Frequently Asked Questions

On May 28, 1971, Murphy was killed after his plane crashed into the mountains of Roanoke County near New Castle. Near the site of the crash, a stone monument now stands tucked away on Brush Mountain. He was just 45 years old.

Famous songs, e.g. “Shutters and Boards” and “When the Wind Blows in Chicago”
Famous poems, e.g. “The Crosses Grow on Anzio” and “Dusty Old Helmet”

In 1955 Audie played himself in “To Hell and Back”.

“To Hell and Back” was a Universal production filmed at Universal Studios and on location in California in widescreen CinemaScope.

The movie is based on Audie’s biography “To Hell and Back”.
It is Audie Murphy's 1949 World War II memoir, detailing the events that led him to receive the Medal of Honor and also to become the most decorated infantryman of the war.

Audie returned once to Holtzwihr, in 1947. After he was decorated with the Chevalier d’Honneur by General de Gaulle in Paris. He was also working on his autobiography “To Hell and Back” upon which the movie is based.

"If you're afraid of anything, why not take a chance and do the thing you fear. Sometimes it's the only way to get over being afraid."

Murphy was married twice. First to Wanda Hendrix from 1949 to 1951, then to Pamela Archer, with whom he had two boys, Terrance and James.

After his military service, Murphy was plagued with insomnia and bouts of depression, and he slept with a loaded pistol under his pillow. A post-service medical examination on 17 June 1947 revealed symptoms of headaches, vomiting, and nightmares about the war.
Gambling debts and unpaid taxes complicated his postwar life, and he struggled with insomnia and outbursts of violence that landed him in legal trouble.

Throughout his life, Audie Murphy battled PTSD, eventually losing most of the money he made in Hollywood through bad investments and gambling

8.000 American casualties, 14.000 French casualties and an estimated 32.000 – 38.000 German casualties. 60.000 German troops escaped the Colmar Pocket, before the Germans blew the Rhine bridges. However, they were finished as a fighting force.

The Battle of the Bulge took place further North and before the Colmar Pocket Campaign, in Dezember 1944. There was a plan by the Germans to try and break out of the pocket and head north to link up with their advance in the Bulge.

Russel E. Dunham, José Valdez, Forrest E. Peden are three other Medal of Honor recipients who fought in the Colmar Pocket.

Airpower was of little use during the colmar Pocket due to bad weather. Audie said that it was only on the last day that air power came in.

The Canadians were up in the Netherlands. However, Royal Air Force bases in the area here had Canadian pilots.

General Patton’s 3^rd Army was covering this area of the Western Front until the U.S. 7^th Army arrived. Then the 3^rd Army moved up north and fought north of Strasbourg.

The U.S. 7^th Army landed on the south coast of France on the 15^th August 1944, making a lightning advance up the Rhone valley to the southern end of the Rhine Valley and the Vosges mountains.

The U.S. 28^th Division from Pennsylvania, the U.S. 75^th Infantry Division, The U.S. 12^th Armored Division , 63^rd Division and the 601^st Tank Battalion.

Other Divisions fought prior to the campaign starting in the area, e.g. the 36^th Division from Texas, the 45^th Division from Oklahoma, and the 442nd Japanese American Combat Group (the most highly decorated unit from America in WWII).

The U.S. 3^rd Division, Company B

The U.S. 7^th Army fought along with the 1^st Army of France.