Audie Murphy: Germany (Part 4)

Summary

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WW2 Pod: We Have Ways of Making You Talk

Episode: Audie Murphy: Germany (Part 4)

Date: March 26, 2026
Hosts: Al Murray & James Holland

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Episode Overview

This episode marks the fourth and final deep-dive into the World War II experiences of Audie Murphy, the most decorated American soldier of the conflict. Al Murray and historian James Holland trace Murphy’s grueling journey through the final months of the war in Germany, focusing on the brutal battles of the Colmar Pocket, his legendary Medal of Honor action, his post-war struggles, and the legacy that resonated through American culture and memory.

The hosts balance military history with lived experience, exploring the toll of combat on Murphy and his men, the strategic context of late-war combat on the Western Front, and the disorienting pivot from war hero to celebrity and, ultimately, a troubled civilian.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Audie Murphy Returns to Combat After His Injury

[02:24–03:19]

• After being wounded, Murphy is eligible for a safer post but insists on rejoining his original Company B, 15th Infantry, now as a second lieutenant.
• Despite his injuries, “they particularly need experienced men like him. And let's face it, he's still expendable. So back he goes.” (Jim, 03:19)
• The hosts emphasize the relentless demands placed on veteran soldiers.

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2. The Colmar Pocket: “A Second Battle of the Bulge”

[03:19–05:55]

• Strategic focus: The Colmar Pocket, described as “a huge and dangerous bridgehead thrusting west of the Rhine like an iron fist.”
• Allies face brutal resistance in harsh winter with deep snow, forests concealing German armor, and constant counterattacks.
• Murphy’s battalion is pinned defending a bridgehead across the Ill River while the engineers struggle to complete the crossing.

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3. The Toll of Combat: Breakdown and Resilience

[06:34–08:02]

• “Most of the men are in foxholes...it's so cold, these hair freezes to the ground.” (Jim, 06:34)
• Murphy is wounded again by mortar fragments and ignores it, reflecting his resolve: “Tis but a scratch. I'll go.” (James, 07:01)
• Stark episode of combat exhaustion:
  • Murphy finds a soldier weeping and shaking uncontrollably.
  • “I can't take it anymore, Lieutenant...I'm ashamed, but I can't help it.” (Jim, as the soldier, 07:37–07:52)
  • Another soldier candidly admits: “Many of the times I’ve wanted to sit down and cry about the whole damn mess.” (Jim, 08:02)

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4. The Medal of Honor Action: Alone on a Burning Tank Destroyer

[08:06–11:07]

• Amid a German counterattack with tanks and infantry in white snow capes, Murphy orders his men to retreat while he stays behind.
• He climbs atop a burning tank destroyer, using its machine gun and the field telephone to direct artillery while holding off the assault alone:
  • “He drags himself and the field phone on top of the tank destroyer and finds the body of a lieutenant he spoke to earlier that morning. Drags him off...and then starts shooting the Germans...standing on top.” (Jim, 09:06)
  • Officer’s account: “It was like standing on top of a time bomb, exposed to enemy fire from his ankles to his head and silhouetted against the trees and snow behind him.”
  • Murphy kills a group of 12 Germans attempting to close in, causing the German tanks to retreat.
• Afterward, exhausted and numb:
  • “I slide off the tank...without once looking back...If the Germans want to shoot me, let them. I’m too weak from fear and exhaustion to care.” (Narrator, 10:59)

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5. The Colmar Pocket Cleared; Casualties Mount

[11:24–12:23]

• The Allied push continues, with heavy fighting until the Colmar Pocket is finally sealed.
• Losses are staggering—two-thirds of Murphy’s company wiped out in the four days around his Medal of Honor action:
  • “The butcher’s bill is expensive. That is absolutely extraordinary, isn’t it?” (James, 11:24)

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6. Onward into Germany: Relentless Advance and Exhaustion

[14:49–16:47]

• Murphy’s battalion is rotated to a rest camp—after seven weeks, they've suffered 4,500 casualties.
• Despite rumors of imminent German collapse, most soldiers remain pessimistic:
  • “The road across Germany is a long one and each mile of it must be bought with somebody’s blood. Why not mine?” (Narrator/James, 15:37–15:50)
  • Murphy struggles to feel optimistic, noting, “My luck has been extraordinary. But there is an end even to the extraordinary. So until the last shot is fired, I will go on living from day to day, making no post war plans.” (Narrator, 15:52)

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7. Murphy Defies Orders to Rejoin His Men

[16:47–18:15]

• Temporarily reassigned to liaison duties, Murphy learns his company is again suffering—so he returns, defying army regulations:
  • “Its lot was my lot, and to hell with regulations.” (Narrator, 17:24)
• He finds his men in a trench, traumatized, but leads them forward.
• The hosts reflect on leadership, loyalty, and the psychological toll.

