A NON-PROFIT PUBLIC BENEFIT CORPORATION

PresidentTerry M. Murphy

Vice PresidentChris J. Glazier

Executive DirectorLarryann C. Willis, Esq.

PO Box 1804Orinda, CA 94563

Toll Free Phone/Fax: 888-314-AMRFEmail: Audiemurphy@juno.comWeb Site: Audiemurphy.com

AUDIE MURPHY RESEARCH FOUNDATION

Audie’s sister, Billie Murphy Tindol, at the Dallas, TX October 24, 1999 unveiling ceremony for the commemorative postagestamp honoring Audie Murphy. The stamp is now part of the U.S. Postal Service’s Distinguished Soldiers series. The stamp isnow available through all U.S. Post Offices.

AP/Wide World Photos

On May 3, 2000, there was a dedication ceremonyat the Pentagon for the United States Postal Service’sDistinguished Soldiers Commemorative Stamps. Thestamps honor four American soldiers: General John L.Hines; Sergeant Alvin C. York; General Omar N. Brad-ley; and Lieutenant Audie L. Murphy.

The ceremony featured the Secretary of the Army,Louis Caldera, and the Chairman of the U.S. Postal Ser-vice Board of Governors, Einar V. Dyhrkopp. Guestsincluded members of the soldiers’ families. I’m glad Iwas able to attend and represent the Murphy family.

The Distinguished Soldiers series features black andwhite (or sepia) military photos. The superimposed divi-sion insignia are in color. It was fortunate that a photoof Dad, taken in the field immediately after being pre-sented with the Medal of Honor, existed. We enthusias-tically approved the stamp design.

Dad always felt that his military awards belonged toall the soldiers who served with him. I know he wouldhave been honored to be remembered alongside thesethree great soldiers.

Terry Murphy

VOLUME 8 © 2000

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On the night of October 25—26,Audie was attempting to get a little sleep.An enemy phosphorous shell burst in thetree overhead. Murphy got a small pieceof metal in the chest. But his phenomenalluck was still holding. The wound, whichcaused a permanent scar, was only su-perficial. He never got a Purple Heart forit. The law of averages, however, wasabout to catch up with him.

On the following morning, Audie ledhis platoon through a forest. The radioman beside Audie straightened up to callback a message. A sniper killed him in-stantly. Murphy, while leaping for thecover of a tree, gauged the approximatedistance and direction of the German bythe sound of his rifle. The sniper firedagain. The bullet ricocheted on a tree, butploughed through Murphy’s right hip,knocking him flat and putting him in plainview of the German sharpshooter. Audietried rolling into a partially-dug foxholeas the sniper threw off a camouflage netand fired again. “I think he must have

shot at my helmet,” says Murphy. “Andthat was the last mistake he ever made.My head was not in the helmet.” Sweep-ing his carbine around with his right handand firing it pistol-fashion, Audie sent abullet crashing through the German’shead. “It was his brain or nothing,” saysMurphy. “That bastard would not havemissed again.”

Using an unloaded carbine, Murphyre-enacted his movements for me. Evenin slow motion, they required only eightseconds. So, from the time he first heardthe crack of the sniper rifle until the Ger-man fell dead, no more than five or sixseconds could have passed. This is anexample of how fast and accurately theMurphy mind and reflexes worked in acritical situation. Captain Paul Harrisfound Audie and got him to a medicaljeep. Because of very bad weather hecould not be evacuated to a base hospi-tal for three days. In that time his woundbecame gangrenous. He spent almostthree months in a hospital and virtually

had to learn to walk again. Still limpingbadly, Audie was ordered to put moreconvalescent men through close-orderdrill. Ignoring the order, he gathered hisequipment together and voluntarily wentback to the front while still sick. He re-joined Company B on January 23, 1945.The unit was at full strength, having sixofficers and about 130 men. Captain Har-ris had been transferred to the headquar-ters section of the 1st Battalion.

The 3rd Division had been assignedto eliminate the Colmar Pocket. This wasa huge and dangerous bridgehead thatthrust like an iron fist across the RhineRiver into France. In this sector the Ger-mans had enough men and materiel tolaunch a full-scale attack against the rightflank of the Seventh Army. Conditionsfavored the enemy, who was well-sup-plied with armor. The 3rd Division his-tory says that snow was knee-deep andthat temperatures, even in daytime, sel-dom rose above 14°F. The frozen earthmade digging-in almost impossible for the

HOW AUDIE MURPHY WON HIS MEDALSPART VIII

Courtesy of Marty Black

The unknown photographer wrote on the back of this picture: “US 3rd Inf Div Troops in thewoods near Riedwihr Alsace 1945.” The photo was probably taken during the battle of theColmar Pocket which took place in Riedwihr Woods January 22 - 27, 1945.

