Ernie Pyle on D-Day +1
“Always there are dogs in every invasion. There was a dog still on the beach, still pitifully looking for his masters.
He stayed at the water’s edge, near a boat that lay twisted and half sunk at the waterline. He barked appealingly to every soldier who approached, trotted eagerly along with him for a few feet, and then, sensing himself unwanted in all the haste, he would run back to wait in vain for his own people at his own empty boat.”
–from the chapter “On the Road to Berlin” in Brave Men
Ernie Pyle’s account of D-Day +1 has some amazing and overwhelming descriptions of what was on the beach after D-Day. For some reason, this scene struck me harder than the other images he describes. Pyle was one of 28 journalists chosen from more than 400 to go over with the troops on D-Day. The LST (Landsing Ship, Tank) he was on didn’t make it to shore until June 7.
