JCSM Shareware Collection 1996 September/JCSM Shareware Collection (JCS Distribution) (September 1996).ISO/elec_bks/letdos1.zip/CHAP9

Text File | 1994-03-22 | 12KB | 214 lines

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          *   ERNEST HEMINGWAY AND ERNIE PYLE WITH THE 4TH    *
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          For a time after our landing, two prominent writers
          accompanied the 4th Division. They had the same first
          name, Ernest. That, however, was where the similarity
          ended. Ernest Hemingway and Ernie Pyle were as unlike
          each other as two men can be. Nevertheless, they left
          behind a useful record of the division's battles.

          Since my encounters with these men were superficial, I
          must rely on other sources. For Hemingway, I have reread
          parts of Carlos Baker's biography, Ernest Hemingway, A
          Life Story. In addition, part of his Collier's articles
          written while he was with the 4th appear in By-Line,
          published after his death. I have found no biography of
          Ernest Taylor (Ernie) Pyle, but several chapters in his
          Brave Men concern his time with the 4th.

          When Hemingway and Pyle joined the Division in Normandy,
          they were both famous. They had also already seen a great
          deal of war. Hemingway drew on his experiences during
          World War I in Farewell to Arms and during the Spanish
          Civil War in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Pyle had accompanied
          American forces in Sicily and Italy.

          From these experiences, the two Ernests had arrived at quite
          different views of war. Hemingway was preoccupied with
          death and, at the very least, combat lured him. In addition,
          he was not content to report on the fighting but at times
          participated in it.

          Pyle's abhorrence of combat emerged clearly one night, when
          we shared a dirty concrete farmhouse floor in Normandy. As
          I was telling him about our failed night attack, he kept
          repeating "Terrible. Terrible." At the end of his book Brave
          Men, he said, "...for me war has become a flat, black
          depression without highlights, a revulsion of the mind and
          an exhaustion of the spirit." While feeling this, however, he
          could not resist after the liberation of Paris going to the
          Pacific to report another war.

          The personalities of the two Ernests were also sharply
          different. Hemingway was haunted by demons and extremely
          insecure. He coped with this by being an exhibitionist. The
          trouble was that he was not content to entertain but was
          often sadistic, particularly with people of whom he was fond.
          Carlos Baker's biography is filled with examples of
          unforgivable behavior. Pyle, on the other hand, was a very
          shy man, whom it was easy to be with.

          If Pyle ever made any remarks about Hemingway, I am not
          aware of it. It would certainly have been uncharacteristic of
          him to make any unkind comments about anyone.
          Hemingway, on the other hand, often expressed contempt for
          the work of other writers. He once spoke mockingly of "the
          great Ernie Pyle's premonitions." On other occasions he
          referred to himself as Old Ernie Hemorrhoid, the Poor Man's
          Pyle.

          Hemingway and Pyle also had quite different views of their
          roles. Pyle carefully followed the rules laid down by the
          military for correspondents. He often moved with front line
          units, but it would never have occurred to him to carry a
          gun, let alone participate in the fighting.

          By way of contrast, Hemingway was not content to be an
          observer. He not only put himself into dangerous situations
          but also at times took part in the fighting. When hearing in
          Normandy that Germans were hiding in a cellar, he called
          to them to come out and then tossed hand grenades into
          the cellar. He did not check, however, to see what the
          results were or whether, indeed, there were any Germans
          there.

          One of Hemingway's adventures got him in hot water with
          the military authorities. During the advance on Paris, he
          assumed command of a group of Frenchmen to defend
          Rambouillet against a possible German attack. Other
          correspondents complained about his behavior. After he
          reached Germany, he was summoned to appear for a
          hearing. He only avoided losing his credentials by perjuring
          himself about what happened. He later expressed regret
          about having to lie under oath. This is ironic, since he never
          hesitated to exaggerate his role in events.

          Given the drama unfolding around us, these episodes seem
          now unimportant. What matters is the written record the
          two Ernests left behind them. Again, we find ourselves
          confronted with a sharp contrast.


          ERNIE PYLE' DESCRIPTION OF COMBAT

          Having tried it, I am impressed with how difficult it is to
          convey to a person who has not experienced combat what
          it is like. Films usually fail, because they have too many
          things going on at once. Ernie Pyle comes as close to
          succeeding as anyone I have read.

          In his book Brave Men, he has chapters on the landing,
          Operation Cobra, fighting in the hedgerows, and the
          liberation of Paris. Perhaps because we shared this
          overwhelming experience, I particularly like his chapter on
          Cobra. He says, "I teamed up with the Fourth Infantry
          Division since it was in the middle of the three (divisions)
          spearheading the attack."

