Category: Audie Murphy

Murphy: HUAC Is Un-American

He Stands Up Against Attacks on Hollywood

My Mother and Audie Murphy chapter 125

Audie Murphy’s relationship with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) reveals a complex intersection of patriotism, celebrity, and the political paranoia of the Cold War. Murphy’s resistance to the climate of fear created by HUAC highlights a principled stand against the infringement of civil liberties and the weaponization of patriotism.

The House Un-American Activities Committee was a congressional committee formed in 1938 to investigate subversive activities within the United States. While its initial focus was on Nazi and fascist influence, its focus shifted sharply after WWII toward the perceived threat of communism. By the late 1940s and 1950s, HUAC had become a tool for political persecution, utilizing public hearings to “out” suspected communists. The committee operated on a system of coercion; witnesses were often pressured to “name names”—to identify colleagues, friends, or family members with socialist or communist leanings—in exchange for their own professional survival. Those who refused to cooperate were often cited for contempt of Congress or, more commonly in Hollywood, were placed on “blacklists,” effectively ending their careers.

From the book Show Trial: Hollywood, HUAC, and the Birth of the Blacklist by Thomas Doherty

Audie Murphy’s involvement with the anti-HUAC sentiment was less about an ideological alignment with the left and more about a visceral reaction to the committee’s tactics. Murphy, who had faced the horrors of war and seen the true meaning of sacrifice, found the committee’s methods of intimidation and betrayal abhorrent. For Murphy, the demand that citizens betray one another to prove their loyalty was fundamentally un-American. He viewed the HUAC hearings not as a defense of democracy, but as an attack on the very freedom of association and thought that he had fought to protect in Europe. 

Murphy’s stance was particularly potent because he was “untouchable” by the committee. As a national hero with a chest full of medals, including the Medal of Honor, he could not be easily painted as a “Red” or a subversive. This gave him a unique platform to criticize the committee without the immediate fear of professional ruin that haunted his peers.

Murphy was not alone in his opposition, though the risks for others were far higher. The most famous instance of resistance occurred in 1947 with the “Hollywood Ten,” a group of screenwriters and directors who refused to answer HUAC’s questions on First Amendment grounds. They were imprisoned for contempt, and their names became synonymous with the blacklist. Other stars took different paths of resistance. Paul Robeson, a world-renowned singer and actor, became a primary target of the committee due to his outspoken socialist views and his refusal to renounce them, leading to a systemic erasure of his career in the United States. 

Audie Murphy testifies

The First Amendment Committee made a radio program to defend the First Amendment and critique HUAC–Hollywood fights back. Forty-five stars, directors, screenwriters and four U.S. senators spoke.

Audie Murphy said: 

“You know during the war every guy in uniform dreamed of the day when he could stop squeezing triggers and come home. You get so fed up on fighting that you never want to do it again. There’s one kind of fighting that has to go on always. You can’t ever take a furlough from this fight to preserve human liberty. I think the methods used by the Thomas Rankin committee are a challenge to those liberties and I think we should use every fair and constitutional means to fight those methods.” (HUAC was also called the Thomas Rankin committee).

In the broader context of McCarthyism and the Red Scare, Audie Murphy’s opposition to HUAC serves as a reminder that the defense of civil liberties is not the exclusive domain of any one political party. Murphy’s resistance was rooted in a soldier’s code of honor and a citizen’s demand for privacy. By challenging the committee, he demonstrated that true patriotism consists not of blind obedience or the betrayal of others, but of the courage to protect the constitutional rights of all individuals, regardless of their political affiliations.

Murphy, in particular, embodied the principle that American heroes are defined not only by military valor but by the willingness to defend constitutional liberties. His opposition to HUAC showed that the most decorated soldier of World War II understood that the war’s true purpose—defending American freedom—required vigilance against threats to liberty even from within America’s own government.

Committee for the First Amendment Relaunched

Recently over 550 celebrities relaunched the Committee for the First Amendment. The current group is headlined by actor and activist Jane Fonda — whose father, actor Henry Fonda, was one of the early members.

Jane Fonda rallys fellow actors. Photo: msn.com

Their intent is to stand up in a defense of our constitutional rights: “The federal government is once again engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry.”

In a letter inviting her peers to join the re-established group, Fonda writes: “I’m 87 years old. I’ve seen war, repression, protest, and backlash. I’ve been celebrated, and I’ve been branded an enemy of the state. But I can tell you this: this is the most frightening moment of my life. When I feel scared, I look to history. I wish there were a secret playbook with all the answers — but there never has been. The only thing that has ever worked — time and time again — is solidarity: binding together, finding bravery in numbers too big to ignore, and standing up for one another.”

