Medal of Honor Monday: Charles Murray

A single-handed attack against 200 Germans.

On this day in 1944, a hero engages in an action that would earn him the Medal of Honor. Would you believe that Charles Murray’s single-handed attack sent a force of 200 Germans fleeing?!

Murray’s heroic action came on December 16, 1944, as he served near Kayserberg, France. He had been promoted to Company Commander mere days before. “I didn’t smoke or drink until I joined Company C [of the 3rd Infantry Division],” he later joked. “By the next day, I was doing both.”

Then-First Lt. Murray set out with about 35 of his men early that December morning. They were to go down a narrow mountain pass, taking possession of a bridge and building a roadblock to prevent the enemy advance.

Things didn’t go quite as planned. They hadn’t gone too far when they spotted a force of about 200 Germans. The enemy soldiers were hidden in a sunken road at the bottom of the hill—but it was even worse than that. The Germans were “pouring deadly mortar, bazooka, machine-gun, and small-arms fire into an American battalion occupying the crest of the ridge,” as Murray’s Medal citation would later describe.

Murray could see that the Germans were susceptible to an attack on their flank, but how was he to go about it? He and his group were badly outnumbered.

“Hesitant to commit his small platoon to battle a much larger and stronger force,” the U.S Army website describes, “and wanting to protect his platoon, he crawled ahead to pinpoint the exact location of the enemy and radioed for artillery.”

In other words, he wouldn’t risk his men, so he would do it himself.

He called for artillery, but the first round was off target. A second round was closer. Just as he was preparing to call for a third round, his radio went dead.

Naturally, he wasn’t going to be stopped by a little thing like dead radio batteries.

“He returned to his patrol, secured grenades and a rifle to launch them, and went back to his self-appointed outpost,” his Medal citation describes. “His first shots disclosed his position; the enemy directed heavy fire against him . . . .”

Murray estimates that he spent about half an hour firing at the enemy in this fashion. When he ran out of ammunition, he went back for more, then resumed his task. At other points, his soldiers tossed him ammunition and a mortar arrived from his company, so he began firing that, too. Would you believe that his one-man attack was enough to confuse and disorient the enemy? They began to retreat, and Murray led a charge down the hill, calling on his men to follow.

He captured 10 Germans, but then faced one last obstacle: An 11th German came toward him, apparently raising his hands in surrender. It was a trick. At the last minute, the German threw a grenade. The blast knocked Murray to the ground, severely injuring him—but he captured the German anyway.

Murray ended up in the hospital and in surgery, but he wanted to go back. Within roughly two weeks, he’d made it happen. He’d hitched a ride on an ambulance, then a ration truck. He found his men exactly where he’d left them: They were still holding the position, as they’d originally been tasked with doing on December 16.

Murray was awarded a Medal of Honor several months later.

“I don’t feel like I did anything at all that was heroic,” he shrugged. “I did what I felt should have been done.”

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