page_title: Military career of Audie Murphy
section_title: Colmar Pocket
hierarchical_section_title: Military career of Audie Murphy / United States Army / European Theater / Northeastern France / Colmar Pocket
caption_attribution_description: English: Audie Murphy's Mauser Model 98, Colt Model 1911, and M-1 Carbine at the Audie Murphy American Cotton Museum in Greenville, Texas (United States).
context_page_description: The military career of Audie Murphy encompassed two separate careers. His U. S. Army service covered nine World War II campaigns fought by the 3rd Infantry Division: Tunisia, Sicily, Naples-Foggia, Anzio, Rome-Arno, Southern France, Ardennes-Alsace, Rhineland and Central Europe. He lied about his age to enlist in the United States Army in 1942. Before his 20th birthday he had earned every Army combat award for valor available during his period of service and had risen to the rank of first lieutenant. On the day he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his January 1945 actions at the Colmar Pocket in France, he was considered to be America's most decorated World War II soldier and received national recognition as such when Life magazine made him their cover story.
  His superior officers, as well as the Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives, encouraged him to apply for enrollment at West Point and offered to provide any assistance and influence needed to help him be accepted as a cadet. Murphy eventually passed on the opportunity of enrollment at West Point, in part because of limitations resulting from his war injuries.
context_section_description: The Colmar Pocket was 850 square miles (2,200 km²) in the Vosges Mountains and had been held by German troops since November 1944. Murphy was still hospitalized on 15 December when General O'Daniel moved the 3rd Infantry Division into the area. Murphy described it as
  a huge and dangerous bridgehead thrusting west of the Rhine like an iron fist. Fed with men and materiel from across the river, it is a constant threat to our right flank; and potentially it is a perfect springboard from which the enemy could start a powerful counterattack.
  He rejoined his platoon on 14 January 1945, the date Lieutenant General Jacob Devers ordered the 3rd Division reinforced by the 28th Infantry Division. The 3rd Division engaged in sixteen days of battle to secure the bridgeheads west of the Rhine at the Colmar Canal. After crossing the Ill river through the Riedwihr Woods on 24 January, the 3rd Division was ordered to the town of Holtzwihr, where they met with a strong German counterattack. Two officers in the division were killed by mortar shells in an attack the following day during which Murphy was wounded in both legs, and for which he received a second Oak Leaf Cluster for his Purple Heart.
  From its peak of 235 men, disease, injuries and casualties had reduced Company B's fighting strength to 18 men. Murphy being the only officer remaining on 26 January was made the company commander. The company awaited reinforcements as Murphy watched the approaching Germans,
  I see the Germans lining up for an attack. Six tanks rumble to the outskirts of Holtzwihr, split into groups of threes, and fan out toward either side of the clearing. Then wave after wave of white dots, barely discernible against the background of snow, start across the field. They are enemy infantrymen.
  The Germans scored a direct hit on an M10 tank destroyer, setting it on fire and causing its crew to abandon it. Murphy ordered his men to retreat to positions in the woods, remaining alone at his post shooting his M1 carbine and relaying orders via his telephone while the Germans aimed fire directly at his position. Murphy mounted the abandoned, burning tank destroyer and began firing its .50 caliber machine gun at the advancing Germans, killing a squad crawling through a ditch towards him.
  It was like standing on top of a time bomb ... he was standing on the TD chassis, exposed to enemy fire from his ankles to his head and silhouetted against the trees and the snow behind him.
  — Eyewitness account of Pvt. Anthony V. Abramski
  
  For an hour, Murphy stood on the tank destroyer returning German fire from foot soldiers and advancing tanks, during which he sustained a leg wound. He stopped only after he ran out of ammunition.
  As if under the influence of some drug, I slide off the tank destroyer and, without once looking back, walk down the road through the forest. If the Germans want to shoot me, let them. I am too weak from fear and exhaustion to care.
  — Audie Murphy, To Hell and Back
  He rejoined his men with complete disregard for his own wound, leading them back to successfully repel the Germans. Only afterwards would he allow treatment of his leg wound, and still insisted on remaining with his men.
  ... during his indomitable one-man struggle, Lieutenant Murphy broke the entire attack of the Germans and held hard-won ground that it would have been disastrous to lose.
  — Eyewitness account of Sergeant Elmer C. Brawley
  While standing on the burning tank destroyer Murphy killed or wounded 50 Germans. For his actions that day he was awarded the Medal of Honor.
  On 4 February, Murphy led Company B in a battle to successfully rid the Jewish Cemetery near Biesheim of German troops holed up inside, killing six and taking the remainder prisoner.  Two days later, Company B advanced to Neuf-Brisach.   By 8 February, the city of Colmar surrendered to combined Allied forces, ending the battle. The 3rd Division was charged with guarding the Rhine west bank 10 to 18 February. Murphy was promoted to first lieutenant on 16 February.  The 3rd Infantry Division was awarded the Presidential Unit Ci
caption: Murphy's M1911 pistol, M1 carbine, and (captured) Mauser Model 98 on display at the Audie Murphy American Cotton Museum
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