Chapter 126: https://mollymartin.blog/2026/10/17/post-war-letters-to-flo/

Why Did the Cagneys Dump Murphy?

Bravery on the Battlefield Doesn’t Make an Actor

My Mother and Audie Murphy Chapter 121

In July 1946, James Cagney spotted the face of war hero Audie Murphy on the cover of Life magazine. To Cagney and his brother William, who ran their own production company, the twenty-year-old was a striking find—a “cute” kid with the kind of look that sells tickets. They signed him, brought him to Hollywood, and installed him in James’s guest house.

The arrangement was fraught from the start. One stormy night, Cagney went to check on Murphy, who was battling chronic nightmares. In a flash of combat-reflex, Murphy pulled a loaded Luger on Cagney. James managed to talk him down, but the encounter served as a visceral reminder that Murphy had brought the war home with him.

James Cagney. Photo: Creative Commons Public Domain

Despite the Cagneys’ efforts to school him in acting and dancing, Murphy never landed a role in their films. By 1947, he was released from his contract, reportedly following a disagreement with William Cagney.

Speculation regarding their fallout persists. Some argue Murphy simply lacked the craft; indeed, Murphy once admitted, “I’m working under a great handicap… no talent.” For Cagney, a devotee of the actor’s art, this was the crux of the issue. He maintained a sacred line between heroism and performance. “The man’s a hero,” Cagney once remarked, “but being brave on the battlefield doesn’t make you a master of the stage or screen.”

Cagney believed true acting required a soul-deep emotional truth that medals could not buy. He viewed the industry’s trend of casting “manufactured stars” as a betrayal of the profession. In private, he was blunter, noting that Murphy’s delivery sounded rehearsed and lacked authenticity. This wasn’t born of animosity—Cagney deeply respected Murphy’s service, admitting he could never match the soldier’s courage in Europe—but of a principled fury. He loathed that Hollywood was trading artistry for easy profit, using fame as a substitute for talent.

This divide represented two different Americas: one celebrating the patriotic icon, the other defending the sanctity of art. Their unspoken friction became a commentary on a timeless Hollywood dilemma: is stardom earned through craft or bestowed through fame?

While they maintained a distant acquaintance after the contract ended, Cagney recognized that Murphy had never truly left the war behind; he simply treated every role as a new battlefield. Behind the angelic face lived a ticking time bomb. Some theorists suggest the Cagneys eventually let him go simply out of fear—a theory that requires little explanation. Ultimately, Cagney likely intended to protect and mentor Murphy, but found the task of bridging the gap between a soldier’s trauma and an actor’s truth to be overwhelming.

Chapter 122: https://mollymartin.blog/2026/09/10/still-in-the-occupied-zone/

Audie Murphy After the War

A Timeline of His Post-War Life

My Mother and Audie Murphy Chapter 119

He was a war hero—THE most decorated hero of World War Two—and that was his epithet, even as he became a Hollywood movie star with more than 40 movies to his credit.

What no one, and especially the US military, wanted to talk about was the degradation of his life because of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and, I would argue, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Audie Murphy survived the war but not his invisible injuries.

To understand Audie Murphy’s post-war life, I’ve created a timeline that will help me explore the details in future posts.

Audie Murphy Post-War Timeline

My mother Flo’s famous picture of Audie when he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in the field May 12, 1945

Chapter 120: https://mollymartin.blog/2026/09/01/back-home-depression-takes-over/

Taking a Little Break from Posting

Where We Are Now: A Recap

My Mother and Audie Murphy Ch. 113

Dear Readers,

For the past year and a half, I’ve been tracing the life of my mother, Florence Wick, her service as a Red Cross clubmobiler, and her improbable intersection with the war hero Audie Murphy. Flo made a huge scrapbook after the war and I’ve been using that and her war diary to tell the story. I’m also telling Audie Murphy’s story using his autobiography To Hell and Back.

I’m pausing now to catch my breath, but the story is far from over.

