A thread on audie murphy
Who is audie murphy? You might know his name, you may not, certainly people in America when asked, have been known to say eddie murphys brother.
He was a farm hand, a hunter, a soldier and an actor.
Born in 1924 to an already large family, he grew up

destitution of the likes we know nothing of today, moving from home to home, when the family got to big, his father dissapeared, leaving his sister to look after him, as his mother no longer could.
During this time as a child he learned to hunt for rabbits using a sling shot

learned to shoot with a .22 rifle, and by 15 he was an adept shot with most weapons.
Ww2 came along, he tried enlisting in the marines, the navy, but was told to small, he was between 5ft 5 & 5ft 6.
Eventually he was accepted into the army, where he earned his marksmanship

badge, and was eventually assigned to company b, 1st batallion,15th infranty regiment, 3rd division, landing at sicily in july 1943, the legend begins here
Its estimated that during ww2 he killed around 251 enemy combatants, german and italian, indeed his first 2 kills were

italians, he used an m1 carbine as his chief weapon, but also a garrand, a .45, and also uses of .50 cal, mg42, thompsons, and other assorted weapons. He had a friend lattie tipton, and they were practically joined at the hip. It was on a day after landing in france that audie

and tipton were part of a group trying to take a hill, during the skirmish against a mg nest, germans waved a white flag, tipton stood up and was promptly killed, incensed audie hurleda grenade killing the mg42 crew, then taking the weapon and holding it like a BAR raked the

germans killing them all. But his most famous battle was in the colmar region of france for which he would win a congressional medal of honor. Witnessed by several soldiers, whilst under heavy german bombardment, falling back, after expending his ammunition, he saw a damaged

tank destroyer on fire with a .50 cal and several boxes of ammo, without thought he jumped up and started firing, also bringing down artillery fire by phone,at one point when asked how close, he replied i will pass the phone, you can talk to the bastards. Over 40 mins he

countinued firing, whilst the destroyer was recieving incoming fire from german 88s, which scored 2 direct hits, this was verified in 1948 when on a tour he found the battered hulk of the td where it had been left, mg fire and rifle fire, when the germans started to fall back

he jumped down and fell back just as the td exploded. Its estimated he personally killed between 50-60 that day.
He ended being at the end of the war being the most highly decorated us soldier of ww2, croix le guerre, silver star, purple heart, congrssional medal of honor

wounded 3 times, shot in the backside, he would spend the rest of his life coping with what is known as ptsd, and not well either, he was described as baby face due to his young looks, he described himself as an executioner at one time. In 1949 he wrote his book to hell and back

if you havent read it, take a look. He became an actor and his first mentor was james cagney, who taught him how to talk, he had a strong texas twang, how to dance, how to walk, how to be an actor. His main staple was westerns, but his most prominent roles were the red badge of

courage, the quiet american, and of course to hell and back made in 1955. Initally he wanted 2 scenes ommited, the one where tipton is killed, and recieving his MOH, during the filming it was noticed how quickly he became a soldier again, if you watch the film, you can see in his

eyes the look of a haunted man. He by his own admission was no real actor, and just before he died, don siegel who hed worked with before,was about to offer him the role of scorpio in dirty harry. He had major faults, he was a womaniser, a bad gambler, argued with a lot of

studio heads, angered actors like lillian gish, tony curtis and micheal redgrave,rumoured to have had an affair with natalie wood, married twice with 2 children
He would die in a plane crash in 1971, and hid death got 20 seconds air time
Hes buried in arlington cemetry, his

grave is one of the most visited there. MOH winners normally have gold going around the name to show they are a MOH winner, he wanted his kept normal because he was as he said a normal soldier
For all his flaws and he had loads, he was and is an inspirational man, a man who

came from nothing, became a hero to many, his story is so complex it would take me a book to complete and not on this thread
Hope you know who audie lyon murphy is now