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8. Endgame: Rhine Crossing, Collapse of German Resistance

[18:15–19:37]

• The 3rd Infantry Division crosses the Rhine in late March; German resistance becomes fragmented and uncoordinated.
• In Munich, Murphy nearly shoots a German prison guard, relenting only when an American POW vouches, “Don’t shoot, Lieutenant. He’s a good Joe.” (Jim, 19:37)

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9. Witnessing the End: Surrender, Ruins, and Reflection

[20:29–21:24]

• Murphy observes the devastation in Germany: “It is impossible to see in these men the quality that made them stand up and fight like demons out of hell a few short months ago.” (Narrator/James, 20:48)
• On a train to the French Riviera, learns of VE Day from boisterous celebrations in the street: “Guess it’s the news of the German surrender...It’s official? Yes, sir. Haven’t you heard the radio? No, I’ve been riding since yesterday.” (Jim & Narrator, 21:19–21:24)

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10. Recognition: The Most Decorated US Soldier

[21:27–22:26]

• Receives the Medal of Honor for his tank destroyer heroics, “presented him by the 7th army commander, Lt. Gen. Alexander Patch.” (James, 21:28)
• By VE Day, not yet 21, Murphy’s record includes the Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, two Silver Stars, a Legion of Merit, two Bronze Stars, three Purple Hearts, and more.
• “It’s truly incredible.” (James, 22:10)

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11. Postwar: From Hollywood to Heartbreak

[22:26–26:21]

• Returns home to a hero’s welcome: “banquets and parades...His photo hangs in the state capitol in Austin, Texas.” (James, 22:26)
• Becomes a film star, most notably playing himself in To Hell and Back (1955), but feels the film romanticizes reality.
• Marries twice, struggles with depression, insomnia, and PTSD:
  • “He sleeps with a loaded pistol under his pillow, becomes addicted to sleeping pills.” (James, 25:44)
  • First wife Wanda Hendricks recollects, “he held her once at gunpoint” and saw him become “tearful and guilt ridden” watching footage of German war orphans.
• Descends into bankruptcy in the late 1960s due to bad business and gambling.

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12. Tragic End and Enduring Legacy

[26:21–29:41]

• Dies at 46 in a plane crash in 1971.
• Buried in Arlington National Cemetery, his grave is the second most visited after JFK’s, marked with a simple headstone.
• In 1999, June 20 is declared Audie Murphy Day in Texas, and a primary care center in San Antonio bears his name.
• The hosts urge listeners to read Murphy’s memoir To Hell and Back for its bracing honesty and “brilliantly written, so compelling” style. (Jim, 27:37)

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13. Closing Reflection: Murphy’s Own Words on VE Day

[28:20–30:05]
The episode ends with Murphy’s piercing self-reflection from the last lines of his memoir:

“There is VE Day without, but no peace within. Like a horror film run backwards, images of war flicker through my brain...But I also believe in men like Tipton and Siege and Fife and Kelly, the men who went, and would go again, to hell and back to preserve what our country thinks is right and decent...I may be branded by war, but I will not be defeated by it...I will learn to live again.”
(Narrator, 28:20–30:05)

James Holland remarks:

• “I think there’s not too much to say there. Thanks everyone for listening. We hope you've enjoyed the story of Audie Murphy and his extraordinary war.” (James, 30:05)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Murphy's resolve:
  “He’s still expendable. So back he goes.” – Jim, [03:19]
• On battle exhaustion:
  “I haven't slept in a week.” – Soldier/Narrator, [07:52]
• On heroism and risk:
  “It was like standing on top of a time bomb, exposed to enemy fire from his ankles to his head.” – Officer (recalling Murphy), [09:06]
• On postwar psyche:
  “There is VE Day without, but no peace within...I may be branded by war, but I will not be defeated by it.” – Audie Murphy, [28:20–30:05]

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Episode Timeline

| Timestamp | Segment | |-------------|------------------------------------------------| | 02:04 | Return to the Vosges and rejoining Company B | | 03:19 | The Colmar Pocket: setup, scale, significance | | 06:34 | Suffering: cold foxholes and combat exhaustion | | 08:06 | Medal of Honor action: Alone on the destroyer | | 11:24 | Butcher’s bill: casualties in Murphy’s company | | 14:49 | Rest camp, ongoing rumors, and pessimism | | 16:47 | Murphy’s insubordination: rejoins his men | | 18:15 | Rhine crossing and end-game | | 19:37 | Encounter with German POW, restraint | | 21:19 | Discovering VE Day on train in France | | 21:28 | Receives Medal of Honor and accolades | | 22:26 | Postwar: Hollywood, struggles, and legacy | | 26:21 | Plane crash; burial in Arlington | | 28:20–30:05 | Murphy’s final words from his memoir |

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Tone and Style

The hosts combine crisp historical detail with wry, affectionate humor and empathy for the soldiers’ experiences. Holland anchors the strategy and events, while Murray often supplies wit and vivid layman’s analogies. Murphy’s quotes are delivered with gravity, his trauma and ambiguous feelings about heroism underscored without sentimentality.

