The wounded from Oklahoma

19th July 1943: Journalist Ernie Pyle finds himself in hospital with casualties from the U.S. 45th Division

The Drive for Messina 10 July - 17 August 1943: Cheerful American troops leave the town of Caltanissetta which they captured on 18 July during their advance on Palermo.

An infantry company with tank traps in foreground. Barrafranca, Sicily. 19 July, 1943. Company M, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division.

Charles M. Conover, Seattle, Wash., directs removal of bodies from wreckage near Barrafranca, Sicily. 19 July, 1943.

Aa was well served by its journalists covering the war, many of them were very talented men - like John Steinbeck, an expert at portraying the realities of war for the audience at home.

They tried to entice him by telling him there would be nurses back in the hospital. But in his peaceful Oklahoma drawl he retorted, “To hell with the nurses, I want to get back to fightin’.”