from ernie pyle. it's sort of exemplifies this -- the spirit the troops have because he identified with them. average americans out on the battlefield having to fight. and one other artifact i thought i would point out here that brings home the reality of what these young men and women were facing, young men on the battle lines, of course, but you can see next to ernie pyle's book a cigarette case and a purple heart medal. the cigarette case belonged to a young private named andrew sexton, a medic, where he was basically shot and the bullet went through the cigarette case, but was stopped on the other side and fell into the case. he later credited this with saving his life. if you could imagine what an experience like that must be like. certainly, it brings home the reality of life and death these young men and women were facing, and that ernie pyle understood so well. we have here in the italian gallery a 4.2 inch mortar. this is going to turn out to be an extremely effective weapon for allied troops

this is an exhibit case dedicated to ernie pyle's long, thin line of anguish column. ernie pyle actually walked to the beaches at normandy where andamerican forces landed, he saw all the pieces of war left over. what we have in this case is actual artifacts and sand from utah and omaha beaches. pyle writes about what he found. you can see he talked about shoe les,sh, sewing kits, bib hand grenades, toothbrushes, razors. he particularly singles out in his column writing paper. young menbout how the who gave their lives at normandy intended to write an awful lot of letters back home. the other thing they had an awful lot of was cigarettes. he said that packs of cigarettes had been handed out to the troops before the landings began , and he made the comment that the line of cigarettes up and down the beach, the high water of this sacrifice at normandy. it's a moment for our audiences after the film to pause and reflect about what was going on in the world, d-day, june 6, the day that hitler could have german our forces back into the waters of the english , and frome fail

this is an exhibit case dedicated to ernie pyle's long, thin line of anguish column. ernie pyle actually walked to the beaches at normandy where the american forces landed,

this is an exhibit case dedicated to ernie pyle's long,