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Summary Takeaway

Audie Murphy’s story is depicted not just as a saga of battlefield gallantry but as a cautionary tale about the scars of war and the struggle to resume life afterward. The episode closes on Murphy’s own conflicted vision of peace and survival—a resonant fragment of World War II’s lingering legacy for those who endured its horrors and lived to remember.

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Transcript

[James Holland]

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[Jim]

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[James Holland]

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[Jim]

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[James Holland]

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[Narrator]

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[Jim]

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[James Holland]

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[Jim]

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[Narrator]

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[James Holland]

Except for a vague pain in my

[Narrator]

leg, I feel nothing thing no sense of triumph, no exhilaration of being alive. Even the weariness seems to have passed. Existence has taken on the quality of a dream in which I am detached from all that is present. I hear the shells bursting among the trees, see the dead scattered on the ground, but I do not connect them with anything that particularly concerns me.

[James Holland]

Audie Murphy To Helen Back and welcome to episode four of our series About Audie Murphy Looking at one man's war, this extraordinary soldier from Texas, almost a boy soldier, who joins the army looking for adventure and gets much more than that. At the end of our last episode, Audie was shot in the hip, reunited with his old pal Martin Kelly, who's the last guy left from the Original platoon. By now, Murphy is a lieutenant. He's been commissioned in the field. Second lieutenant. And come January of 1945, he's back with Company B of the 15th Infantry Regiment in the 3rd U.S. infantry Division. He'd be entirely entitled to say, oh, no, I'm sorry, I'm a bit lame. I don't know that I fancy.

[Jim]

Got a bit of a limp. I'm done. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's extraordinary, isn't it? But as he made the point you made at the end of the last episode, I mean. I mean, they need every man they've got and they particularly need experienced men like him. And let's face it, he's still expendable. So back he goes. And they've advanced through the Vosges Mountains and now they've reached the Rhine at Strasbourg and Germany is just over the river. They've got to eliminate the Colmar Pocket because not only is there the counterattack of Herbschniebel, the Battle of the Bulge going on up in the Ardennes, there's also been this second counter attack, which is further to the south. And this is the creation of the Colmar pocket, which is 850 square miles area south of Strasbourg that the Germans have heavily fortified and held since November.

[James Holland]

It's a salient, isn't it? That's what we would. That's what you might call it, like a great big sort of thumb or a fist, as Murphy sees it.

[Narrator]

In effect, it's a huge and dangerous bridgehead thrusting west of the Rhine like an iron fist fed with men and material from across the river. It's a constant threat to our right flank, and potentially it is a perfect springboard from which the enemy could start a powerful counter attack.

[Jim]

They've got to shut this out, basically. But the pocket is created in this counter attack, this second counter attack. It comes after the failure of Herb Schniebel, the Battle of the Bulge. So they created this pocket and now they've got to kind of push it back again, just as they did with the Battle of the Bulge. So this is a sort of second Battle of the Bulge, if you sort of mean. Or the Battle of the Second Bulge would be more accurate way of putting it.

[James Holland]

A big offensive, isn't it?

[Jim]

It's also got the French army, 1st army in the 6th army group. So the French 3rd division is preparing to attack near the town of Guimar. And everyone knows it's going to be a tough one, a horrible battle because there's lots of forest patches where German tanks can stay concealed and then they can counterattack in turn. And it's surrounded by villages, German strongholds. And of course it's almost knee deep in snow and it's horrendously cold because that's what happens in winters during the 1940s.

[James Holland]

The Germans always reply with a counterattack, always. And so they're extremely intense counter attacks. It's Pavlov at Holzwehr and Riedvir. Many of the Allied soldiers involved in this are forced into these terrible, bloody withdrawals. The river is well named.

[Narrator]

It's the Ill River.

[James Holland]

Engineers are trying to build a bridge across the Ile to help the 3rd Battalion establish a bridgehead. But Murphy's battalion are trying to keep the Germans at bay until the bridge is built and then take over from the 3rd Battalion. But he says the planes are littered

[Narrator]

with dead men and abandoned equipment. The soldiers mutter curses and speak bitterly of suicide missions.