45th Infantry Div. patch
5th Army patch
10th mountain division.
Tenth Corps patch
Flo’s dog tag
30th Infantry insignia
15th Infantry badge
7th inf Reg. Wiling and Able

Patches and insignia of some of the combat groups Flo served with, along with her dogtag, tacked onto the inside covers of her scrapbook

To recap:

In May 1944, Flo joined the American Red Cross Clubmobile program and sailed for Naples on a hospital ship. A month later, she stood in the streets of Rome as it was liberated, alongside General Mark Clark. By high summer, she was at an army camp near Pozzuoli, leading a four-woman crew, serving doughnuts and coffee to soldiers on the brink of the invasion of southern France.

By late August, they were in France, chasing a front that refused to hold still. Somewhere in that rush, Flo fell in love—with a lieutenant named Gene. They planned to marry in October. A mortar shell ended that future before it began.

Winter came hard—1944 into ’45—frigid, dangerous, unrelenting. Flo and her crew followed the Third Infantry Division through France, often within earshot of the guns. It was here she handed coffee and doughnuts to a young soldier named Audie Murphy—not yet a legend, but already carrying the weight of one.

He would become the most decorated American soldier of World War II. Flo, meanwhile, captured something just as lasting: she took the only photograph of Murphy at a field awards ceremony. The photo became a famous icon.

In January, the division crossed the Rhine and drove into Germany. Flo kept working—serving men rotating through rest camps, offering small comforts in a landscape torn apart. At the war’s end, she witnessed the liberation of Dachau concentration camp and Berchtesgaden, Hitler’s alpine retreat.

She stayed on through the occupation, stationed in Austria and Germany. When she could, she traveled—Switzerland, England, German cities and towns, Brussels, Copenhagen, Paris—brief glimpses of a world trying to knit itself back together. She ended her stay with a visit to relatives in Sweden.

And that’s where we are now.

There is still much to tell. Flo’s scrapbook is bursting with post-war miscellany. How did Flo and Audie adjust to peacetime back in the USA? How did the war affect them and those who fought in combat? How did Audie Murphy become a movie star?

I’ll come back to the rest—after a little rest of my own.

To start the story from chapter 1: https://mollymartin.blog/2024/11/04/my-mother-and-audie-murphy/

Chapter 114: https://mollymartin.blog/2026/07/03/flo-in-paris-for-one-last-visit/

Of Mud, Mules, and Mountains

Chapter 8: My Mother and Audie Murphy

Mignano Italy November, 1943

The town of Mignano sits trapped between steep, craggy peaks, their sheer faces scarred by war. The Nazis are dug in, their defenses embedded in the rock like stubborn roots. The strategy is clear — avoid the town and strike straight at the mountains surrounding it. But the terrain is merciless. Cliffs rise like walls, gorges cut deep into the earth, and even surefooted pack mules often slip, falling to their deaths. When the animals fail, the soldiers must take over, crawling on hands and knees, dragging supplies through mud that swallows boots whole.

Bill Mauldin (1921–2003) — Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist famous for his WWII characters, Willie and Joe, depicted the hardships of American soldiers with grit and humor.

On a reconnaissance mission, Audie Murphy and his squad find themselves stranded on the side of a mountain above Mignano. They walk straight toward a German tank, so expertly camouflaged that they miss it. As the snout of the cannon is lowered at them, they run like hell for a clump of bushes. One soldier breaks his leg in the rush. They drag him into a ditch and lose the tank.

Several assaults on nearby Mount Rotondo are pushed back. Lines are confused by enemy fire. Murphy mistakes a Nazi patrol for allies. When he realizes his mistake, he starts firing. Now the enemy knows where they are. With no choice, they scramble up the rocks, reaching an abandoned quarry where they settle in for the night.

At dawn, they ambush a Nazi patrol. The fight is brutal and quick, but the cost is high. Three German soldiers lay dying.

Mauldin drew six cartoons a week during the war. He was only 23 when awarded the Pulizer Prize.

“The wounded must be got under cover. The peculiar ethics of war condone our riddling the bodies with lead. But then they were soldiers. (The machine gun) transformed them into human beings again; and the rules say that we cannot leave them unprotected against a barrage of their own artillery,” Murphy wrote.

Murphy’s squad is forced to stay with them, listening to their labored breaths as a cold mountain rain washes over the quarry.

“When dawn breaks, two of the Germans are dead. Their eyes stare glassily. Their mouths are open and the old man’s swollen tongue protrudes between his teeth,” Murphy wrote.

For three days artillery rains down, death echoing off the cliffs. The men remain trapped.

On the third day, the third German dies. In the light of the moon that night “the faces of the dead seem green and unearthly. That is bad for morale, as it makes a man reflect on what his own life may come to.”

