From the Pulitzer Prize-Winning Reporter's Story of G. I. Joe
Drawing by Carol Johnson, as found in HERE IS YOUR WAR
Ernie Pyle, described as "the most famous American war correspondent of the Second World War," accompanied U.S. troops into "combat in Africa, Sicily and Italy" in 1942-43. At times he was in the same places as Canadians in the RCNVR and Combined Operations, but, because he was focussed on reporting the story of American G.I.s, he said nary a word about Canada's sailors who manned the landing crafts that transported his G.I.s to enemy shores in North Africa in November, 1942.
That being said, I hold no grudge. I look for passages in stories that provide some details that members of all forces shared in common, or provide some context for the work 'our Navy boys' performed wherever they were during WWII. They were in a lot of places, often with a front row seat to some of the most significant events of the war.
Some passages in the books I come across inform readers of events, perils and accomplishments that all participants in the war shared together in some way. For example, most servicemen and women from North American travelled across the Atlantic in a convoy of ships. Pyle touches on that in his first chapter of HERE IS YOUR WAR:
"Ours was a medium-big convoy"
I had often wondered
in just what sort of formation a big convoy moved,
and whether a person could see the whole thing all the time
or not, and how the escort vessels acted.
A WW2 convoy forms in Bedford Basin, north of Halifax's core
Photo by GH - the Royal Canadian Navy Gallery, Victoria, BC
Well, ours was a medium-big convoy.
The day we left, we counted a certain maximum
number of ships. We were never able to count
the same number again until we got almost to port.
Not because they were out of eye range, but
because they were lined up in rows and we
couldn't see those behind other ships.
Usually our convoy was wider than it was long,
which surprised me.
The convoy seemed to use
three or four different geometric patterns.
Every little while the entire formation changed
from one pattern to another, like a football team
shifting after a huddle. It was fascinating to watch
some ships speed up, others drop back,
and the new pattern take shape.
In addition, the entire convoy,
moving in unison, zigzagged constantly.
The turns were sudden, and so sharp
that the ships would heel over.
These zigzags were made at frequent intervals -
very frequent when we were in suspicious waters.
Pages 13 - 14.
About his first trip across the Atlantic Ocean in convoy, Doug Harrison (RCNVR, Combined Operations) writes the following in his memoirs "Dad, Well Done":
Late at night I was on watch at our stern and saw
The day we left, we counted a certain maximum
number of ships. We were never able to count
the same number again until we got almost to port.
Not because they were out of eye range, but
because they were lined up in rows and we
couldn't see those behind other ships.
Usually our convoy was wider than it was long,
which surprised me.
The convoy seemed to use
three or four different geometric patterns.
Every little while the entire formation changed
from one pattern to another, like a football team
shifting after a huddle. It was fascinating to watch
some ships speed up, others drop back,
and the new pattern take shape.
In addition, the entire convoy,
moving in unison, zigzagged constantly.
The turns were sudden, and so sharp
that the ships would heel over.
These zigzags were made at frequent intervals -
very frequent when we were in suspicious waters.
Pages 13 - 14.
About his first trip across the Atlantic Ocean in convoy, Doug Harrison (RCNVR, Combined Operations) writes the following in his memoirs "Dad, Well Done":
Late at night I was on watch at our stern and saw
a red plume of an explosion on our starboard quarter.
In the morning the four-stacker was not to be seen.
The next evening I heard cries for help, presumably
from a life-raft or life-boat. Although I informed
the officer of the watch, we were unable to stop
and place ourselves in jeopardy as we only had
the Firedrake with ASDIC (sonar)
to get us through safely.
After some days we spotted a light on
our port stern quarter one night. It was the light
of the conning tower of a German submarine.
How she failed to detect us, or the Firedrake
detect it, I will never know. I was gun layer
and nearly fell off the gun (4.7 gauge).
I informed the Bridge and the Captain said,
“Don’t shoot. Don’t shoot. It could be one of ours.”
But as it quickly submerged we did fire one round
to buck up our courage.
Pages 8 - 9
I am fond of saying, there were no small roles for men or women to fill during the war. Pyle's book goes on mention the landings in Africa and the role of cameramen, doctors, nurses, landing crafts (!, and more) along with his beloved G.I.s of all stripes.
In HERE IS YOUR WAR, Chapter 2 begins as follows:
Army photographers are soldiers
who fight with cameras instead of guns.
They are in the Signal Corps, and their purpose
is twofold - to get newsreels for showing
is twofold - to get newsreels for showing
in the theaters back home and to make
a permanent pictorial record of the war...
Many of them will die behind their cameras
before it is all over.
Many of them will die behind their cameras
before it is all over.
I had been in Africa a few days when
I ran into Pte. Ned Modica and Sgt. Norman
Harrington, both army cameramen...
I ran into Pte. Ned Modica and Sgt. Norman
Harrington, both army cameramen...
Ned claimed that Norman was the best
newsreel man in the army.
Chapter 2, entitled 'The Americans Have Landed' continues:
newsreel man in the army.
Norman Harrington. Photo credit - StarDem
Chapter 2, entitled 'The Americans Have Landed' continues:
On the morning of November eighth
(D-Day for Operation Torch, invasion of N. Africa)
they stood in the darkness on the hurricane deck
of a troopship lying off the coast of Algeria.
They were spellbound by the scenes their cameras
were recording -- the fantastic searching of
tracer bullets along the shore,
the fiery splash of coloured flares in the sky,
the laying of smoke screens by
our armored speedboats.
Then, just at dawn,
their ship moved in close to shore. As it
dropped anchor, a French mortar shell came looping over.
It missed the two cameramen by three feet.
A moment later a second shell blew up the spot
where they had been sleeping the night before.