[James Holland]

It never gets easier. And as they edge towards the, the woods, they come under intense artillery and tank fire near Riedville. And they're, they're actually pushed back. And the, the, this, I mean, this is the thing that does characterize this stage of the war, is the Germans, if they put their minds to it, can be extremely difficult to, to, to fight and defeat. And I think sometimes, sometimes over the years with the podcast, we say, well, you know, the Allies are good at this, but they've worked out how to do it. They, they're winning and they're winning for this, that and the other reason. But the Germans always make you pay. They always make you, you know, if they put their minds to it. An extremely difficult nettle to grasp on. They, it's the truth.

[Jim]

Absolutely. And of course, it's made so much worse by the freezing temperatures and the cold. And you know, the, most of the men are in foxholes in these woods at the edges of the village. And it's so cold, these hair freezes to the ground one night and he gets wounded again by a mortar shell during another attack in the woods that day.

[Narrator]

And he says, I roll into a hole and jerk up my trouser legs from the knee down. The flesh is peppered with tiny steel fragments.

[James Holland]

And he thinks, that's all right. Tis but a scratch. I'll go. He doesn't go to the aid station. And that evening they're ordered to dig into the woods facing Holzweer and hang on. And as he's pulling his guys together, you know, going around checking on everyone, make sure everyone's okay, the weapons are clean, that they've, you know, that they're all sorted. The arcs of fire, fields of fire or whatever. He finds a guy slumped down against a tree crying. And he says. He shakes him by the shoulder. He says, come on, let's go.

[Jim]

I can't take it anymore. Lieutenant.

[James Holland]

What's come over you?

[Jim]

I don't know. I've got the Shakespeare.

[James Holland]

You can make it.

[Jim]

If I could, I would. I'm not fooling. I'm ashamed, but I can't help it.

[James Holland]

Have you got something on your mind?

[Jim]

No, sir. I just started shaking.

[James Holland]

Can you sleep?

[Jim]

I haven't slept in a week.

[Narrator]

You better report to the medics.

[James Holland]

And the guy falls to his knees and starts crying again. And another guy. I like this. Another guy chips in.

[Jim]

Many of the time I've wanted to sit down and cry about the whole damn mess.

[James Holland]

And the German counterattack continues. German tanks come at the wood and there's six of them. There's enemy infantry coming up in their hundreds wearing white snow capes that make them, you know, disappear. And Murphy tells his guys to retreat into the woods, leaving him on his own. This is, I mean, very.

[Narrator]

That's very gutsy.

[James Holland]

He gets on the field telephone to request artillery support. And the Germans start attacking.

[Narrator]

It is murderous. A single tree burst knocks out our machine gun squad. The second tank destroyers hit flush and

[James Holland]

three of its crew are killed.

[Narrator]

The remainder, cuffing and half blinded, spring down the road to the rear. At that moment, I know we are lost.

[Jim]

And this is absolutely amazing what follows. Because despite shots from the Allied tank destroyers, enemy tanks are unfazed and continue rolling forward. But the tank destroyer that's been hit is smoking and burning. But Murphy notices a machine gun and cases of ammunition on the turret. And they quite often had these sort of 50 cals on the top, didn't they? And he drags himself and the field phone on top of the tank destroyer and finds the body of a lieutenant he spoke to earlier that morning. Drags him off the the TD and dumps the body in the snow. And he answers the phone to headquarters to give them, give them updates. And then start shooting the Germans with the machine gun standing on top of the tank destroyer. I mean, you just imagine, can't you, hitting the tree. I'm sure Brad Pitt did this in fury. And suddenly the tank destroyer shudders. Wanda has been hit again. And then it's hit another time. And Murphy reels back but regains his balance, still on the phone to headquarters. And he feeds more cartridges into the gun and starts firing again. The smoke is so thick he can barely find any targets. But once the wind clears it slightly, he fires at anything that moves. And one officer watching on recalls it was like standing on top of a time bomb, exposed to enemy fire from his ankles to his head and silhouetted against the trees and snow behind him. This is something else, isn't it?

[James Holland]

Yeah. And this, this tank strike could go up at any minute, couldn't it? This is. This the thing, it's full of ammunition, it's full of fuel. He doesn't care, does he?

[Jim]

No, he's done.

[James Holland]

Yeah, he's had enough. And the enemy are confused by this, by the fire coming out through the smoke and. And then it clears a bit. And troops on the ground crawl closer to him. I mean, this is the end. This is then final scene from Fury, isn't it? Basically smoke, except he's on his own. He's not got his crew with him. Smoke descends again. Murphy waits. Then as the smoke clears, he sees 12 Germans huddled in a ditch, talking, probably trying to work out where he has. And he kills all of them. Fires straight down into the. At the ditch. And the Germans are now silent. And the tanks, their tanks begin to retreat.

[Jim]

Yeah. So he saved the day. He saved the moment, hasn't he?

