The Best War Movies of All Time & The Worst. Best War Movie Ever: Black Hawk Down (2. Ridley Scott directs our generation's equivalent of The Longest Day, rendering the details of the battle of Mogadishu in full bloody glory and chaos. The emotions take a back seat during the action, but that makes the brief lulls harder to watch as the Rangers and special forces personnel try to fight off an entire city. Violent, slick, well- crafted, and almost devoid of political diatribe, Black Hawk Down is the only must- see war movie on this list. Audie Murphy - Wikipedia. Audie Leon Murphy (2. June 1. 92. 5 – 2. May 1. 97. 1) was one of the most decorated American combat soldiers of World War II, receiving every military combat award for valor available from the U. S. Army, as well as French and Belgian awards for heroism. I wish these weapons were never developed, even though the invasion of mainland Japan would have been a slaughter un equaled in human history, the world would be. Murphy received the Medal of Honor for valor demonstrated at the age of 1. German soldiers for an hour at the Colmar Pocket in France in January 1. Murphy was born into a large sharecropper family in Hunt County, Texas. His father abandoned them, and his mother died when he was a teenager. Murphy left school in fifth grade to pick cotton and find other work to help support his family; his skill with a hunting rifle was a necessity for putting food on the table.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Murphy's older sister helped him to falsify documentation about his birthdate to meet the minimum- age requirement for enlisting in the military. Turned down by the Navy and the Marine Corps, he enlisted in the Army. He first saw action in the Allied invasion of Sicily and the Battle of Anzio, and in 1. Rome and invasion of southern France. The best World War 2 movies remind us that perhaps no single event has had a greater impact on the future of filmmaking than World War II. It arrived at the dawn of a. Murphy fought at Mont. He played himself in the 1. To Hell and Back, based on his 1. He made guest appearances on celebrity television shows and starred in the series Whispering Smith. Murphy was a fairly accomplished songwriter, and bred quarter horses in California and Arizona, becoming a regular participant in horse racing. Suffering from what would today be termed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), he slept with a loaded handgun under his pillow and looked for solace in addictive sleeping pills. In his last few years, he was plagued by money problems, but refused offers to appear in alcohol and cigarette commercials because he did not want to set a bad example. Murphy died in a plane crash in Virginia in 1. Arlington National Cemetery. Early life. Murphy was born the seventh of twelve children to Emmett Berry Murphy and his wife Josie Bell Killian in Kingston, Texas. He grew up in Texas, around Farmersville, Greenville, and Celeste, where he attended elementary school. Murphy dropped out of school in fifth grade and got a job picking cotton for a dollar a day to help support his family; he also became skilled with a rifle, hunting small game to help feed them. After his mother died of endocarditis and pneumonia in 1. Greenville. Hunt County authorities placed his three youngest siblings in Boles Children's Home. After the war, he bought a house in Farmersville for his oldest sister Corinne and her husband Poland Burns. His other siblings briefly shared the home. The loss of his mother stayed with Murphy throughout his life. He later stated: She died when I was sixteen. She had the most beautiful hair I've ever seen. It reached almost to the floor. She rarely talked; and always seemed to be searching for something. What it was I don't know. We didn't discuss our feelings. But when she passed away, she took something of me with her. It seems I've been searching for it ever since. World War II service. Murphy had always wanted to be a soldier, and after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1. Army, Navy and Marine Corps all turned him down for being underweight and underage. After his sister provided an affidavit falsifying his birth date by a year, he was accepted by the U. S. Army on 3. 0 June 1. During basic training, he earned the Marksman Badge with Rifle Component Bar and Expert Badge with Bayonet Component Bar. Mediterranean Theater. Allied landing in Sicily Licata Sector Joss Beach Mollarella Poliscia. Murphy was shipped to Casablanca in French Morocco on 2. February 1. 94. 3. He was assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, 1. Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, which trained under the command of Major General Lucian Truscott. He participated as a platoon messenger with his division at Arzew in Algeria in rigorous training for the Allied assault landings in Sicily. He was promoted to private first class on 7 May and corporal on 1. July. When the 3rd Infantry landed at Licata, Sicily, on 1. July, Murphy was a division runner. Sidelined with illness for a week when Company B arrived in Palermo on 2. July, he rejoined them when they were assigned to a hillside location protecting a machine- gun emplacement, while the rest of the 3rd Infantry Division fought at San Fratello en route to the Allied capture of the transit port of Messina. Murphy participated in the September 1. Salerno landing at Battipaglia. While on a scouting party along the Volturno River, he and two other soldiers were ambushed; German machine gun fire killed one soldier. Murphy