After the war, Mauldin became a political cartoonist, advocating civil liberties. He also appeared in John Huston’s film The Red Badge of Courage (1951) starring with Audie Murphy.

Murphy is near breaking. “My eyeballs burn, my bones ache; and my muscles twitch in exhaustion. Oh, to sleep and never awaken. The war is without beginning, without end. It goes on forever.”

Then, at last, the sound they have been waiting for — American artillery. The shells scream through the air, bursting against the rocks like salvation.

“If there is one thing a dogface loves, it is artillery — his own.”

American Red Cross workers, too, must contend with mountains and mud.

From a Life Magazine story pasted in Flo’s album

On Christmas Day, 1943, high in the rain-drenched peaks, a soldier huddles in his foxhole, staring at a can of C-rations — his holiday meal. Then, out of the swirling mist, she appears. Isabella Hughes of Baltimore, a Red Cross clubmobile worker, crouches on the lip of his trench, one hand gripping a box of doughnuts, the other holding a steaming pot of coffee. The soldier blinks, then exclaims, “Good Lord, sweetheart! What in hell are you doing here?”

Isabella Hughes was one of the first ARC workers to get to Italy, in 1943. She would later join Flo’s clubmobile crew in Naples.

The clubmobile was a two and a half ton Dodge truck fitted with a kitchen and windows. Workers sometimes slept in it or under it.

Italy’s roads, slick with rain and churned to sludge, are brutal even for military transport. The clubmobile — a sturdy machine — proves no match for the mountains. When roads vanish into goat trails, the Red Cross workers adapt. They take the Army’s weapons carriers, pushing higher, until even those fail. Then come the donkeys and mules.

Two clubmobile workers, Margaret Decker of Towaco, New Jersey, and Gladys Currie of Greenwich, Connecticut, volunteer for an impossible task: deliver coffee and doughnuts to a unit stationed atop a remote peak. No road leads there — only a narrow mule track winding up the mountain’s spine. The Army offers them transport, if they’re willing to ride donkeys up the perilous slope. They accept without hesitation.

The climb is slow, the air thin. Their donkeys pick careful steps along the treacherous trail. The doughnuts are packed onto a mule. At last, they reach the summit. The men are waiting — shaved, cleaned — their arrival announced on the camp bulletin board like the coming of long-lost friends. As the ARC workers pour coffee, the soldiers form a circle around them, an island of warmth in the cold mountain war. Mortars shriek in the distance. Shells thunder through the valleys below. But for a moment, they all pause, talk, and remember something beyond the battle.

Their bravery does not go unnoticed. When the U.S. Army Rangers commend Lois N. Berney of Fallon, Nevada — a clubmobile worker once secretary to Harry Hopkins — it is understood that the honor belongs to all of them. From General Mark W. Clark down to the last rifleman, the Army recognizes the Red Cross women not just for their courage, but for bringing something human to the inhuman mountains.

From Audie Murphy’s autobiography, “To Hell and Back,” and from “At His Side–The Story of The American Red Cross Overseas in WWII” by George Korson

Ch. 9: https://mollymartin.blog/2025/02/11/american-red-cross-training/

Cagney Picks Up Murphy

Introduces the war hero to Hollywood

My Mother and Audie Murphy Ch. 95

James Cagney plays the unlikely role of talent scout in 1945 when a photograph on the cover of Life magazine stops him cold: Audie Murphy, the boyish Texan just discharged from the Army and celebrated as the most decorated American soldier of World War II. Impressed by Murphy’s heroism and screen presence, Cagney invites him to Los Angeles and signs him to his production company, determined to help turn a war hero into a movie star.

This is the photo Flo took of Audie Murphy when he was awarded the Silver Star in the field in 1945. Picked up by Wide World Photos without attribution.

Cagney pays for Murphy’s acting, voice, and dance lessons and offers guidance during his first years in Hollywood. But despite the investment and publicity, the arrangement fails to deliver actual film roles. The problem is not personal between Cagney and Murphy, but business. In 1947, a contractual dispute and personal friction with Cagney’s brother and producing partner, William, brings the deal to a quiet end.

The collapse of the Cagney contract leaves Murphy stranded—broke, living on his military pension, sleeping in a gym, and carrying the unspoken weight of wartime trauma. Yet the door Cagney had opened does not fully close. Forced to make his own way, Murphy rebuilds his career from scratch and ultimately appears in more than forty films, mostly Westerns, forging a hard-won Hollywood life that echos the endurance that had first drawn Cagney’s attention.

