Remembering D-Day: Remembering the Sacrifice on the 70th Anniversary of D-Day

On June 6, 1944, after days of waiting, American soldiers were called to attention. General Dwight D. Eisenhower told the troops they were about to embark on a great crusade -- the liberation of Europe.

Hours later those men, armed with 80 to 100 pounds of equipment, watched their boat ramps lower before jumping, swimming, running and then climbing to take the beach at Normandy. 5,000 ships, 11,000 airplanes and 150,000 service men descended on the beach. 4,000 of those men never left the beach.

The Allied Forces suffered 10,000 casualties on D-Day but because of the strength and fortitude of the soldiers, Fortress Europe had been breached.

On the 70th anniversary of that day, we honor those heroes who set aside their fear and gave everything they had on that day. The Greene County Daily World, in conjunction with the Hoosier State Press Association, is remembering a special hero who not only made the ultimate sacrifice for his country, but also helped tell the stories of the war.

The son of tenant farming parents in west-central Indiana, Ernie Pyle became history's greatest war correspondent.

When Pyle was killed by a Japanese machine gun bullet on the tiny Pacific island of le Shima in 1945, his columns were being delivered to more than 14 million homes, according to his New York Times obituary.

During the war, Pyle wrote about the hardships and bravery of the common soldier, not grand strategy. His description of the G.I.'s life was more important to families on the home front than the battlefront tactics of Gens. Dwight Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, George Patton or Omar Bradley.

Thanks to Scripps Howard Association, today we have the ability to reprint three of those columns that brought World War II into the hearts and minds of Americans and forever impacted our view of the war. One column will appear on a special D-Day Remembrance page in the June 6 issue of the Greene County Daily World and all three columns, written from Normandy, are posted on our website at www.gcdailyworld.com.