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American soldiers.The assault began on January 22.

The 7th and 30th Infantry Regimentscrossed the Fecht River and fought theirway to the Ill River, capturing a smallbridge known as the Maison Rouge,across the latter stream. The little bridgewas to play an important part in battledevelopments. Anticipating its capture,the Division had rushed supplies andarmor to the area so that an immediatecrossing could be effected. But the firsttank that tested the bridge caved-in thestructure, rendering it useless for ve-hicles.

The 30th Infantry had alreadycrossed the Ill. Its attack had been co-ordinated with a drive by the 7th Infan-

lery observers had been unable to es-tablish radio communications with theirunits. Nevertheless, the 30th continuedits attack. Without a vestige of coverand with no possibility of digging intothe frozen earth, the 3rd Battalion washit by ten German tanks and tank de-stroyers with an estimated 100 infantry-men on the outskirts of Holtzwihr. Thebattalion was cut to pieces. Survivorsmanaged to fall back to the Ill.

The same fate befell the 1st Battal-ion on the outskirts of Riedwihr. The2nd Battalion managed to cross the Ill,but was thrown back by a murderousarmor assault. Artillery pieces attempt-ing to support the infantry from the westbank of the Ill were zeroed by the Ger-

ion and succeeded in reaching the Boisde Riedwihr. Still without armor, the 1stwas soon knocked out of the woods byraging Germans. But the battalion re-fused to retreat to the Ill. The menscrambled into holes dug by artilleryshells and waited for a probable counter-attack which did not come.

Audie remembers that he droppedoff to sleep that night and his hair frozeto the ground. He was still wearing ban-dages for the hip wound. On the follow-ing day he was knocked down by a mor-tar-shell blast. His lower legs were pep-pered with steel fragments which hecarries in his flesh to this day. Thus heacquired a third Purple Heart.

With his legs bleeding and burn-

try on the right flank, and a similar pushby French Army units on the left flank.The immediate objective was a large for-est, known as the Bois de Riedwihr, whichstretched between the powerfully forti-fied villages of Holtzwihr and Riedwihr.

On the afternoon of January 23, the30th captured the forest and reached theoutskirts of the two villages. The advancehad been so rapid that the forward artil-

mans and destroyed.With the 30th battered, under

strength, and badly disorganized, the 15thInfantry Regiment was committed to theattack on January 24. The 3rd Battalionwent in first, but was stopped by a coun-terattack.

The 1st Battalion, to which Audiebelonged, was thrown into the battle. Itmoved through the battered 3rd Battal-

ing from the mortar fragments, Murphydid not stop for first aid. In the furiousfighting, Company B was becoming rap-idly decimated and needed every man thatcould walk or crawl. Although thewounds were painful, and aggravated bythe bitter cold, they were not seriouslydisabling. Audie limped through the re-maining battle for the Colmar Pocket.

During the night of January 24—25,

January 22, 1945, the bridge over the Ill River at Maison Rouge collapsed, hampering the Army’sability to deliver heavy artillery to the Colmar Pocket battleground.

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Courtesy of the Texas Military Forces Museum

engineers succeeded in bridging the IllRiver, enabling armor to cross. Three tanksjoined the 1st Battalion. Two were de-stroyed by the Germans; the third, withits main gun out of commission, had towithdraw from the fight.

But more armor was sent up. The 1stBattalion fought its way into the Bois deRiedwihr again, and headquarters wereestablished in a farmhouse. By midnighton January 25, Company B had penetrated600 yards but had to stop because of anammunition shortage. Having started thefight with 134 men and seven officers, thecompany had been cut to two officersand approximately 34 enlisted men. Theothers had been killed, wounded, or fro-zen beyond a capability for fighting. Inthree days of ferocious combat, the 3rdDivision had paid heavily for its ad-vances.

Around one o’clock on the morningof January 26, fresh supplies and five re-placements reached Company B. The fig-ures are approximate as Murphy de-pended upon memory in giving them; butthe records bear him out as being verynearly right.

A senior officer—a first lieutenant—was in charge of Company B when it wasordered to advance to the southern edgeof the forest and hold the line until reliefwas sent. As the Germans were still in thewoods, but in poor strength, the companymoved through the night with bursts ofprecautionary fire but had no fight.Reaching their destination, the exhaustedmen tried to dig in, but could barely chipthe frozen ground. Thus they were with-out cover except for the outer fringe oftrees. During the night, the senior officerwas wounded by mortar fire. He wasevacuated, and Murphy was ordered bytelephone to take over. Having startedwith the company as a private, he wasnow the commanding officer.

