First to the Rhine The 6th Army Group in World War II

Staff Sergeant Audie Murphy landed in the first wave near St. Tropez shortly after 0900. Murphy, who had already been decorated for bravery in fierce fighting after the Anzio landings in Italy, led his rifle platoon inland until they were driven to ground by machine-gun fire from a ridge not far ahead. Murphy ran forty yards back through the whizzing bullets and found an American machine-gun crew. He borrowed their weapon, dashed back through the enemy fire to his men, and told them he was going to crawl ahead to take out the machine-gun nest. His old friend Lattie Tipton volunteered to go with him. Murphy set up his machine gun, but just as he was ready to fire, the enemy soldiers waved a white flag. Tipton stood to accept the surrender and was cut down by another blast of gunfire. Murphy went berserk and had little memory of what happened next. Murphy's Distinguished Service Cross citation offers this account: "In the duel that ensued, Sergeant Murphy silenced the enemy weapon, killed two of the crew, and wounded a third. As he proceeded, two Germans advanced toward him. Quickly destroying both of them, he dashed alone toward the enemy strongpoint, disregarding bullets that glanced off rocks around him and hand grenades that exploded as close as 15 yards away. Closing in, he wounded two Germans with carbine fire, killed two more in a fierce, brief fire fight, and forced the remaining five to surrender."Yeide, Harry is the author of 'First to the Rhine The 6th Army Group in World War II', published 2007 under ISBN 9780760331460 and ISBN 0760331464.