MOH

Medal of Honor: Frederick C. Murphy – U.S. Army – World War II

Wounded at the start of the attack, he refused to fall back. Even after losing a foot, he kept crawling toward the wounded.

April 16, 2026

Name: Frederick C. Murphy
Rank: Private First Class
Branch: U.S. Army
Unit: Medical Detachment, 259th Infantry Regiment, 65th Infantry Division
Place: Siegfried Line, Saarlautern, Germany
Entered Service At: Weymouth, Massachusetts
Born: Boston, Massachusetts
G.O. No.: 21, 26 February 1946


Summary of Action

On 18 March 1945, during an assault against the Siegfried Line at Saarlautern, Pfc. Frederick C. Murphy served as a medical aidman advancing with his company under intense enemy fire.

Early in the attack, he was wounded in the shoulder.

He refused evacuation.

Continuing forward under heavy machinegun, mortar, and artillery fire, Murphy moved among the wounded, administering life-saving aid.

As the company advanced, it entered a heavily mined area. Casualties mounted quickly as antipersonnel mines detonated among the troops.

Ignoring both his wound and the deadly terrain, Murphy pressed into the minefield, tending to the injured under constant fire.

Then a mine exploded beneath him, severing one of his feet.

Even then, he refused to stop.

Bleeding heavily and in extreme pain, he dragged himself across the ground, crawling from one wounded soldier to another, continuing to render aid.

Determined to reach yet another casualty, he pulled himself forward through the minefield—until another mine detonated, killing him.

His actions saved the lives of many of his fellow soldiers.

Medal of Honor Citation

MURPHY, FREDERICK C.

Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Medical Detachment, 259th Infantry, 65th Infantry Division.
Place and date: Siegfried Line at Saarlautern, Germany, 18 March 1945.
Entered service at: Weymouth, Mass.
Birth: Boston, Mass.
G.O. No.: 21, 26 February 1946.

Citation:
An aid man, he was wounded in the right shoulder soon after his comrades had jumped off in a dawn attack 18 March 1945, against the Siegfried Line at Saarlautern, Germany. He refused to withdraw for treatment and continued forward, administering first aid under heavy machinegun, mortar, and artillery fire. When the company ran into a thickly sown antipersonnel minefield and began to suffer more and more casualties, he continued to disregard his own wound and unhesitatingly braved the danger of exploding mines, moving about through heavy fire and helping the injured until he stepped on a mine which severed one of his feet. In spite of his grievous wounds, he struggled on with his work, refusing to be evacuated and crawling from man to man administering to them while in great pain and bleeding profusely. He was killed by the blast of another mine which he had dragged himself across in an effort to reach still another casualty. With indomitable courage, and unquenchable spirit of self-sacrifice and supreme devotion to duty which made it possible for him to continue performing his tasks while barely able to move, Pfc. Murphy saved many of his fellow soldiers at the cost of his own life.