On January 26, 1945, 2nd Lieutenant Audie L. Murphy was commanding company B of the 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, near the French village of Holtzwihr when six German tanks and several hundred infantrymen attacked his company.

Murphy ordered his men to fall back to defensive positions in nearby woods while he covered their withdrawal and called down artillery to slow the German advance. German fire hit an American tank destroyer nearby and set it on fire. Witnesses later recalled how he “climbed on the burning tank destroyer, which was in danger of blowing up at any moment, and employed its .50 caliber machine gun against the enemy.”

From Murphy’s exposed position on top of the burning tank destroyer, he killed over 20 German soldiers and repelled their attack. For more than an hour, Murphy continued to fire the machine gun, despite being wounded in the leg. He then led his company in a counterattack that killed or wounded 50 more German soldiers.

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