On January 26, 1945, Audie Murphy found himself surrounded by six German tanks.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Tue Jan 28, 2020, 06:08 PM - Edit history (1)

THE GREATEST GENERATION

75 years ago, Audie Murphy earned his Medal of Honor with nothing but a burning tank destroyer's .50 cal and insane bravery

Jared Keller January 25, 2020 at 10:22 PM

HISTORY

Editor's note: a version of this post first appeared in 2018

On January 26, 1945, the most decorated U.S. service member of World War II earned his legacy in a fiery fashion.

Audie Murphy — then a second lieutenant commanding Company B of the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division — found himself surrounded by six German tanks and wave after wave of enemy infantry while fighting in Holtzwihr, France. Rather than retreat with his men, Murphy made a gutsy decision: He ordered his soldiers withdraw to the cover of nearby forest and set up their artillery while he remained at his forward command post to direct their fire.

Things quickly took a turn for the worse. A nearby Allied tank destroyer burst into flames following a direct hit from an enemy tank, its crew fleeing to the woods and leaving Murphy alone. But Murphy didn't shrink from the oncoming onslaught of German armor; instead, he mounted the burning tank destroyer and took on wave after wave of German infantry with nothing more than the vehicle's .50 caliber machine gun and superhuman determination.

From his Medal of Honor citation:

With the enemy tanks abreast of his position, Second Lieutenant Murphy climbed on the burning tank destroyer, which was in danger of blowing up at any moment, and employed its .50 caliber machinegun against the enemy. He was alone and exposed to German fire from three sides, but his deadly fire killed dozens of Germans and caused their infantry attack to waver. The enemy tanks, losing infantry support, began to fall back.

For an hour the Germans tried every available weapon to eliminate Second Lieutenant Murphy, but he continued to hold his position and wiped out a squad which was trying to creep up unnoticed on his right flank. Germans reached as close as ten yards, only to be mowed down by his fire. He received a leg wound, but ignored it and continued the single-handed fight until his ammunition was exhausted.

He then made his way to his company, refused medical attention, and organized the company in a counterattack which forced the Germans to withdraw. His directing of artillery fire wiped out many of the enemy; he killed or wounded about 50.

....

[Hekate]

1. That's a story that always amazes

[ElementaryPenguin]

2. Almost as brave a hero as Trump!

[whistler162]

5. Well.......

One had his butt blown off and the other is a pain in the butt

[Kaiserguy]

19. Almost as brave a hero as Trump

The difference, Trump is a hero only in his very small and sick mind and would lie like Hell when he told you what he had done. Murphy was a hero for real.

[Floyd R. Turbo]

3. One of his musical compositions

[Roland99]

4. To Hell And Back

One of my favorite war movies I watched as a kid

[PatSeg]

30. Me too

I had such a crush on him when I was a kid.

[mitch96]

6. A .50 caliber bullet can do a lot of damage...

.50 cal is about ½ inch.. About the size of a mans thumb.... And it goes a long way with a lot of power..
m

[bpositive]

24. That's a big thumb 😀

[mitch96]

32. Diameter not length..... Now if we are talking shoe size............

[bpositive]

40. 😀

[coti]

7. Just read up on him. That guy- apparently- was goddamned Rambo.

Not just on the occasion described above. He took on suicide missions and killed and wounded whole groups of enemy soldiers on a regular basis, in addition to being seriously wounded several times. That last story was just the coup de grace.

And I say "apparently" because everything he did, taken together, is just freaking unbelievable.

[demosincebirth]

16. He got a battle field commision, too. He also applied for the Marine Corp and they rejected

him. He was too skinny

[jmg257]

8. War hero, author, movie star, song writer - dies financially ruined at 45. Sad.

[Floyd R. Turbo]

9. And apparently suffered from "battle fatigue".

He was plagued with night terrors, insomnia, depression, and slept with a gun under his pillow. He self-medicated with sleeping pills, to which he would become addicted.

[jmg257]

10. Ugh - frigging horrible! Reminds me of flag raiser Ira Hayes who died of alcoholism.

[Floyd R. Turbo]

11. So sad.

[NutmegYankee]

13. He is remembered as one of the first to be open about PTSD.

That openness combined with his war record led to to the condition being taken seriously by far more people.

[SilasSouleII]

22. I heard he had a "headache"

[BlancheSplanchnik]

17. Wow.

I never knew!
Very sad in the end.

[rwsanders]

18. A story that is just as dramatic, with a better ending...

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/jimmy-stewarts-not-so-wonderful-life-with-ptsd/

[burrowowl]

12. A real fighter

and not like Raygun who imagined he was one.

[paulkienitz]

14. and he was 5'5" and looked like a dweeb... which is not uncommon among major heroes

When you need real heroism, don't automatically turn to the Leading Man type in your group.

[Ex Lurker]

15. Ironically he did become an actor

And wasnt bad.

