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 Close Read: Soldier’s PerspectiveCRObjective What can we learn about WW2 from analyzing the experiences of soldiers operating along the front lines? How can different types of primary sources help us understand historical events? CR Introduction“The real war,” said Walt Whitman about the Civil War, “will never get in the books.” During World War II, the most authentic view most Americans got of the “real war” came through sources such as the daily dispatches of Ernie Pyle, a soldier fighting on the Western Front. His perspective allowed American citizens to gain a more meaningful and accurate understanding of WWII. Directions: Read the newspaper article below. Following the reading is a set of analysis questions. Answer the questions in the space provided. Part 1: Newspaper Coverage of the Invasion at NormandyWar News Summarized June 6th 1944 | New York Times The invasion of western Europe began this morning. General Eisenhower, in his first communique from Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force, issued at 3:30 am, said that “Allied naval forces supported by strong air forces began landing Allied armies this morning on the northern coast of France.” The assault was made by British, American, and Canadian troops who, under command of Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, landed in Normandy. London gave no further details but earlier Berlin had broadcast that parachute troops had landed on the Normandy Peninsula near Cherbourg and that invasion forces were pouring from landing craft under cover of warships near Havre. Dunkerque and Calais were being heavily bombed, the Germans said. Later announcements from Berlin said that there was fighting between Caen and Trouville and that shock troops had swung into action to halt the invasion. General Eisenhower, in an order of the day to each member of the “great crusade” told his men the enemy would fight savagely: “We will accept nothing less than full victory! Good luck.” In a broadcast to the “Peoples of Western Europe,” he said the day would come when he would need their full help.A special word to France added that Frenchmen would rule the country. Almost simultaneously it was announced that General de Gaulle had arrived in London. The liberation of Rome in no way slowed the Allied pursuit of the tired and disorganized German armies in Italy yesterday. Armored and motorized units sped across the Tiber River to attack upon the retreating enemies heels. Five hundred heavy bombers joined with lighter aircraft to smash rail and road routes leading to northern Italy and to add to the foe’s demoralization. The Eighth Army, despite heavy opposition, especially northeast of Valmontone, captured a number of strategic towns. General Clark said that parts of the two German armies had been smashed. He doubted the ability of the Germans Fourteenth to put up effective opposition, and felt the Allied victory would come soon. President Roosevelt warned the people of the United States in a radio talk last night not to over-emphasize the military significance of the liberation of Rome. “Germany has not yet been driven to surrender,” he said. “Victory still lies some distance ahead… it will be tough and costly…” Analysis Questions Summarize the article in your own words. What do you think is the article’s main idea? Describe the tone of the article. How does that shape or impact your interpretation of this historical source? What do you think the journalist leaves out of his report of the D-Day invasion? Why might historians want to use this primary source? What are the strengths of this document? What are the weaknesses of this document? Part 2: Ernie Pyle’s Dispatches Ernie Pyle achieved national recognition as a pulitzer prize winning journalist - who was also a member of the US Navy Reserve. Embedded in an infantry unit that would invade France on D-Day, Pyle continued reporting for US newspapers during WWII. By April 1943, Pyle’s dispatches were appearing in 122 newspapers with a circulation of 9 million readers. After D-Day in 1944, Pyle’s audience approached almost 40 million Americans. Pyle was a correspondent with an eye for poignant detail and showed readers “what I see.” Ernie Pyle found in his GI’s dogged determination and was always able to portray the soldiers’ fears, needs, sacrifices, and sorrows. Yet as Pyle experienced more and more combat he became increasingly aware of its dark impact on the souls of the soldiers and on himself.Directions: Read the dispatch of Ernie Pyle below. Following the reading is a set of analysis questions. Answer the questions in the space provided. The Long Thin Line - Dispatch of Ernie Pyle - June 17,1944 In the preceding column we told about the D-day wreckage among our machines of war that were expended in taking one of the Normandy beaches. But there is another and more human litter. It extends in a thin little line, just like a high-water mark, for miles along the beach. This is the strewn personal gear, gear that will never be needed again, of those who fought and died to give us our entrance into Europe. Here in a jumbled row for mile on mile are soldiers’ packs. Here are socks and shoe polish, sewing kits, diaries, Bibles and hand grenades. Here are the latest letters from home, with the