Audie Murphy Story

[BMathis]

A different perspective of the War we enjoy "playing". Quite a story that I had not heard before.

Audie Murphy Story

 

to all our Soldiers.

[Jenks]

He starred as himself in a movie about his exploits. To hell and back or something like that.

My grandmother worked for  Warner Bros.  and Universal Studios and met him at one of those studios. She said he was very modest and very approachable. She had an autographed picture of him.

[Golfer]

Indeed To Hell and Back is Audie Murphy's story starring Audie Murphy.

The movie is supposedly toned way down from his own personal accomplishments in wartime.  From all accounts I've heard from people who had the chance to meet him mirror those of Jenks' grandmother.

 

[USRanger]

Yeah, he was one bad dude, that's for sure.

[gpwurzel]

Knew a little of his story, but stone me, that fella had cojones.


  Audie Murphy (and all forces members everywhere)


Wurzel

[AWwrgwy]

I blame cable t.v.  Back in the day before cable, when we had five channels if you were lucky, you were "forced" to watch old black and white movies on weekend afternoons if you had nothing better to do.

To Hell and Back
Hell is for Heroes
Bridge Over the River Kwai
all those Franky Avalon/Annette Funicello beach blanket movies....

There is so much crap out there that you're missing the classics by not having to watch them.

 


wrongway

[stodd]

I blame cable t.v.  Back in the day before cable, when we had five channels if you were lucky, you were "forced" to watch old black and white movies on weekend afternoons if you had nothing better to do.

To Hell and Back
Hell is for Heroes
Bridge Over the River Kwai
all those Franky Avalon/Annette Funicello beach blanket movies....

There is so much crap out there that you're missing the classics by not having to watch them.

 


wrongway

First and third movies are great, havent seen the second one though.

[Chalenge]

Audie Murphy was one of many heroes of WWII that you dont hear about in school. Wonder why? 

[cpxxx]

I blame cable t.v.  Back in the day before cable, when we had five channels if you were lucky, you were "forced" to watch old black and white movies on weekend afternoons if you had nothing better to do.

To Hell and Back
Hell is for Heroes
Bridge Over the River Kwai
all those Franky Avalon/Annette Funicello beach blanket movies....

There is so much crap out there that you're missing the classics by not having to watch them.

So true, but we only had one channel in this country at the time and they showed them all. We kids knew more about American history than our own. We always played Americans v Germans in our street wars. Irish army? What we have an army?

The bad side was that we also had to watch most of the Shirley Temple movies too. What can I say. I had sisters.

Watching the 'To Hell and Back' recently, yes they are still showing it on the same station. I wondered how he felt about recreating his wartime experiences for a movie. It must have been very strange for him. 

[Ack-Ack]

Audie Murphy was one of many heroes of WWII that you dont hear about in school. Wonder why? 

I learned about him in school, history teacher had us watch "To Hell and Back".


ack-ack

[Ack-Ack]

Yeah, he was one bad dude, that's for sure.

Got this from the link you posted earlier.  Audie Murphy was listed at #5.

When Audie Murphy applied to the Marines in 1942 at the tender age of 16, he was 5'5" and weighed 110 pounds. They laughed in his face. So he applied to the Air Force, and they also laughed in his face. Then he applied for the Army, and they figured they could always use another grunt to absorb gunfire, so they let him in. He wasn't particularly good at it, and they actually tried to get him transferred to be a cook after he passed out halfway through training. He insisted that he wanted to fight though, so they sent him into the maelstrom.

During the invasion of Italy he was promoted to corporal for his awesome shooting skills, and at the same time contracted malaria, which he had for almost the entire war. Try to remember that.

He was sent into southern France in 1944. He encountered a German machine gun crew who pretended they were surrendering, then shot his best buddy. Murphy completely hulked out, killed everyone in the gun nest, then used their weaponry to kill every baddie in a 100-yard radius, including two more machine gun nests and a bunch of snipers. They gave him a Distiguished Service Cross, and made him platoon commander while everyone apologized profusely for calling him "Shorty."

About half a year later, his company was given the job of defending the Colmar Pocket, a critical region in France, even though all they had left was 19 guys (out of the original 128) and a couple of M-10 Tank Destroyers.

The Germans showed up with a toejamload of guys and half a dozen tanks. Since reinforcements weren't coming for a while, Murphy and his men hid in a trench and sent the M-10s to go do the heavy lifting. They got ripped to shreds.

Then, this five-and-a-half-foot-tall kid with malaria ran up to one of the crippled M-10s, hopped in behind the .50 cal machine gun, and started killing everything in sight. Understand that the M-10 was on fire, had a full tank of gas and was basically a death-trap.

He kept going for almost an hour until he was out of bullets, then walked back to his bewildered men as the M-10 exploded in the background Mad Max style. They gave him literally every medal they could (33 in all, although he had doubles of a few, plus five from France and one from Belgium), including the Medal of Honor.

After the war, he came down with Shell-Shock, and was prescribed the antidepressant placidyl. When he became addicted to the drug, rather than enter a program like some kind of sissy, he went cold-turkey, locked himself in a motel room for a week and got over it. He wrote an autobiography entitled To Hell and Back, and later became an actor.

ack-ack

[bizz]

Not to hijack this thread but years ago I used to work at a Liquor Store in my hometown. At about 11:00 AM every Wed morning an old guy named Mr. Fritz used to come in and buy a 6 pack of bud. He was real old and had a hard time getting around. Instead of letting him come in and get his own beer I would run out with his beer and give it too him in his car.

One year on Vetrans Day he showed up for his sixer and I asked him if he served. He told me he did so I gave him his Bud and told him not to worry about it  I'll pay for it. He said thank you and proceded to tell me that he didnt do anything special but his son was a real hero. I asked what war and he said Vietnam and next week he'll give me a present for me for paying for his beer. I told him he didnt have to do that but he insisted.

The next week he showed up at the store with a copy of this citation and gave it too me. Turns out he wasnt kidding Mr Fritz's son was an honest to God war hero

http://militarytimes.com/citations-medals-awards/recipient.php?recipientid=1198

[BaDkaRmA158Th]

Big  to that man, you know dang well every time he put his butt out on the line like that, it was to make sure no more or his men died.


I think someone up high was looking after him, and he knew as long as he did his job, he would make it out alive.



But again seein' how he always put himself in harms way first, i think he didnt give a damn about making it out alive, just didnt wanna see anymore of his boys killed.



Either way.