal relationship.
All night I could hear these low
in front of our “house.” The boys
Although Harry has been criticized
voices over the phones—voices in
made a fire out of sticks and we put
vitriolically, sometimes even by oth­
the darkness, voices of men running
canteen cups and K rations right
er presidential intimates, FDR nev­
the war at the front.
on the Are.
er wavered in his devotion. In a
Not lopg after dark the rifle shots
Other little groups of marines had
way. Harry took the place of Roose­
started.
There would be a little similar little fires going all over the
velt's eldest son, Jimmie, whom he
flurry far ahead, maybe a dozen hillside. As we were eating, an
once hoped would be his secretary.
shots. Then silence for many min­ other marine came past and gave
So Harry will miss his old friend
utes.
Bird Dog a big piece of fresh roast­
The grand M eiji shrine, near the Im perial palace of Japan in Tokyo
Sgt. Josiah E. Greene, Washing terribly.
Then there would be another flur­ ed pig they had just cooked, and where the Emperor often officiated, was among the places hit in a
ton. Conn., won first prise in Mac­
The critics will say that Hopkins
ry, way to the left. Then silence. Bird Dog gave me some. It sure four-hour-long raid by a huge fleet of American superfortresses. The Jap
M illan contest for his novel, “ Nol will miss him because of the glam­
Then the blurt of a machine gun was good after days of K rations.
communique, which told of the raid in which Im perial palace buildings in Our Stars.” Back from Italy, h< our. the power and the prestige. But
closer, and a few scattered single
Several of the boys found their K were hit, said the sanctuary was burned to ashes.
Is now a link trainer instructor.
actually there was a love and devo­
shots sort of framing it. Then a rations moldy, and mine was too.
tion between the two men which few
long silence. Spooky.
It was the old-fashioned kind and
realized and even fewer understood.
AU night it went like that. Flares we finally realized they were 1942
Note—Several years ago, Roose­
in the sky ahead, the crack of big rations and had been stored, prob­
velt gave Hopkins permission to take
guns behind us. then of passing ably in Australia, all this time.
notes on their discussions and write
shells, a few dark figures coming
Suddenly downhill a few yards,
his memoirs. “ You have no money,
and going in the night, muted voices we heard somebody yell and start
H arry,” he said, "and you’re foolish
at the telephones, the rifle shots, the cussing and then there was a lot
if
you don’t take notes on our con­
mosquitoes, the stars, the feel of the of laughter.
What had happened
versations. You have my full per­
damp night air under the wide sky was that one marine had heated a
mission to use them later.” But
—back again at the kind of life I had K ration can and, because it was
Hopkins, always too busy, always
known so long. ”
pressure packed, it exploded when
engrossed with winning the Chief’s
The old fam iliar pattern, un­ he pried it open and there were hot
next objective, never had time to
changed by distance or time from egg yolks over him. Usually the
take notes. He knows more about
war on the other side of the world. boys open a can a little first, and
Roosevelt than any other living man,
A pattern so Imbedded in my soul release the pressure before heating,
but most of the secrets will go with
that, coming back into it again, it so the can won’t explode.
Hopkins to the grave.
BERNARD BARUCH—The man
who talks with Presidents, no longer
has the key to the White House.
During the bitter battles between the
War Production board civilian group
One of the marines who drives me coming up to Okinawa. He and a
and General Somervell’s military
around, in a Jpep whenever I have friend would give an impromptu and
clique, Baruch always backed up
to go anywhere is Pfc. Buzz Vitere homegrown concert on deck every
Somervell. In fact, he was one of
of the Bronx, New York.
afternoon.
Somervell's most vigorous support­
Buzz has other accomplishments
They would sit on a hatch In the
ers.
besides jeep driving. He is known warm tropical sun and pretty soon
Truman, on the other hand, fought
as the Bing Crosby of the marines. there would be scores of marines
M aj. Gen. Willis H. Hale, former commanding general of the army
Albert “ Happy” Chandler, former In 4he WPB civilian corner. Also
It you shut your eyes and don’t and sailors packed around them, lis­ a ir forces In the Pacific ocean area, pats S/Sgt. H. E. Erwin of Bes­
U. 8. senator from Kentucky, who
listen very hard you can hardly tell tening in appreciative silence. It semer, Ala., on the arm after presenting him with the congressional has been appointed to succeed the Bernie was for Byrnes, not Tru­
man, at the Chicago convention. So
the difference.
made the trip to war almost like medal of honor for picking up a burning bomb over Tokyo and tossing late Kenesaw Mountain Landis
as he may not be such a close friend
I first met Buzz on the transport a Caribbean luxury cruise.
it out of a B-29. Members of the crew whose lives he saved stand by.
baseball’s csar.
to Presidents any more.
War Returns to Okinawa, Japan’s Nerve Center
Meiji Shrine Burned to Ashes
Wins Novel Award
B-29 Hero Honored by General
New Baseball Czar