As the 60th Anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1944, approaches, I'll be posting unusual and interesting things about that momentous day.
Ernie Pyle's Brave Men is a collection of his newspaper columns from 1943 and 1944, in which he details the fighting in Europe primarily from the perspective of the common U.S. G.I. This angle of reporting brought the front-line war back to the families of those serving in the armed forces and endeared Pyle to the troops.

An excerpt:

{the eve of D-Day} They joked in the sleepy predawn darkness. One said to the other, "What are you dressed up for, a masquerade?"
Everybody was overloaded with gear. One officer said, "The Germans will have to come to us. We can never get to them with all this load."
The most-repeated question was, "Is this trip necessary?"
Those men had spent months helping to plan a gigantic invasion. They were relieved to finish the weary routine of paper work at last, and glad to start putting their plans into action. If they had any personal concern about themselves they didn't show it.

If they had any personal concern about themselves they didn't show it.
Now that's what soldierin' is all about.

Ernie Pyle's grave at the "Punchbowl Cemetery"
(National Military Cemetery of the Pacific)