[James Holland]

Yeah, he saved the day. He saved everybody.

[Narrator]

I slide off the tank, destroy him without once looking back, walk down the road through the forest. If the Germans want to shoot me, let them. I'm too weak from fear and exhaustion to care.

[James Holland]

This is amazing.

[Narrator]

He's.

[James Holland]

He's done for over 50 Germans. Extraordinary story. But over the past four days, anyway, around two thirds of his company have been wiped out as it is. So you, you know, the butcher's bill is expensive. That is absolutely extraordinary, isn't it?

[Jim]

Yeah, it really is. I mean, you can absolutely see him just sort of pumping, standing on the back behind the turret, kind of holding onto this thing and just hammering it. But anyway, after. After rendezvousing with his men, they cross the Colmar canal over the next few days, then from its north bank to its south, and they're able to establish bridgeheads. And after a few hours, two infantry regiments have successfully gone across the water of the canal. And there's a sense of time is now of the essence, you know, and all advances are made with, you know, impressive speed. Now the canal is crossed, troops must cut off the roads and railways through which Germany is supplying the Colmar pocket. So they nearly cleared it, but, you know, it's. It's. We're into February now. The Germans destroy an Allied target, a bridge over the Rhone Rhein Canal just before they can establish another bridgehead there. But the final phase of this alt takes them towards the town of Biesheim. And taking this and its communication center at Neuf Brissach particularly will cut the supply lines and seal the Colmar pocket once and for all.

[James Holland]

The Colmar pocket once and for all. But then, then there's going to be whatever's next, which is I think, well,

[Jim]

they've got to go because of Rhine. They haven't done that bit yet.

[James Holland]

Exactly. But this is the endless lesson of Audie Murphy's time in the army, isn't it?

[Jim]

It's one more hill, one more river.

[James Holland]

Yeah, yeah. Men in another regiment of come under in intense German ambush as they reach the town just behind Murphy's 15th. And again there are high casualties and they. But they close in on the enemy. Murphy's men push forward another way. It was still fearing more a further ambush. But then they find themselves in a graveyard which is good cover. Lots of places to hide, aren't there, is the thing. But the men find it ironic that they're.

[Jim]

Jesus. The graveyard company finally gets home.

[Narrator]

Move over, friends, you got some company.

[James Holland]

They're smashing holes in the graveyard walls for their guns and Murphy takes watch at the gate there. And. And interestingly he actually, he falls asleep twice because he's so, so exhausted. The following morning an officer calls to alert him. Some Germans resting in an open field next to the graveyard unaware that Murphy's men are right next to them. The officer tells him to engage, doesn't he?

[Jim]

Basically he says, yeah, shoot him.

[James Holland]

Go for it fully, Boots. He says, this is a setup right out of the books. Okay, let him have it. So they do. Murphy fires from his machine gun. He hits four Germans immediately. The others are. Everyone's wildly confused about where the bullets are coming from. Two more hit more throughout their hands to surrender. Murphy's men go and collect the dead and the wounded and the prisoners. And this means that Knife Brissac falls pretty soon after this. It's a verbal fort town on the French side of the Rhine about 50 miles south of Strasbourg.

[Jim]

You know the thing they kind of. It's a start. Shaped walls and all the rest of it.

[James Holland]

Yeah, yeah, proper, proper old school. But the Germans fall in on themselves and by the 8th of February, Colmar has fallen and he's promoted. Murphy's promoted to first lieutenant a week later.

[Jim]

He's still only 20.

[James Holland]

He's only 20. Once the Colmar pocket has been cleared, Murphy and his men are sent to a Rest camp, Jim. Oh, at last, a little bit of time off. Although in seven weeks they've suffered four and a half thousand casualties.

[Jim]

And to put that in some perspective, if you've got an infantry division of 16,000 men, about nine and a half thousand are fighting troops. Yeah, our infantry frontline troops.

[James Holland]

Yeah, it's about half, isn't it? And as we said a moment ago, you know, after the Colmar pocket, what next? Once they're in the rest camp, it becomes clear that the move to Germany, the shove into Germany is next. I mean, conflicting rumors abound. And in a way these are the rumors that always abound, aren't they? Either the enemy's about to fall in on itself or this is going to be really, really going to be really, really difficult.

[Jim]

It's one or the other.

[James Holland]

There's echoes of that, aren't there, with the Ukraine war right now, is that either one side is about to run rampant or that side is also about to collapse. You know, the. It's going to go on forever or it's completely unsustainable. People are capable of holding those two thoughts in their heads at the same time. Murphy remembers people being hopeful. He says the phrase if I live becomes less common.

