Currently Browsing: This Week in Marne History
January 20 - 26
Saturday, 26 January 2008
More from This Week in Marne History
Audie Murphy Awarded MOH
Sixty-three years ago this week, on 26 January 1945, near Holtzwihr, France during the offensive to close the Colmar Pocket, Lt. Audie Murphy of Company B, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry capped his career in the 3ID by performing actions for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor. Previously he had been awarded the DSC and the Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster for actions in France in August 1944 and October 1944 respectively, the Bronze Star for actions at Anzio in March 1944 and an additional Oak Leaf Cluster for later actions in Italy in May 1944 and the Purple Heart. He would soon be awarded the Legion of Merit for his service from 22 January 1944-18 February 1945. Additionally, the Government of France made him a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor and awarded him the Croix de Guerre with both Silver Star and Palm. Belgium also gave him its Croix de Guerre with Palm.
Murphy was not only an unlikely hero, but at 5’5” and 110 pounds he was also an unlikely soldier. Born in Texas in 1924, he was only 17 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Rejected by the Marines and paratroopers because of his short height and small build, he joined the Army, where he had to fight to become a combat soldier. (During basic training his company commander tried to transfer him to cooks and bakers school.) In early 1943 he arrived in Casablanca as a replacement soldier in Co. B, 15th Infantry. He first saw combat in Sicily, where he killed his first Germans, two officers attempting to escape on horseback. He then received his first promotion to corporal. His second promotion to sergeant came in the fighting around Salerno, and he received his two Bronze Stars for his deeds at Anzio and on the road to Rome.
The invasion of France on 15 August 1944 had been the occasion of his receiving the DSC, after his best friend was killed while approaching a German who had feigned surrender. Murphy wiped out the machine gun crew that had claimed his friend and then used that machine gun to destroy several other positions. By October, he had added two Silver Stars to his awards and shortly after had received a battlefield promotion to 2nd lieutenant. Then, wounded in the hip by a sniper’s bullet, he had had spent ten weeks healing. Now Company Commander, he had only been with his unit a few days, still bandaged, when he earned his MOH.
The town of Holtzwihr lay about five miles northwest of Colmar. On 26 January the 15th Infantry was advancing from the north through the Riedwihr Woods, which dominated the town. LTC Keith War, 15IN XO and himself a MOH awardee for his actions at Sigolsheim a month earlier, called possession of the Woods “of cardinal importance.” In the afternoon, however, an enemy 88mm gun caught an American tank destroyer flush in the middle and a swarm of German armor overran the positions of Company B, which had no armor with it. Then Murphy went into action. With the Germans only 100 yards away, he climbed on the slowly-burning tank and began firing the 50-caliber machine gun at them. He raked the approaching enemy force of six tanks and two infantry companies with machine gun fire, at one point killing twelve Germans who had stolen up a gully to within 50 yards of him. Twice the tank destroyer he was standing on was hit by artillery fire and he was enveloped in smoke. For an hour he held the enemy at bay, killing or wounding at least 35 of them, some at a range of 10 yards. He then led his men in a counterattack which dislodged the Germans from the area. Only then did he permit his wounds to be treated in the field. The man who was too small to be a Marine had proven himself a bigger hero than any of them.