As the darkness wore through, Au-die kept his men stamping around in thesnow to keep their feet from freezing. Hefeared a dawn attack from the Germansand knew that his battered outfit couldnot stand up against it. But he formed hislines, using a tank destroyer and five ar-mored vehicles from the 3rd Reconnais-sance troop to protect his right flank.Company A, equally exhausted and bat-

tered, connected loosely with his leftflank. A second tank destroyer had se-lected a position some forty yards aheadof the lines. Between the two tank de-stroyers, a forward artillery observer,Lieutenant Walter Weispfenning, hadtaken a post with a field radio.

After having his machine-gun crewset up its weapon, Murphy established acommand post in a drainage ditch tenyards in front of the rear tank destroyer.He had a carbine, a field map, a pair ofbinoculars and a telephone that con-nected with 1st Battalion headquarters a

said that he was afraid he would get stuckif he moved off the road and did notbudge. The forward tank destroyer had awhole field in which to maneuver on itsleft. The time of the enemy attack varieson record from ten in the morning untiltwo in the afternoon. The latter is usuallygiven. Murphy does not remember: hesays that he had lost all sense of time.The day remained dull and cloudy, butground visibility was good.

At two in the afternoon—let ussay—the Germans swarmed out ofHoltzwihr. The attacking force consisted

mile deep in the forest.A clouded dawn brought no attack.

Audie felt relieved. A battalion was sup-posed to fan through Company B and hitHoltzwihr. But it had not arrived. Murphypondered his situation. His company wasstretched across the butt-end of a largeU whose sides were formed by two greatfingers of trees that led toward Holtzwihr.The heavily fortified village was in plainview over the snowy fields. The two tankdestroyers were astraddle a narrow dirtroad which ran from Holtzwihr to deepwithin the Bois de Riedwihr. If Germanarmor got into the forest, it would have totravel this roadway.

Murphy woke up the commander ofthe rear destroyer and told him he hadbetter get the vehicle off the road. Flankedon one side by the three-foot-deep drain-age ditch and on the other by trees, itwould be in no position to maneuver incase of an enemy attack. The commander

of six Jagdpanther tanks and an estimated250 infantrymen, who where wearingwhite capes to make themselves incon-spicuous against the snow. Apparentlythe Germans were determined to wrest theBois de Riedwihr from the Americans,who had paid so dearly for the area in aheavy loss of men. The forest was of con-siderable importance because a controlof it meant an ultimate domination of thetwo enemy strong-points in Holtzwihr.

The attack was preceded by a hugebarrage of big shells. In the noise andconfusion Murphy could not tell whetherthe fire was coming from the tanks or en-emy artillery. But it was lethal. CompanyB’s machine-gun crew was knocked out.The rear tank destroyer was hit flush byan 88mm projectile. It pierced the thin ar-mor, killing the commander and gunner.The explosion also started a fire inside.Murphy thinks the grease and the uni-forms of dead men were fed to the flames.

National Archives

M-10 tank destroyer. January 20, 1945

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HOLTZWIHR

1

2

N

S

EW

Courtesy of Patrick Bauman & Mike West

July 1951 aerial photograph of the Colmar Pocket battleground: (1) indicates Audie Murphy’s position on the M-10 tankdestroyer. (2) indicates 1st Battalion headquarters.

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What remained of the crew bailed out anddisappeared into the forest.

The German tanks, using the fingersof trees for partial cover, fanned out andadvanced, firing fast and viciously. Thefive reconnaissance vehicles which hadformed Company B’s right flank fell backbefore the furious onslaught. Being light,and having rubber tires, they did not getstuck in the snow.

The lead tank destroyer definitelyasserted itself. A newspaper accountmentions only two men in the crew: StaffSergeant Joseph Tardif and Corporal Rob-ert Hines. The latter alternated betweenfiring the 90mm cannon and the .50-cali-ber machine gun. Tardif sprayed the on-coming infantrymen with a .30-calibermachine gun. Audie says: “I saw the en-emy tanks get direct hits with 90mmshells, but they did not cause theJagdpanthers even to falter. They con-tinued to advance steadily.”

Attempting to maneuver the leadtank destroyer into a new position, the

crew lost control of it. The tank destroyerslid into the drainage ditch and refusedto budge. Its guns were left at a uselessangle; so the crew, apparently consistingonly of Hines and Tardif, climbed out andfled to the forest. In this desperate mo-ment, Lieutenant Weispfenning’s radiofailed. Audie urged him to get back intothe forest while he tried to contact theartillery through battalion headquarters.Weispfenning fell back but remained inthe area to be of any possible use.

