For those of you who do not know: Audie Murphy, WW2 hero, was one of the most decorated American soldiers. Born (1925) and raised in Texas, he was also an exquisite rifle shooter. Audie joined the US Army on June 30, 1942.
In his book, Audie Murphy wrote about his military career - Brothers in Arms and the horrors of combat. He also told about his emotions, how - many times - he had thought he would not survive the following day.
Furthermore, Audie described how the guys that had fought together for a long time, had built a special bond for each other. They would share everything with each other: from food and, as a “treasure”, a bottle of European wine, found in an abandoned house or barn, stories about their lives back home before the war, and what their plans were after the war if they got through the next day of fighting…to making each other laugh with tall tales. How they would love to tell wild tales to the new soldiers that had just arrived to the front and keep them at a distance as they did not want to get close and lose, yet, another friend. How, as the war dragged on, few would feel they would stay alive when hell is as close as six feet deep…………………………….
The book is written in a fascinating way and it is certainly worth reading. A true story of/about a real person and the nightmare of the war he went through.
And something not mentioned in the book: my husband worked for years with a cousin of Audie Murphy. The man often spoke on how it was after the war, when Audie returned as a hero and went on to star in Hollywood movies. Despite being famous, Audie Murphy remained a humble man: when he came back to the fields and backwoods town of Texas, he would never brag or talk big. He would load up as many cousins and children he could in his car and run them up the drug stores for ice cream cones on hot Texas days…. A hero - even to children.
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