and the other survivor responded by killing five Germans with hand grenades and machine gun fire. While taking part in the October Allied assault on the Volturno Line. Murphy was promoted to sergeant on 1. December. In January 1. Murphy was promoted to staff sergeant. He was hospitalized in Naples with malaria on 2. January, and was unable to participate in the initial landing at the Anzio beachhead. He returned on 2. January and participated in the First Battle of Cisterna. He returned with the 3rd Division to Anzio, where they remained for months. Taking shelter from the weather in an abandoned farmhouse on 2 March, Murphy and his platoon killed the crew of a passing German tank. He then crawled out alone close enough to destroy the tank with rifle grenades, for which he received the Bronze Star with . Sixty- one infantry officers and enlisted men of Company B, 1. Infantry, including Murphy, were awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge on 8 May. Murphy was awarded a Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster for his Bronze Star. He retrieved a machine gun that had been detached from the squad and returned fire at the German soldiers, killing two and wounding one. Murphy advanced alone on the house under direct fire. He killed six, wounded two and took 1. His first Silver Star came after he killed four and wounded three at a German machine gun position on 2 October at L'Omet quarry in the Cleurie river valley. Three days later, Murphy crawled alone towards the Germans at L'Omet, carrying an SCR- 5. Germans fired directly at him. When his men finally took the hill, 1. Germans had been killed and 3. Murphy's actions earned him a Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster for his Silver Star. He was awarded a battlefield commission to second lieutenant on 1. October, which elevated him to platoon leader. While en route to Brouvelieures on 2. October, the 3rd Platoon of Company B was attacked by a German sniper group. Murphy captured two before being shot in the hip by a sniper; he returned fire and shot the sniper between the eyes. At the 3rd General Hospital at Aix- en- Provence, the removal of gangrene from the wound caused partial loss of his hip muscle and kept him out of combat until January. Murphy received his first Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster for his Purple Heart for this injury. The Colmar Pocket, 8. Vosges Mountains, had been held by German troops since November 1. On 1. 4 January 1. Murphy rejoined his platoon, which had been moved to the Colmar area in December. He moved with the 3rd Division on 2. January to the town of Holtzwihr, where they faced a strong German counterattack. He was wounded in both legs, for which he received a second Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster for his Purple Heart. As the company awaited reinforcements on 2. January, he was made commander of Company B. The Germans scored a direct hit on an M1. He sustained a leg wound during his stand, and stopped only after he ran out of ammunition. He insisted on remaining with his men while his wounds were treated. He was moved from the front lines to Regimental Headquarters and made a liaison officer. Decorations. Army version of the Medal of Honor. The United States additionally honored Murphy's war contributions with the American Campaign Medal. Belgium awarded Murphy the Belgian Croix de guerre with 1. Palm. Brigadier General Ralph B. Lovett and Lieutenant Colonel Hallet D. Edson recommended Murphy for the Medal of Honor. Patch presented Murphy with the Medal of Honor and Legion of Merit for his actions at Holtzwihr. When asked after the war why he had seized the machine gun and taken on an entire company of German infantry, he replied, . Army for his World War II service. Murphy was one of several military personnel who received orders on 8 June 1. Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, for temporary duty and reassignment. A post- service medical examination on 1. June 1. 94. 7 revealed symptoms of headaches, vomiting, and nightmares about war. His medical records indicated that he took sleeping pills to help prevent nightmares. During the mid- 1. Placidyl, and locked himself alone in a hotel room for a week to break the addiction successfully. Post- traumatic stress levels exacerbated his innate moodiness, and surfaced in episodes that friends and professional colleagues found alarming. His first wife, Wanda Hendrix, stated that he once held her at gunpoint. She witnessed her husband being guilt- ridden and tearful over newsreel footage of German war orphans. Murphy briefly found a creative stress outlet in writing poetry after his Army discharge. It was known during Murphy's lifetime as . He called on the government to give increased consideration and study to the emotional impact of combat experiences, and to extend health care benefits to war veterans. As a result of legislation introduced by U. S. Congressman Olin Teague five months after Murphy's death in 1. Audie L. Murphy Memorial VA Hospital. Miller Ainsworth and Brigadier General Carl L. Phinney were the 3. After the 2. 5 June 1. Korean War, Murphy began a second military career and was commissioned as a captain in the 3. Infantry Division of the Texas Army National Guard. Although he wanted to join the fighting and juggled training activities with his film career, the 3. Infantry Division was never sent to Korea. Murphy was promoted to the rank of major by the Texas Army National Guard in 1.
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