[Narrator]

The early March sun hands overhead. Beneath it, men carefully cleaning their weapons. Again, talk of home. But he thinks, I've seen too much to grow optimistic. The road across Germany is a long one and each mile of it must be bought with somebody's blood.

[James Holland]

Why not mine?

[Narrator]

My luck has been extraordinary. But there is an end even to the extraordinary. So until the last shot is fired, I will go on living from day to day, making no post war plans.

[Jim]

You see why he's a bit cynical, can't you? Yes, to put it mildly.

[James Holland]

Yes, exactly.

[Jim]

I mean, a lot is expected of these men, isn't it? I mean, that's the truth of it. It's just incredible, you know, they're a long way from home and what are they doing, you know. This is his second winter on the job. Two summers. Two winters. But unexpectedly, Murphy's then transferred to a liaison duty job when the company's previous commander returns from a special assignment and resumes and resumes his leadership of the, of the company. So, so this means that Murphy's out of a job, removes him from combat because, you know, he's, he's first lieutenant, but the first lieutenant has come back and he's been pit by seniority and he's just completely floored by the incessance of war.

[James Holland]

It's interesting, isn't it? He says, I receive the gift of

[Narrator]

life without inward emotion. Eventually, I feel that I will go back up, and somewhere, sometime, the bullet bearing my name will find me.

[Jim]

So he leaves the front lines and starts his new duties. But. But, but. But he hears that his company are getting battered near the seafried line, which runs down Germany's western border. And the company's commander, who's come back and taken his position again, is dead, too. So he thinks, what the heck, you know, screw this. He's. He's violating the rules. But he decides he's going to return to the front lines and help his old buddies out and take command of the company again.

[James Holland]

He says I'd been with my.

[Narrator]

With the company since North Africa, become part of my life's blood. Its lot was my lot, and to hell with regulations.

[Jim]

And the communications sergeant reluctantly drives him towards the action. You taking nothing but a car, buying

[James Holland]

a lieutenant, that's all I need.

[Jim]

Jesus, what I wouldn't give for a picture of this, a guy tackling the seafried line with a pea shooter.

[Narrator]

What would you take?

[Jim]

I'd take off.

[James Holland]

And he finds his guys in a trench, absolutely terrified. They report that the last few days have been horrendous, and he can see how exhausted they are. He wants to rest them, but he knows they have to push forward. And bizarrely, they managed to do so without any German resistance. Luckily, because after this, everything starts to fall into place. And in our next part, we will deal with the progress into Germany across the Rhine and the. The end of the war.

[Jim]

To the bitter end.

[James Holland]

Right to the bitter end. We'll see you in a tick. Welcome back to Weird Ways to make you talk with me. I'm Arian. James Holland. So Audie Murphy has had the opportunity to step out of the line and has decided to reject it. He's returned to be with his guys, to be with his company, to be with the people he regards as his family, as his tribe. And this is the end game. Now, the 3rd Infantry Division crossed the Rhine in late March, and as he says, a flood of men and arms pours into Germany because, after all, once they're across the Rhine, German resistance essentially is disorganized, is the best way of looking at it. Once they've got over the river Rhine, the Germans are incapable of mounting anything coherent. But they're still.

[Jim]

There's still a danger.

[James Holland]

Yeah, still proper danger. What there aren't is set piece battles anymore. There's this weird sort of anarchistic, almost asymmetric warfare Going on. So by late April, he's in Munich. He rolls up to a prison camp in his jeep. He gets out. He's going to shoot the German security guard. I mean, Audie Murphy has been pretty keen on offing people throughout this series, hasn't he? Like asking questions later.

[Jim]

Yeah, he hasn't been shy.

[James Holland]

He hasn't been shy. But then he hears an American shout, don't shoot.

[Jim]

Don't shoot, Lieutenant. He's a good Joe. I've been here more than a year, and he's always treated us decently. Very reluctantly, Murphy lowers his carbine.

[Narrator]

Tell him to turn himself into the

[James Holland]

authorities, he says to the interpreter with him. And the guard and the interpreter talk in German. And then the interpreter clarifies.

[Jim]

He says he thinks he'll be shot. He wants to know if the prisoners will testify that he never mistreated him. He was. Okay. Another prisoner insists, I'll testify to it if necessary.

[James Holland]

Yeah.

[Jim]

And so Murphy watches the guard kind of walk away.

[Narrator]

There's something pathetically human about his odd hobbled walk. Perhaps it is the knowledge that we carry in our hearts that nobody ultimately wins. Somewhere, we all go down. Force, used tyrannically, is our common enemy. Why align ourselves with it in whatever shape or form?

[James Holland]

Glimmers of peace from Audie Murphy now he faces the spectacle of Germany in ruins, basically. Which is a thing Allied soldiers have to confront, isn't it?