Ch. 96: https://mollymartin.blog/2026/02/15/to-berlin-for-a-football-game/

Audie Murphy Comes Home

Most decorated American soldier of WWII

My Mother and Audie Murphy Ch. 85

Audie Murphy returns home in June 1945 to a hero’s welcome of parades, swarming reporters and his face on the cover of Life Magazine. At just twenty years old, he is celebrated as the most decorated American soldier of World War II, awarded the Medal of Honor along with more than 30 US and foreign decorations for extraordinary valor in combat. The public sees a slight, soft-spoken Texan who embodied courage and sacrifice, but behind the accolades Murphy carries the psychological weight of prolonged frontline combat, the loss of close comrades, and memories that will not easily fade.

In the years after the war, Murphy remains connected to the Army even as he struggles to adjust to civilian life. He continues to serve in the Texas Army National Guard, eventually reaching the rank of major, and becomes an outspoken advocate for recognizing what is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder, then poorly understood and often dismissed. By publicly acknowledging his nightmares, insomnia, and dependence on medication, Murphy challenges the myth that heroism ends suffering. His postwar Army career, marked by continued service and hard-won honesty, expands his legacy beyond battlefield valor to include a lasting contribution to how veterans’ mental health is understood and discussed.

Ch. 86: https://mollymartin.blog/2026/01/07/stationed-at-bad-wildungen/

Regimental Review Schloss Klessheim

Audie Murphy Honored

My Mother and Audie Murphy Ch. 82

On June 2, 1945, the Third Infantry Division assembled for a division-wide review in Salzburg, their ranks drawn up before their headquarters. Flo was there with her clubmobile crew, Liz Elliott and Janet Potts, watching as Seventh Army commander General Alexander Patch presented decorations and commendations. A Congressional delegation stood in review alongside Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson, among them South Dakota Senator Chan Gurney, the first chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Forces.

June 2, 1945. This is the last picture of the three Red Cross clubmobilers together–Janet Potts, Flo Wick and Liz Elliott. Fritzie Hoaglund never returned to the crew after having been hospitalized.

That day, Lieutenant Audie Murphy of B Company, 15th Regiment, received the Medal of Honor and the Legion of Merit in front of his entire division. Five other Third Division soldiers were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star, their citations read aloud to the troops who had fought across Europe and now stood at attention in peacetime formation.

Gen. O’Daniel shakes the hand of 1st Lt. Audie Murphy of B Company, 15th Regiment, 3rd Division. Murphy received the Medal of Honor and the Legion of Merit on June 2, 1945 in front of his entire division in Salzburg, Austria. Photo: Dogface soldier collection

The ceremony took place at a site heavy with layered history. Built in 1700 as a Baroque summer residence for the Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg, the palace later became a Nazi showpiece where Hitler hosted Axis leaders and stored looted art as the Reich collapsed. Captured by the U.S. Third Infantry Division in May 1945, it was repurposed as headquarters of the American Occupation Authority during the decade-long U.S. presence in Salzburg, before eventually becoming a casino.

Gen. J. W. O’Daniel 3rd Div. Commander; Flo Wick, ARC; Gen Alex Patch 7th Army commander. June 1945. Schloss Klessheim Salzburg
A delegation of the US Congress witnessed the Audie Murphy ceremony. Chan Gurney, South Dakota, the first chairman of the US senate committee on Armed Services, is seen here with Flo.
Letter from Sen. Gurney to Flo’s parents. He thought they were South Dakota constituents. Flo was born in Redfiled, SD, but the family hadn’t lived there since she was a baby. They lived in Yakima, WA. Her father had died in 1938.
On June 2, 1945 the 3rd Division staged a grand review at Schloss Klessheim.
Soldiers march past the reviewing stand. photos from Flo’s album

Ch. 83: https://mollymartin.blog/2025/12/24/london-leave/

VE-Day: May 8, 1945

After nearly six years, the war in Europe is over

My Mother and Audie Murphy Ch. 71

By April, 1945 the war’s end was inevitable. The Soviets broke through German defenses and surrounded Berlin. Artillery shells rained down on the capital as Hitler, holed up in his bunker beneath the Reich Chancellery, raged against reality. On April 20, the bombardment of Berlin began. Five days later, Soviet and American troops met at the Elbe River, cutting Germany in half. In Italy, Benito Mussolini was captured by partisans and executed on April 28. Two days later, on April 30, Adolf Hitler killed himself in his underground bunker.