Murphy, certain that the remnants ofCompany B could not survive the Ger-man attack, ordered his men back to a pre-viously designated portion about a half-mile deep in the forest. He remained atthe front to correct artillery fire over thefield telephone. “It was not a heroic act,”says Audie. “I figured if one man coulddo the job, why risk the lives of thirty-odd.”

Murphy did not attempt to protecthimself by keeping a curtain of artilleryfire between himself and the enemy sol-

diers. He put the fire directly on top ofthe Germans, meanwhile sniping fren-ziedly with his carbine at individual sol-diers.

But the enemy attack continued. Anervous lieutenant called from battalionheadquarters repeatedly to ask how closethe Germans were. “If you’ll just hold thephone, I’ll let you talk to one of the bas-tards,” Audie finally replied. This becamea classic remark of the war.

With his carbine ammunition ex-hausted and the Germans about to swarmover his position, Murphy was about tofall back. Then he noted the .50-calibermachine gun on the turret of the burningtank destroyer and made the most auda-cious decision of his combat career. Whenthe flames hit the fuel and ammunition,the tank destroyer would blow up. It wasonly a matter of time. But how much time?Audie had not the slightest idea.

“Then I saw Lieutenant Murphy dothe bravest thing I had ever seen a mando in combat,” says Walter

This German view of Murphy’s position on the M-10 tank destroyer clearly shows the density of the forest and thetactical importance to the Germans of the access road. Had Company B not held the road the German tanks andtroops would have overrun 1st Battalion headquarters, thus cutting off and surrounding the U.S. troops in the woods.

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Courtesy of the Texas Military Forces Museum

Weispfenning. “With the Germans only ahundred yards away and still moving upon him, he climbed on top of the burningtank destroyer and began firing the .50-caliber machine gun at the krauts. He wascompletely exposed and silhouettedagainst the background of bare trees andsnow....Eighty-eight millimeter shells,machine-gun, machine-pistol, and rifle firecrashed all about him.”

The tank destroyer commander,whom Murphy had urged to get undercover, was sprawled halfway out of thehatch. His throat had been cut. Audiedragged the dead body out and threw itin the snow so that it would not interferewith traversing the machine gun. Havingbrought the field telephone along, heasked battalion headquarters to keep theline open. A sergeant manned the head-quarters end of the telephone to receiveimmediate corrections for the artillery fire.“I did not know how I would get out ofthat situation,” says Murphy, “but forsome reason I didn’t care a damn.”

Some accounts say that Audie usedhis machine gun against the enemy tanks,

forcing them to “button up.” He says thatthis was completely false. “I would notwaste my ammunition on something thatdirect hits by 90mm shells could not slowdown,” he states. “I concentrated on thefoot soldiers, believing that the tankswould not advance very far withoutthem.” Another observer, Sergeant ElmerBrawley, says: “The German infantrymengot within ten yards of Lieutenant Mur-phy, who killed them in the draws, in themeadows, in the woods—wherever hesaw them.”

The smoke boiling from the tank de-stroyer hatch was both a blessing and ahindrance. Although providing someconcealment, it interfered with the visibil-ity essential for Murphy’s line of fire. Thatis why the Germans, numbering twelve,got to a spot within ten yards of Audie.“With all of that crackle of firearms andbig shells exploding all around, they prob-ably did not even hear my machine-gunfire, much less guess its point of origin,”he says. “When I first saw them, theyhad stopped in the drainage ditch directlyin front of me and were frantically dis-

cussing something.” He whirled his ma-chine gun on them, killing them all.

But the tanks had definitely spottedMurphy. Two 88mm shells were slammedinto the tank destroyer. “And,” saysWeispfenning, “Lieutenant Murphy wasenveloped in clouds of smoke and spurtsof flame.” When the smoke cleared, Au-die was still holding his position. Theheadquarters sergeant, hearing the explo-sions over the phone, yelled: “Are youstill alive, Lieutenant?” With grim humorMurphy replied: “Momentarily, sergeant.And what are your postwar plans?”

“I remember getting the hell shookout of me,” he said. “But that was noth-ing new. I also remember that for the firsttime in three days my feet were warm.”