The incident mentioned above was just one of several. He really was sort of a one man army.

[paulkienitz]

27. I've seen one of his movies

where he played Billy the Kid. He was kind of bad, but it was mostly the fault of the confused script, which was trying to fit in opposite incompatible messages about what kind of person Billy was.

I didn't know until today that he also wrote music. That raises my respect level a lot more than the acting did.

[rwsanders]

20. The book "Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors" made a point of showing that the heroes were the guys

on the ship that were ordinarily viewed as "screw ups".
The book is a fascinating page turner that is better than most fiction.

[cab67]

21. excellent book

[mahatmakanejeeves]

34. It's funny you should mention that.

I live in northern Virginia. I watch TV over the air, for free. One of the channels I get is 9.3, Quest TV. Two weekends ago, they aired a segment from the History Channel about that naval battle. I forgot about my plans for that day and sat down to watch the show.

The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors - Wikipedia
....

Two TV documentaries based on Hornfischer's book have been produced. The first of them, produced by Lou Reda Productions and premiering on The History Channel on November 11, 2005, featured interviews with Hornfischer and veterans of the battle. It was followed by an episode of Dogfights on the History Channel, titled "The Death of the Japanese Navy", premiering on December 29, 2006, which featured a sophisticated CGI rendition of the sea battle.

Episode 9 of Battle 360 dealt with the Battle of Leyte Gulf. However, given that Battle 360 was focused on USS Enterprise, the only survivors who recounted the battle were Enterprise sailors and airmen. In this episode, there were no survivors of the Taffy 3 interviewed. In fact there is no mention of any of the Taffy 3 ships or their captains except Ernest E. Evans of the destroyer Johnston. The episode skirts the fundamental issue of how close the Japanese came to annihilating Taffy 3.

[rwsanders]

37. Thanks, I'll look for those, I think it would be a great movie though

[paulkienitz]

39. wow, I didn't realize he was only nineteen years old while singlehandedly fighting off 200+ Nazis

...and he came out with PTSD, which was a problem for him when acting in war movies. He became an advocate for better veterans' mental health care, which we still need to improve.

[Nitram]

25. An amazing story, and a remarkable man.

Not to be picky, but I think the word "surrounded" in the title is a bit hyperbolic. Perhaps this description is a little more realistic:

"Just after 2 p.m., the winter stillness was suddenly broken by the thunderclap of an enemy artillery barrage. In the distance, some 250 German troops and six tanks emerged from the woods. ...he watched the Germans line up for an attack"

https://www.history.com/news/audie-murphys-world-war-ii-heroics-70-years-ago

[James48]

26. ROCK of the MARNE

I served 4 years in his 3rd Infantry Division. Heard many tales of gallant men and women who did extraordinary things.


Audie Murphy starred in the movie “To Hell and Back” (1955) as himself. If you have never seen the film, it is really required viewing. Includes a great deal about how many of his platoon, and his Division, found themselves in amazing places doing amazing things. And yes, Audie died waaay too young.

[BigmanPigman]

28. I didn't know that was his film.

I will definately watch it when it is on TV again.

[WyattKansas]

29. Donald Trump:

Yea, I would have done that too, just like I would have ran into that school a gunman was shooting up to save the children.

Future Republican Campaign Poster slogan: Donnie, he's our hero, he can do anything anyone else does, but better.* **


* Impeached
** Except actually entering the Army, let alone during a war.

[BobTheSubgenius]

31. Another story of insane bravery is that of Leo Major.

The relevant part of his story is still taught in the town of Zwolle in Holland, a town he liberated single-handedly. This is only one of his incredible combat victoiies, most of which he achieved after losing an eye very early on after D-Day morning, and breaking his back in 3 places when the vehicle he was in rolled over a mine.

After the war he said "I fought in the war with one eye, and I did pretty good."

A regiment of Leo Majors would have probably shortened the war by 3 years.

[lostnfound]

33. Having been born in the 60s, I still find it so weird that Germans were like that.

Insanity taking over a country is not a pretty thing.

[rsdsharp]

35. The Medal of Honor was only the highest of his individual awards.

He also held the:

Distinguished Service Cross
2 Silver Stars
Legion of Merit
2 Bronze Stars (the first award with "V" for Valor device)
3 Purple Hearts
French Legion of Honor in the grade of Chevalier
French Croix de Guerre with Silver Star
French Croix de Guerre with Palm
Belgian Croix de Guerre with 1940 Palm

[jmowreader]

36. The really amazing thing on this list...

...are the three Purple Hearts. How did Audie Murphy, whose bravery borders on insanity, only get wounded in battle three times?

[onethatcares]

38. you will notice

none of these assholes in the maladministration bothered to serve their country. They had "other priorities".

You'll also notice that the rush to fascism began as the men that fought the wars against it began dieing off.

The bravery of those young men amazes me.