address on each one neatly razored out – one of the security precautions enforced before the boys embarked. Here are toothbrushes and razors, and snapshots of families back home staring up at you from the sand. Here are pocketbooks, metal mirrors, extra trousers, and bloody, abandoned shoes. Here are broken-handled shovels, and portable radios smashed almost beyond recognition, and mine detectors twisted and ruined.Here are torn pistol belts and canvas water buckets, first-aid kits and jumbled heaps of lifebelts. I picked up a pocket Bible with a soldier’s name in it, and put it in my jacket. I carried it half a mile or so and then put it back down on the beach. I don’t know why I picked it up, or why I put it back down. Soldiers carry strange things ashore with them. In every invasion you’ll find at least one soldier hitting the beach at invasion with a banjo slung over his shoulder. The most ironic piece of equipment marking our beach – this beach of first despair, then victory – is a tennis racket that some soldier had brought along. It lies lonesomely on the sand, clamped in its rack, not a string broken. Two of the most dominant items in the beach refuse are cigarettes and writing paper. Each soldier was issued a carton of cigarettes just before he started. Today these cartons by the thousand, water-soaked and spilled out, mark the line of our first savage blow. Writing paper and air-mail envelopes come second. The boys had intended to do a lot of writing in France. Letters that would have filled those blank, abandoned pages.Always there are dogs in every invasion. There is a dog still on the beach today, still pitifully looking for his masters. He stays at the water’s edge, near a boat that lies twisted and half sunk at the water line. He barks appealingly to every soldier who approaches, trots eagerly along with him for a few feet, and then, sensing himself unwanted in all this haste, runs back to wait in vain for his own people at his own empty boat. Over and around this long thin line of personal anguish, fresh men today are rushing vast supplies to keep our armies pushing on into France. Other squads of men pick amidst the wreckage to salvage ammunition and equipment that are still usable. Men worked and slept on the beach for days before the last D-day victim was taken away for burial. I stepped over the form of one youngster whom I thought dead. But when I looked down I saw he was only sleeping. He was very young, and very tired. He lay on one elbow, his hand suspended in the air about six inches from the ground. And in the palm of his hand he held a large, smooth rock. I stood and looked at him a long time. He seemed in his sleep to hold that rock lovingly, as though it were his last link with a vanishing world. I have no idea at all why he went to sleep with the rock in his hand, or what kept him from dropping it once he was asleep. It was just one of those little things without explanation that a person remembers for a long time. The strong, swirling tides of the Normandy coastline shift the contours of the sandy beach as they move in and out. They carry soldiers’ bodies out to sea, and later they return them. They cover the corpses of heroes with sand, and then in their whims they uncover them. As I plowed out over the wet sand of the beach on that first day ashore, I walked around what seemed to be a couple of pieces of driftwood sticking out of the sand. But they weren’t driftwood. They were a soldier’s two feet. He was completely covered by the shifting sands except for his feet. The toes of his GI shoes pointed toward the land he had come so far to see, and which he saw so briefly.Analysis Questions: List 7 things that are found along the “line of human litter” on the beaches of Normandy. What do you notice about the items Pyle mentions that are strewn about the beach after the invasion? What do they have in common? How are they different? Based on what the soldiers brought with them, do you think they expected to survive the invasion of Normandy? How do you know? How does the tide impact the long thin line? What does Pyle think the rock in the sleeping soldiers hand represents? Do you agree with him? Why or why not? What is the long thin line? What do you think it represents to soldiers like Pyle who survived the invasion at Normandy? How would you describe the overall mood and / or tone of this dispatch? Support your claim with evidence. Compare and contrast the primary source in part 1 with the primary source in part 2. How are they similar? How are they different? CRAnalysis Task Soldier’s Perspective: Real War Directions: Using information from the documents above, please respond to the following task. Task: Read the prompt below. Using the sources provided, the documents above, and your knowledge of US history - respond to the prompt below: “The real war,” said Walt Whitman about the Civil War, “will never get in the books.” What does Walt Whitman mean when he says that the “real war” will never get in the books? Discuss Walt Whitman’s claim & explain what he means when he says the “real war” will never get in the books. How do different primary sources teach us different things about historical events? Use examples from BOTH primary sources to support your claims. ................
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