The accounts say that the Germansconcentrated their attack upon this “one-man strong-point.” Lieutenant ColonelKeith Ware later stated that the enemywas making an “effort to recapture thewoods at any cost.” That small road whichMurphy was holding was all-importantfor the German advance. Some of the en-emy infantrymen got through the lines

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Courtesy of After the Battle magazine

This painting by George Campbell which appeared in After the Battle, Number 3 © 1973, is an accurate depiction of Audie Murphy’s“one-main strongpoint” in the Colmar Pocket Action. After the Battle, Number 3 © 1973 is available from RZM Imports, Inc, 1Pomperaug Office Park 102, Southbury, CT 06488. Tel: (203) 264-0774. Fax: (203) 264-4967.

loosely held by the battered 3rd Battal-ion. They stalked through the forest, cut-ting telephone wires, and finally reachedthe vicinity of the farmhouse serving asheadquarters for the 1st and 2nd Battal-ions. The regimental commander, Colo-nel Hallett Edson, hastily organized theheadquarters personnel into a fightingunit. Using two Flakwagons, the clerksand typists attacked the infiltrated Ger-mans and threw them back. This smallbattle was going on a mile behindMurphy’s position.

The clouds broke for a single briefperiod during the entire day. Fighter-bomber planes from the 1st TAF hap-pened over. Murphy kindly had the artil-lery mark the German positions on his farleft with smoke shells. The pilots divedand started strafing. The enemy attack,although slowed, still pressed forward.Once more the infantrymen threatened tooverrun the strong-point held down by asingle man. In another completely auda-cious maneuver, Audie called down theartillery fire upon his own position. “I fig-ured that I could luck it out of that bar-

rage if the krauts could,” he said.He did more than luck it out. With

the final ferocious barrage, the Germansapparently realized that somebody, some-where, had them zeroed by the artillery.And they could not explain the mysteri-ous machine-gun fire that had been cut-ting their ranks to pieces. The enemy in-fantry began to fall back toward Holtzwihr.The tanks, still firing at Audie with ma-chine guns, also started backing away. “Ican understand why the kraut infantry-men missed me,” says Murphy. “But I cannever forgive the German tank-men fortheir poor marksmanship. It was realsloppy.”

The retreat came just in the nick oftime. Murphy, attempting to call battal-ion headquarters for another artillery cor-rection, found that his telephone line hadbeen cut. The Germans were on the run—and without artillery he could do no more.Lieutenant Weispfenning states thatAudie’s trouser legs were “soaked withblood.” Sergeant Elmer Brawley says:“Lieutenant Murphy was worn out andbleeding profusely. He was also covered

with dust and soot that must have ob-scured his vision.”

As a matter of fact, Murphy’s skinhad not been touched during the furiousbattle in which he got the concentrationof enemy fire. But only by some miracleof chance and the luck of the Irish had heescaped death. The field map, which hehad held in outstretched hands, wasriddled with rock and shell fragments. Sowas his officer’s raincoat. But no newmetal had touched his body. The bloodcame from the old mortar wounds whichhad been re-opened by the frenzied ac-tion.

Audie crawled off the tank destroyerand limped back into the forest withoutlooking back. “I was too scared and ex-hausted to care whether I was shot ornot,” he says. Shortly afterward, he heardthe tank destroyer blow up. A citation,which credits him with killing and wound-ing about fifty Germans, says: “He madehis way to his company, refused medicalattention, and organized the company ina counter-attack which forced the Ger-mans to withdraw.” In his testimony Ser-

Soldiers heat coffee with a blowtorch. January 27, 1945.

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Courtesy of the Texas Military Forces Museum

geant Elmer Brawley says: “LieutenantMurphy, refusing to be evacuated, led usin a strong attack against the enemy, dis-lodging the Germans from the whole area.”

Murphy says: “I don’t remember anystrong counter-attack. Not many Germanswere left in our area of the woods. I tookthe men left alive in Company B back toour original position in the front lines.”And, although frozen and exhausted, theyheld the ground until relieved the nextday.

On January 27, the 3rd Battalion ofthe 30th Infantry Regiment capturedHoltzwihr with ease. The battalion hadbeen organized and strengthened by anumber of replacements. However,Holtzwihr was but a shell of a fortifica-tion. The Germans, doubtless demoralizedby the failure of their attack on the previ-ous day, had pulled out most of their menand materiel, leaving a rear-guard to covertheir retreat. The 3rd Division historystates: “Lieutenant Audie Murphystopped the attack practically single-handed.” Other accounts refer to the fu-rious battle as “Audie Murphy’s wildone-man stand.” But Murphy says: “Noman stands out there in the front all alone;not for long he doesn’t. Help must, anddoes, come from somewhere if he is tosurvive.” Nevertheless, according to allrecords, he held that forward post in thefront line for an hour. In that position heabsorbed the bulk of the enemy attack.And he was alone.

The story of the Holtzwihr action isso fantastic that I have checked it in ev-ery way I could. Murphy, from boredomand utter weariness, has let his combatrecord be distorted at will. In his book ToHell And Back, he played down his ownachievements in trying to capture the“feel” of a few infantrymen at war. Themotion picture, based on the book, tookcomplete dramatic license in the name ofinnocence and action. It failed utterly tocatch the true personality of the man be-hind the medals. He is as tough as steel,yet completely sensitive. His turbulent,brooding mind can still make split-sec-ond decisions. He is no idealist. His icono-clastic nature causes him to cut throughall human pretension to get at the core ofthings. His reflexes are the fastest of anyperson I have ever known.