In Schloss Klessheim, VE-Day partiers hold up a liberated pair of Hermann Göring’s pajamas. The woman with her head down is wearing a lot of medals because the soldiers found them in storage there. When the Germans met the foreign delegations there, it was customary to give medals to the entire entourage, depending on their level. A lot of GIs from the 3rd division happily came home with “Klessheim medals”. Photo: Dogface Soldiers Collection

Berlin fell on May 2. Soviet troops raised their flag over the Reichstag, signaling the final collapse of the Third Reich. Across northern Europe, German armies laid down their arms: in Denmark, the Netherlands, and northwest Germany on May 4. In Prague, a last uprising flared as German resistance crumbled.

On May 7, German representatives signed an unconditional surrender at Reims, France, in the presence of Allied commanders. The next day—May 8, 1945—the war in Europe was officially over. Crowds filled the streets of London, Paris, and New York, singing, embracing, and weeping with relief. In Moscow, the celebration came a day later, on May 9, when the surrender was ratified in Berlin according to Soviet time.

Photo: Dogface Soldier Collection

The guns finally fell silent. After nearly six years of war, Europe lay in ruins—but free of Nazi rule. The deadliest war in history involved more than 30 countries around the globe. More than 50 million people lost their lives during the war.

We don’t know where Flo was on VE-Day, but it’s a good guess she was partying somewhere. She left the page in her album blank. 

The page in Flo’s album

Audie Murphy is on leave, riding a train to the French Riviera when the war is declared over. In a Cannes hotel, he bathes and naps, but he can’t get images of the war out of his mind.

He wrote: “We have been so intent on death that we have forgotten life. And now suddenly life faces us. I swear to myself that I will measure up to it. I may be branded by war, but I will not be defeated by it.”

Ch. 72: https://mollymartin.blog/2025/11/19/clubmobilers-get-some-press/

After the 3rd Crosses the Rhine

“Force used tyranically is our common enemy”

My Mother and Audie Murphy Ch. 62

In To Hell and Back, Murphy tells of the last days of the war.

After the crossing of the Rhine, the dike seems to crumble, and a flood of men and equipment pours into Germany. Even the most fanatical Nazis must sense that the game is over, yet they still deceive the population with promises that resistance will bring a negotiated peace rather than unconditional surrender. If they still want war, the Americans give it to them. With victory in sight, they do not soften. Artillery levels sections of towns; flames lick across burning buildings. Infantry and armor prowl rubble-strewn streets, and blood flows needlessly through the gutters.

A column of German prisoners is escorted by 3rd Division soldiers after their capture in Nuremberg, Germany. The fight for the city from April 17-20, 1945 was a tough one for the 3rd Division including mines, booby traps, Panzerfaust, snipers and futile counterattacks. Photo: Dogface Soldier

As the battle lines roll forward, windows drip with white flags. Any house without the mark of surrender receives no polite warning; soldiers rake its windows with machine-gun fire to correct the oversight. The tactic works.

Murphy is transferred to liaison duty, serving as the contact man between the division’s units. Near Munich, he enters a prison camp with his gun drawn and comes face-to-face with a German guard. The prisoners insist the man is a “good joe.” Murphy hears the phrase and thinks bitterly, Maybe he is. But I cannot see men anymore—I see only uniforms. He holsters his pistol.

The German mumbles something and stumbles toward a set of steps.

“There is something pathetically human about his odd, hobbled walk…. Perhaps it is the knowledge that we carry in our hearts that nobody ultimately wins. Somewhere we all go down. Force used tyrannically is our common enemy. Why align ourselves with it in whatever shape or fashion.“

A man and woman inspect their damaged home in Neuheusen east of Bamberg. Photo: Dogface

Then comes the great picture of mass defeat, the most overwhelming sight of the war. It appears in the bent figures of old women poking through ruins for some miserable relic of the past; in the shamed, darting eyes of the beaten; in the faces of little boys who watch the triumphant columns with fear and fascination. Above all, it appears in the thousands of dusty, exhausted soldiers streaming toward the stockades. Their feet clump wearily, mechanically, hopelessly along the seemingly endless road of war. They move as haggard gray masses in which the individual has no life and no meaning. It is impossible now to see in these men the fierce power that made them fight like demons out of hell only a few months before.

Ch. 63: https://mollymartin.blog/2025/10/17/we-were-once-all-antifascists/