The Germans reached within fifty yards of his command post.
Then the burning M10 — the forward tank destroyer that had slid into the ditch — presented what it had to offer.
## On the Burning Tank Destroyer
Murphy climbed onto the burning M10 and operated its .50-caliber machine gun.
The vehicle was described by one witness as being “like standing on top of a time bomb.” Burning diesel, stored .50-caliber ammunition, and the residual 3-inch main gun rounds in a vehicle already hit by at least one 88mm shell created conditions that could produce an explosion without warning. The crew had abandoned the vehicle for reasons that required no elaboration.
Smoke from the burning M10 had an inadvertent tactical benefit: it obscured the source of the machine gun fire. German infantry advancing on what they expected to be an abandoned vehicle found themselves under fire from a position they could not immediately identify.
Murphy fired the .50-caliber at the advancing infantry. He could not stop the German tanks with the machine gun; it was not designed to defeat armored vehicles. But the German advance depended on infantry support, and the infantry was what he targeted. He fired at soldiers coming through the fields around Holtzwihr. He fired at a squad trying to work its way through a ditch to flank his position.
Two additional 88mm shells struck the M10 while he was on it. He continued firing.
He also continued calling artillery. The field telephone connection went in and out. He relayed targets when the connection held, fired the machine gun when it did not. He stayed on the vehicle, exposed above the turret, in a position that made him a clear target for any German rifleman or machine gunner who could identify him through the smoke.