In 1949 I checked the official Armyrecords that state the reason he wasawarded the Medal of Honor. He hadmade a supreme gamble with his life toprotect the men of Company B. His cita-tion reads: “Lieutenant Murphy’s indomi-table courage and his refusal to give aninch of ground saved his company frompossible encirclement and destruction,and enabled it to hold the woods whichhad been the enemy’s objective.”

The tank destroyer, when I saw it in1948, had been dragged off the road. Theentrance top had been blown off, and theinside was heavily charred. The threepunctures made by the 88mm shells weresimilar to the holes a .22 rifle bullet makesin a tin can. My findings jibed with the

written accounts.I had read the testimony submitted

by Lieutenant Walter Weispfenning be-fore I met him. When I asked if the detailswere true, he laughed: “They were as ac-curate as I could remember under the cir-cumstances. When a man is figuring ongetting his butt shot off any minute—and I did—he does not think how thedetails will look in print. But Audie earnedthe Medal of Honor time and again, and Iwas only happy that my testimony finallyhelped him get it.” Despite his woundedlegs, Murphy continued fighting at thehead of Company B until the last remnantof the Colmar Pocket fell on February 6.The 3rd Division received a PresidentialCitation; also a Croix de Guerre with Palm

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Courtesy of Billie Murphy Tindol

Photo was probably taken in mid- February, 1945, after the Battle of theColmar Pocket, while Audie was on leave in Paris, France.

from a grateful France.On February 18, with mission com-

pleted, the 3rd Division was pulled out ofaction to rest and reorganize for an as-sault against the Siegfried Line. It returnedto combat on March 15. By this time, pro-cesses for getting Audie the Medal ofHonor were going through channels. Hissuperior officers, fearing he would bekilled before the award could be made,took him out of the front lines and gavehim liaison work. At least they thoughtthey had. Perhaps Murphy over-reactedto the term “liaison.” His commanding of-ficers certainly did not intend for him toestablish liaison with the enemy. But thisalmost happened.

Audie and Captain “Red” Coles, in ajeep driven by a sergeant, seemed to haveranged considerably beyond the frontlines. Rounding a bend in the road theysuddenly came upon about four hundredenemy soldiers. Heavily armed, the Ger-mans were merely taking a rest-break. Itwas too late for the trio to back off. Theonly chance they had against death orcapture was through a bluff. Murphy or-dered the sergeant to continue drivingstraight forward at a leisurely pace.

The nervous chauffeur started tobalk; but the two officers brought himback in line by threatening to shoot himthemselves. It was no time for penny-ante.With one hand on a .50-caliber machine-gun trigger and the other waving cordialgreetings to the Germans, Audie lookedsupremely confident. So did CaptainColes. He was also waving to the enemysoldiers with one hand while fingering aweapon with the other. The Germans,doubtless thinking that a regiment wasdirectly behind the advance party ofthree, returned the greetings and allowedthe jeep to pass without so much as achallenge. The trio managed to hide outuntil the Seventh Army caught up withthem.

Murphy forgot to tell me such sto-ries when we were working on his book.Twenty-two years after the incident, heran into Coles in a California cocktaillounge. And the ex-captain refreshed theMurphy memory.

Audie pulled a similar bluff duringthe final days of the Colmar Pocket. Boththe Germans and the Americans were suf-

fering from severe battle exhaustion; theiruniforms, unchanged for days, werecrusted with mud. Company B had takena group of prisoners, and, having dis-armed them, sat down to rest about thirtyyards from a road. The sound of ap-proaching enemy tanks suddenlyreached them. It was too late to get outof sight, so Murphy grabbed a Germanhelmet and clapped it upon his head. Healso hastily suggested that his men dolikewise. Three tanks and a sprinkling ofGerman infantrymen roared by. Audie,carrying his bluff to the hilt, waved casu-ally at them. The Germans, doubtless iden-tifying the helmets as their own, returnedthe salutation and proceeded down theroad.

Murphy is still a great one for bluff-ing. We were walking across a studio lotwhen we ran into his agent and lawyer.Audie, so weak from a recent operationthat he was hanging on my shoulder towalk, stopped and eyed the two mencoldly. “Well,” he said, “what are youguys stealing today?” The men took thequestion seriously. “What do youmean?” the agent asked. “When twothieves get together, they’re bound tosteal something,” said Murphy. With thathe walked on. “You’ve got to keep themracked back,” he explained. “They’llspend the rest of the day wondering whatI’ve found out about them.”