[Jim]

Yeah. And the next few days, he watches as old women rummage through rubble to try and find lost memorabilia as thousands of German soldiers are marched towards their prisons.

[Narrator]

It is impossible to see in these

[James Holland]

men the quality that made them stand

[Narrator]

up and fight like demons out of hell a few short months ago.

[Jim]

Yeah. Murphy's granted some rest leave and gets on a train with the other soldiers to the French Riviera. And the train stops in a small town, and the sound of church bells and accordion music fill the carriage. And he sees some American artillerymen in a group on the platform. And he leans out of the train window and says to them, what's all this noise about? Guess it's the news of the German surrender. One's American shrugs.

[Narrator]

It's official?

[Jim]

Yes, sir. Haven't you heard the radio?

[Narrator]

No, I've been riding since yesterday.

[Jim]

Of course, it's. It's VE Day, the 8th of May.

[Narrator]

Yeah.

[James Holland]

What a way to find out.

[Jim]

2nd of June. He's still. He's still. He's still. He's gone back to Germany, you know, because obviously, haven't been. He hasn't been demobbed or anything. And Murphy receives a Medal of Honor, the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest award for gallantry that the United States can serve. And this is for his tank destroyer action. And he's awarded this in Salzburg and presented him by the 7th army commander, left Lt. Gen. Alexander Patch. And by the end of the war, Murphy has become the single most decorated American soldier. Besides his Medal of Honor, he's also received the distinguished Service Cross, two Silver Stars, Legion of Merit, two Bronze Stars, three Purple Hearts, and he hasn't even turned 21 by the time of V day. It's quite something, isn't it?

[James Holland]

It's truly incredible. And, and you think that there are other people who, when they're, well, decorated, sort of, you know, noted by a press department and hauled out the line and sent on, sent on fundraising drives or whatever, but that hasn't happened to him, has it?

[Jim]

No, he's not Don Genteel, is he?

[James Holland]

He is then sent home though, the following week on the 10th of June, he goes home to public adulation and you know, there's banquets and parades. Everyone wants to shake his hand, buy him a drink. His photo hangs in the state capitol in Austin, Texas. And then in September, he's officially discharged for the Army. It's interesting, he's not earmarked for the Pacific, is he? And absolutely amazingly, and this is right at the start of this, we said his post war career is extraordinary enough. After the war he develops a friendship because he's famous now, of course, and famous people get to meet famous people, don't they? So he meets James Cagney, you dirty rat. And he starts picking up roles in low budget Westerns. You know what this makes me think he's a man of action by choice, right? As a soldier comes to be completely disabused of any notions he might have about soldiering and a full understanding of how dangerous it is. He experiences absolutely every single up and down you possibly can. And then he ends around, ends up on Bud, on Westerns, I don't know, hanging around, picking his nose, waiting for

[Jim]

his scene, playing as soldiers and gunslingers when you know he was doing it for real.

[James Holland]

It's incredible. And interestingly, he joins the Texas National Guard when the Korean War breaks out. So this is a guy for all he said about how he feels about battle, feels he has a duty to do, feels drawn to it. But he isn't posted to Korea because they're never going to do that. They're never going to send, send him, are they? And in 1949, he publishes his memoir, To Hell and Back, which we. Which we've been quoting, which is written with the help of a ghostwriter, Spec McClure, who may have been responsible for some of the like, zingers we've been running into along the way. You never know.

[Jim]

Possibly, possibly. And then, and this is. This defies everything. Then he plays himself in the 1955 film adaptation, you know, and he. And he's critical of the final product, which he feels is kind of romanticized. Of course it is. But it's a huge, massive commercial success. I mean, what was he thinking when he was doing that? How could you relive all that in the kind of, you know, the sham of Hollywood? I mean, it's just extraordinary, isn't it? But I suppose guys got to make a living, right?

[James Holland]

Yeah, a guy's got to make a living. And that, you know, that's obviously going to be a smash, isn't it? Because he's so famous and they're offering

[Jim]

him lots of money.

[James Holland]

It's just really, really, really weird a thing to do, isn't it? I mean, that'd be like having Douglas Barter in Reach for the sky, wouldn't it? Play himself just beat.

[Jim]

It's just too much. Anyway, he then gets married to someone called Wanda Hendricks, who's, who's an actress he meets in Hollywood, divorces her almost immediately and then marries someone else. And this is Pamela Archer, and he marries her in 1951. You know, don't forget he's, you know, he's still not. Still 30 at this point, who's an airline stewardess and together they have two sons. But, you know, it's the 50s and it's the 60s and suddenly interested men as an actor starts to dip and he becomes bankrupt in 1968 after gambling and bad business ventures and probably hitting the bottle too much. I mean, it's all so predictable, isn't it?