          The climax of his account of the bombing was when bombs
          started falling all around us. "There is no description of the
          sound and fury of those bombs except to say it was chaos,
          and a waiting for darkness. The feeling of the blast was
          sensational. The air struck us in hundreds of continuing
          flutters. Our ears drummed and rang. We could feel quick
          little waves of concussion on the chest and in the eyes."

          Pyle's description of fighting in the hedgerows tackles a more
          difficult task, for it was less dramatic. He manages, however,
          to catch the essence when he says, "We had to dig them
          out. It was a slow and cautious business, and there was
          nothing dashing about it. Our men...went in tiny groups, a
          squad or less, moving yards apart and sticking close to the
          hedgerows on either side of the field. They crept a few
          yards, squatted, waited, then crept again."


          ERNEST HEMINGWAY'S ADVENTURES WITH THE 4TH DIVISION

          Hemingway went to Europe as a correspondent for Collier's.
          Reading his articles today, I can understand why his
          colleagues thought so little of them. After reading a draft of
          the article The G.I. and the General, Charles Collingwood
          unwisely told Hemingway it read like a parody of Ernest
          Hemingway. As a result, Hemingway did not speak to him
          for several weeks. On the other hand, I do not entirely agree
          with Roald Dahl's critical view of the article about D-Day. It
          may not be a literary masterpiece, but it surely captures the
          confusion that took place at Omaha Beach that day. What
          struck me about this article is that it leaves the impression
          Hemingway was in command of the landing craft he was on,
          but perhaps he was.

          It is clear to me that Hemingway's heart was not in his
          articles and that they simply legitimated his adventures. We
          must, therefore, thank Carlos Baker for the effort he devoted
          in his biography to recapturing Hemingway's wartime
          experiences.

          After Pearl Harbor, Hemingway was in no hurry to leave his
          adopted home in Cuba. For two years, he was content to
          play at war by using his cabin cruiser Pilar to hunt German
          submarines. In mid-1944, however, he followed his journalist
          wife, Martha Gellhorn, to London. There he met Mary Welsh,
          another journalist, who would in due course become his
          fourth wife.

          On the eve of the invasion, after one of his drinking bouts,
          the car in which he was riding had an accident, and he got
          a concussion. He managed, however, to board a troop
          transport and make the run into Omaha beach on a landing
          craft. Not liking what he saw there, he returned to London
          to write his account and to be with Mary Welsh.

          Shortly before the breakout, he returned to Normandy,
          where he joined the 4th Division. General Barton, who was
          only vaguely aware of who Hemingway was, sent him to the
          22nd Regiment. Col. Charles T. (Buck) Lanham was
          commanding this unit, and the two began a close friendship
          which lasted until Hemingway's death.

          When he joined the 4th, Hemingway was forty-five and
          understandably had no interest in the discomfort of moving
          with combat troops all the time. Until the end of 1944,
          however, he usually managed to rejoin the 22nd for its
          major battles. The exception was the September attack on
          the Siegfried Line, when Hemingway was ill. He was,
          however, present for the fighting in the Huertgen, which still
          lies ahead of us in this narrative.

          It is a pity that Hemingway never wrote a World War II
          novel which could compare with A Farewell to Arms or For
          Whom the Bell Tolls. He tried with Across the River and Into
          the Trees but did not make it. The critics were right; it was
          a poor novel. Buck Lanham could not have been happy with
          the hero, who was partly modeled on him. The only
          redeeming passages in this book are those about the fighting
          in the Huertgen Forest, which convey the confusion and
          terror of this battle. Hemingway ruins this, however, by
          having his middle aged hero relate these experiences to a
          young girl who is asleep beside him.

          Perhaps Hemingway's experiences with the 4th were simply
          too much for him and he simply could not work on such a
          large canvas. Furthermore, the events in which he
          participated did not lend themselves to being told to a young
          woman over dinner and in bed.

          In any event, the 4th Division was fortunate to have these
          two Ernests with it, and I regret that only one of them spent
          time with the 8th Regiment. The tragedy was that, although
          so different, they shared a common fate. Both died a violent
          death. Pyle, unable to resist the beckoning of the war he
          hated, found death waiting for him on Ie Shima, a small
          Pacific island. Hemingway survived the war but was unable
          to cope with the terrible struggle which raged within him.
          One bright Sunday morning in 1961, he placed a double-
          barrel shotgun against his forehead and pulled both triggers.