While still on liaison duty, Murphygot word that Captain Paul Harris, backwith Company B, had been killed nearthe Siegfried Line; the unit had boggeddown. He didn’t say anything to any-body. Getting the approximate locationof Company B from headquarters, heconned a telephone-wire stringer intodriving him to the front. Armed with acarbine and the inevitable hand grenades,he found Company B, took the menthrough the Siegfried Line, and instructedthe young lieutenant in charge to keepunder cover until contacted by otherunits. Not a shot was fired during themaneuver. The Germans had alreadypulled out. But Company B, which hadfought so valiantly, had finally collapsedfrom a bad case of battle nerves. I learnedthis story only after one of the memberswrote Audie long after the war to thankhim for pulling Company B out of that

spot.During the war, Murphy used bluff

only when he thought nothing else wouldsucceed. He had great respect for theGermans as fighters, and he liked plentyof firepower to use against them. As aliaison officer, he had a jeep upon whichwas mounted a .50-caliber machine gun.To that weapon he added a case of handgrenades, several rifles, and two Germansubmachine guns. He fully intended touse the whole arsenal if he ran intotrouble. “I had no intentions of lettingmyself be captured as long as I could pulla trigger or heave a grenade,” he says.

Toward the end of the war Audie wasin an Austrian village when the Germanswere surrendering by the thousands. Heand another lieutenant were walkingalong a street when they spotted a Ger-man colonel still wearing his pistol. Mur-phy stood by while his companion ap-proached the colonel and said: “Please,sir, may I have your sidearm?” Audielooked again and his blood ran suddenlycold. Leaping forward, he said: “Don’tsay please to this sonofabitch. Tell himto give you his goddamned gun.”

The German winced and handed overhis pistol. Murphy had thought the scar-faced colonel might be Otto Skorzeny,described during the war as “the mostdangerous man in Europe.” Audie ex-plained: “We had a rumor that the 30thInfantry Regiment had captured Skorzenyand given him a pass. During the mop-ping-up phases of the war, we had beenwarned to watch out for Skorzeny. Hewas an exceedingly dangerous man.” Asit turned out, however the man was notSkorzeny.

The incident with the German colo-nel illustrates Audie’s no-nonsense tac-tics in dealing with the enemy. His graphiclanguage was also typical. While shoot-ing a picture at Fort Lewis, he heard cap-tains asking enlisted men to carry outorders please. “A bullet can travel a hun-dred yards while you’re saying please.And you don’t have that kind of time incombat,” said Murphy.

Murphy was invited back to Wash-ington to receive the Medal of Honor fromPresident Harry Truman. But he electedto get the award in the field where it hadbeen won. It was General Alexander Patch

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who made the presentation on June 2,1945, in Salzburg, Austria. Immediatelyafterward, the General bestowed uponAudie the Legion of Merit. In part, thecitation reads: “Lieutenant Murphy’s per-sonal bravery, his skill in imparting hisown knowledge of enemy tactics to hismen, and his voluntary assumptions ofhazardous patrols and missions havebenefitted his unit to an immeasurable de-gree.”

As for the “personal bravery,” Mur-phy says: “I have grappled with fear allof my life. I never went into combat with-out feeling fear twisting my intestinesinto knots. I suppose this happened toevery man, no matter how cool he seemedto be.”

With the Legion of Merit, Audie be-came the soldier most decorated for valorin the entire American armies of WorldWar II. His nearest competitor was Cap-tain Maurice Britt, also of the 3rd Infan-try Division. For some reason, Britt ap-parently did not get the Legion of Merit,which he undoubtedly deserved. But he

also failed to receive a second Silver Star.After the war, Audie was awarded theLegion of Honor Chevalier by France;and the Croix de Guerre with Palm by Bel-gium; and a Croix de Guerre with SilverStar by France. “The most decorated sol-dier” is a tenuous term. High military brassreceive many medals from various coun-tries for general merit. But for sheer valorin combat, Murphy is probably the mostdecorated soldier in the history of Ameri-can warfare. In this nuclear age, and withtime limits on combat service, no othersoldier is likely to surpass him. Audiesurvived seven major battle campaigns.They were Tunisia, Sicily, Naples-Foggia,Rome-Arno, Southern France, theRhineland, and Central Europe. For eachhe was awarded a star to be worn on hisTheater ribbon. Of all the decorations heis perhaps proudest of the Combat Infan-tryman Badge, which was given to thou-sands of fighting foot soldiers.

