Charles P. Murray Jr., Medal of Honor Recipient, Dies at 89
By DANIEL E. SLOTNIK
Charles P. Murray Jr., who received the Medal of Honor for single-handedly preventing 200 German soldiers from attacking an American battalion while leading a scouting mission in France during World War II, died Aug. 12 at his home in Columbia, S.C. He was 89.
The cause was congestive heart failure, his son Brian said.
Lieutenant Murray was leading an Army platoon into a valley near Kayserberg, France, early on Dec. 16, 1944, to take a bridge and build a roadblock, when he told his men to rest. He went ahead and spotted some 200 German soldiers preparing to attack an American battalion positioned on a nearby ridge.
Lieutenant Murray radioed for artillery fire, but when it narrowly missed the Germans, he grabbed an M1 rifle fitted with a grenade launcher and began firing. After using all his grenades, Lieutenant Murray got a Browning automatic rifle and unloaded nearly 2,000 rounds, killing 20 and causing most of the Germans to retreat. As they fled, Lieutenant Murray disabled a truck carrying three German mortars.
“I wasn’t thinking,” he told The Star-News of Wilmington, N.C., in 2009. “I was reacting, doing what I was trained to do.”
Lieutenant Murray then led his platoon toward the bridge in the valley, capturing 10 Germans as they advanced. An 11th pretended to surrender, then hurled a grenade, which knocked Lieutenant Murray to the ground and pitted his legs with shrapnel.
He refused to return to safety until his men were correctly deployed around the roadblock.
Charles Patrick Murray Jr. was born in Baltimore on Sept. 26, 1921. He served in Korea and Vietnam before retiring as a colonel in 1973. He later worked for the South Carolina Department of Corrections.
In addition to his son, Colonel Murray is survived by his wife, the former Anne King; a daughter, Cynthia Anne Murray; five grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; and one great-great-granddaughter. Another son, Charles P. Murray III, died in 2004.