Adventure starts almost too soon in some cases...
Grabbing their kits
they jumped into their steel-sided assault boat.
As soon as they reached shallow water
they tumbled out of the barge and landed
waist-deep in the Mediterranean.
Holding their cameras high over their heads,
they waded ashore. After dumping their bags
and extra film, they waded back, and began
grinding away at the hordes of soldiers landing.
By that act they became the first army newsreel men
to go into action on this side of the ocean.
Ned Modica said, "We were so consumed
with what we were doing that we didn't know anything
that was happening outside the radius of our lenses."
They worked for fifteen minutes
waist-deep in the water and then ran up and down
the beach getting shots of the troops dashing ashore.
They filmed their first blood when they found
some navy medical men tending a wounded
French soldier lying on the beach.
(D-Day for Operation Torch, invasion of N. Africa)
they stood in the darkness on the hurricane deck
of a troopship lying off the coast of Algeria.
They were spellbound by the scenes their cameras
were recording -- the fantastic searching of
tracer bullets along the shore,
the fiery splash of coloured flares in the sky,
the laying of smoke screens by
our armored speedboats.
Then, just at dawn,
their ship moved in close to shore. As it
dropped anchor, a French mortar shell came looping over.
It missed the two cameramen by three feet.
A moment later a second shell blew up the spot
where they had been sleeping the night before.
Adventure starts almost too soon in some cases...
Grabbing their kits
they jumped into their steel-sided assault boat.
As soon as they reached shallow water
they tumbled out of the barge and landed
waist-deep in the Mediterranean.
Holding their cameras high over their heads,
they waded ashore. After dumping their bags
and extra film, they waded back, and began
grinding away at the hordes of soldiers landing.
By that act they became the first army newsreel men
to go into action on this side of the ocean.
Ned Modica said, "We were so consumed
with what we were doing that we didn't know anything
that was happening outside the radius of our lenses."
They worked for fifteen minutes
waist-deep in the water and then ran up and down
the beach getting shots of the troops dashing ashore.
They filmed their first blood when they found
some navy medical men tending a wounded
French soldier lying on the beach.
Caption: A12658 American soldiers tending to a wounded native soldier
on the beach at Arzeu. RN Photographer F.A. Hudson
Photo Credit - Imperial War Museum (IWM)
The soldier still wore his red fez,
and the colour must stand out in the technicolor film;
so must the bare African mountains, the curve of the beach,
and the great waiting convoy in the background...
At the end of the day of the Battle of Oran
the two photographers sprawled on the floor of a
country schoolhouse near the little town of Arzeu*.
Other soldiers lay all around them.
Both cameramen were dead-tired.
They had been on the go all day without stopping,
running up and back, ditching extra equipment,
and returning later to get it.
Their clothes were all wet,
and they were cold.
Pages 17 - 19.
*"The little town of Arzeu" is a significant reference made by Ernie Pyle, in my opinion. In the maps below we see the Center Task Force planned to land in three areas, including Oran (center) and Arzeu, around the corner to the right/east:
The coastline near and to the east of Arzew was busy with Allied landings
Though one or two other references are made to action around Arzeu, Pyles focusses on action at Oran:
Probably the hardest fighting
in the whole original North African occupation
took place in Oran. Many of the soldiers
whom I had known in England went through it,
and they told me all about it. Without exception,
they admitted they were scared stiff.
Don't get the wrong idea from that.
They kept going forward. But it was their first time
under fire and, being human, they were frightened.
As one private said, "There was no constipation
in our outfit those first few days."
Page 24.
On the next page Pyle references a topic near and dear to my own heart, and I gladly share it here:
That first night of landing,
when they came ashore in big steel motorized
invasion barges, many funny things happened.
One famous officer* intended to drive right ashore
in a jeep, but they let the folding end of the barge down
too soon and the jeep drove off into eight feet of water.
Other barges rammed ashore so hard the men
jumped off without even getting their feet wet.
It was moonlight,
and the beach was deathly quiet.
There was one small outfit that didn't hear a shot
till long after daylight the next morning, but the
moonlight and shadows and surprising peacefulness
gave them the creeps, and all night,
as they worked their way inland over the hills,
nobody spoke above a whisper.
Page 25.
*re "one famous officer." No name is given, likely because Pyle was living closely with the troops and wanted to be welcome in mess tents, receive mail, send articles home, etc. without aggravation.
In my search for photographs re the invasion of North Africa I have met with great success thanks to the vast archive housed in the Imperial War Museum, UK. My father appears in each of the photos below:
Caption: A12671 Troops and ammunition for light guns being brought ashore
from a landing craft assault (ramped) (LCA 428) on Arzeu beach, Algeria,
North Africa, whilst another LCA (LCA 287) approaches the beach.
Photo Credit - RN Photographer Lt. F. A. Hudson (IWM)
Caption: A12649 American troops landing on the beach at Arzeu, near
Oran, from a landing craft assault (LCA 26), some of them are carrying
boxes of supplies. Photo Credit - RN Photog. Lt. F. A. Hudson (IWM)
This photo appears similar in many ways to the ones above.
Please click here for more details.
Unfortunately, I have not as of yet located photographs taken by the two Americans mention by Ernie Pyle. If I do so I will revisit this post and make additions.
To see a Fox Movietone Newsreel from WW2, click here. It may include work done by Harrington and Modica.
To see another Fox Movietone newsreel released at a slightly later date, click here.
More details about cameraman Norman Haddington can be found here.
To see a Fox Movietone Newsreel from WW2, click here. It may include work done by Harrington and Modica.
To see another Fox Movietone newsreel released at a slightly later date, click here.
More details about cameraman Norman Haddington can be found here.
Please link to Passages: "Lifelong Memories"
Unattributed Photos GH
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