Murphy is generally credited withkilling, capturing, and wounding 240 Ger-mans. I myself gave out that figure after

checking citations, testimonial statementsby eyewitnesses, newspaper accounts,History of THE THIRD INFANTRY DIVISIONIn World War II and personal letters toAudie. Typical of the last was one writ-ten by a man expressing profuse grati-tude for saving his life. I asked Murphywhat happened. “Not much,” he said,“This guy and another soldier had theirheads down right in the middle of someclose combat. A silly, careless thing todo. A German with a machine pistolsneaked up on them. But before he couldshoot, I killed him.”

All of the stories written aboutMurphy’s combat deeds vary consider-ably; and he does not have the slightestidea of how many enemy soldiers he putout of action. When groups of Germanstried to surrender to him toward the endof the war, he sent them back to the reararea to give themselves up. Murphy wastoo busy with front-line activities to be-come involved with men who merelywanted to surrender. Although his Medalof Honor citation lists the German casu-

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National Archives

Audie Murphy was presented the Medal of Honor and the Legion of Merit in Salzburg, Austria by GeneralAlexander Patch, Commanding General of the 7th Army, June 2, 1945.

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Audie Murphy received the French Croix de Guerrewith Silver Star at a special ceremony in Dallas, TX onSeptember 19, 1945 .

Almost three years later, on July 19, 1948 in Paris,France, the French government also presented him withthe French Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre withPalm.

David “Spec” McClure—1971

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alties in the Holtzwihr action as fifty, an eyewitness to the entire battle differs. This was former PFC Anthony Abramsi. In hiswritten testimony, he states that Murphy killed or wounded at least one hundred of the enemy soldiers with “his directed artilleryfire and his machine gun.” Both figures are, of course, approximations. Nobody bothered to count the bodies lying in the snowyfields before Holtzwihr. It is my belief that the number of casualties that Audie was instrumental in causing and the number ofprisoners he took likely add up to far more than 240.

Murphy was returned to his native state, Texas, for a furlough on June 14, 1945. This was just a few days before his twenty-first birthday. In a special ceremony in Dallas, TX September 19, 1945, he was awarded the French Croix de Guerre with Silver Star.I have a newspaper account of this incident, but I have never found a citation to back it up. This is nothing unusual. Had I notkept his citations on file over the years, Murphy would have probably lost them all. He had a lack of interest in his own warachievements. I knew him for eleven years before I ever saw his medals. His wife finally had his medals mounted in a case for theirtwo sons. Otherwise he would likely have misplaced those too. “The war,” he said recently, “floats through my mind like flotsamand jetsam. It is no big thing. But when the war was on, somebody had to fight it. Hitler was not playing marbles. People seemto forget that these days.”

Audie was discharged from the Army as a first lieutenant on September 21, 1945. On that same day he came to Hollywood.James Cagney, who met him at the airport, told me: “I knew Murphy only from his photographs. In reality he was terribly thin. Hiscolor was bluish gray. I had reserved a hotel room for him. But he looked so sick that I was afraid to leave him alone. I took himhome and gave him my bed. This was after a three-month rest from combat. The war had taken a horrible toll on his nerves.”

Years later Audie made a very pertinent statement to an interviewer, “Despite everything, I loved the damned Army,” he said:“For a long time it was father, mother, and brother to me. It made me somebody, gave me self-respect.”

In 1950, he joined the 36th Division of the Texas National Guard, remaining with the outfit until he had worked up to the rankof major. Then, because of the movie work pressure, he had himself put on the list of inactive reserves.

When starring in his first picture, he was quoted by a publicity man as saying: “I’d rather face a German machine gun thana motion picture camera.” Murphy commented: “Obviously the guy that dreamed up that line had never faced a German machinegun.” From his first arrival back in America, he was usually too tired and indifferent to care how his war story was distorted. Thisaccount of how he won his medals will, I hope, set the record straight..

Courtesy of Mrs. Tommy Riddle

Thomas L. Riddle, Jr., Audie. Murphy and Erwin C. Seehafer.

1945

Special Thanks To:

DASHLINK, INC. of Killeen, TX for sponsoring the internet address dedicated exclusively to theAudie L. Murphy Memorial Website

www.audiemurphy.com

© 2000. Permission hereby granted for excerpt reproduction by educators, newspapers, magazines and newsletters conditioned upon the AudieMurphy Research Foundation being credited as the source. All other uses prohibited without written permission from the copyright holder.

Roy Rogers and Audie Murphy promoting THE CHEVY SHOW which airedSeptember 27, 1959. During the television show, Roy Rogers, Audie Murphyand Eddy Arnold sang together. To date the Audie Murphy Research Founda-tion has not been able to locate a copy of the show itself.

Courtesy of Marion Long

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