[James Holland]

Waking up in the middle of the night screaming and I imagine, you know what I mean, you could, you can see it. It's not pretty. And you know, he has real insomnia and depression.

[Narrator]

He sleeps with a loaded pistol under

[James Holland]

his pillow, becomes addicted to sleeping pills. Yes, it's not good. Wanda Hendricks, his first wife, alleges that he held her once at gunpoint. And also recalls how he becomes tearful and guilt ridden when he. When one time he saw newsreel of German children orphaned by the war. You can blame them having gone bankrupt in the late 60s with gambling and bad business ventures. In the early 70s, he tries to sort of get himself started again and he becomes a representative for an investment group and plans a business trip to. From Georgia to Virginia. But on the 28th of May, 1971,

[Narrator]

he and four others.

[James Holland]

So I mean, 1971 is what is. He's 49.

[Jim]

No, early 40s, isn't. He's 46.

[James Holland]

Sorry. Yes, 40. Yes. I'm glad to know that 46 is early. Is early 40s, Jim. That's reassuring for me. And my, I'm going to call them my early 70s now, early 50s now. I'm 57. He's still only young, isn't he? You know, he and four others board a plane to fly to Virginia and there's intense rain and fog and it's. And the plane crashes and everyone's lost. It's a tragic story, isn't it? When we did War Birds of Liberty, when we talked about those guys, there was a fair deal of post war tragedy and irresolution in a way, and this is a. This is an example of it. But he's in Arlington, isn't he? I think that's interesting.

[Jim]

Yes, he is. He has a non military burial in arlington Cemetery on the 7th of June, 1971. And to this day his grave is the second most visited in the cemetery after of course, President John F. Kennedy. But interestingly, it is just a humble gravestone just like anyone else's. But they have recently put a path there because the ground was getting so worn out by people visiting. So there's a path now to Audie Murphy's grave. And I have been there and paid my respects.

[James Holland]

Tremendous.

[Jim]

And in 1999, George W. Bush proclaims on 20 June Murphy's birthday as Audie Murphy Day. There's a primary care center in San Antonio, is named Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital after him and various other accolades and stuff. It's an amazing story. I would urge everyone to read the book. It's so brilliantly written, it's so compelling. Yeah, it's so fantastic. But, but just to recap it, you know, go back in time a little bit. On V E Day 1945, Murphy gets off that train at Cannes, swings by his hotel and then he goes to watch celebrations in the town center. And he closes his memoir with this. And I think you should read this, this last bit out. It's. It's incredibly moving.

[Narrator]

In the streets crowded with merrymakers, I only feel a vague irritation. I want company and I want to be alone. I want to talk and I want to be Silent. I want to sit. I don't want to walk. There is VE Day without, but no peace within. Like a horror film run backwards, images of the war flicker through my brain. The smell of burning flesh. Josieja rotting in a grave in Anzio. The girl, red headed and shivering in the Naples dawn. Antonio trying to stand on the stumps of his legs with a machine gun ripping his body. And Laddie Tipton, dead under the cork tree. Dear Daddy, I'm in school. Within a couple of hours, I've had enough. I return to my room, but I cannot sleep. My mind still whirls. When I was a child, I was told that men were branded by war. Has the brand been put on me? Have the years of blood and ruin stripped me of all decency? Of all belief? Not of all belief. I believe in the force of a hand grenade, the power of artillery. I believe in hitting people before you get hit and that dead men do not look noble. But I also believe in men like Tipton and Siege and Fife and Kelly. The men who went, and would go again, to hell and back to preserve what our country thinks is right and decent. My country, America. That is it. We have been so intent on death that we have forgotten life. And now suddenly, life faces us.

[James Holland]

I swear to myself that I will

[Narrator]

measure up to it. I may be branded by war, but I will not be defeated by it. Gradually, it becomes clear. I will go back. I will find the kind of girl of whom I once dreamed. I will learn to look at life through uncynical eyes. To have faith, to know love. I will learn to work in peace as in war. And finally, finally, like countless others, I will learn to live again.

[James Holland]

I think there's not too much to say there. Thanks everyone for listening. We hope you've enjoyed the story of Audie Murphy and his extraordinary war.

[Jim]

Yeah, and I think. Well, I think we'll do these focuses on some of the characters of war a bit more. I think it's been great fun doing this and let's face it, there are so many we could pick out.

[James Holland]

Thanks for listening, everyone. We'll see you again very soon. Remember to join the Patreon. Remember to come and see us at. We have Wastefest Mark six in September and we will see you very soon. Cheerio.

[Jim]

Cheerio.

[Narrator]

No time for full TV shows.

[Jim]

TikTok has endless short dramas you can watch anytime. Fast paced, easy to follow and hard to stop. Download TikTok now and start watching.