S/Sgt Mccomas Joseph “doc” Murphy 35848732
Staff Sergeant McComas Joseph “Doc” Murphy 35848732 was born on April 12, 1914, in Mountain Lake Park, Maryland. He was the son of Richard N Murphy and Etta Ida Haines Murphy. He married Lula Rosella Dewitt in 1937 in Monongalia, West Virginia. He entered the US Army on Feb 18, 1944 at the age of 29. He served in F Company, 301st Infantry Regiment, 94th Infantry Division at Camp McCain Mississippi. On march 21 1944 he transferred to C Company, 254th Infantry Regiment, 63rd Infantry Division. On May 5, 1944 he transferred to F Company, 253rd Infantry Regiment, 63rd Infantry Division. He was promoted to PFC in September 1944.
On Feb 24, 1945 Sgt. Murphy was serving as a Sgt. in 1st Platoon, Fox Company. The company was advancing in the woods near Auersmacher Germany when they were attacked by German infantry and a tank. The 1st platoons leader Lt. Francis J. Spiessbach and PFC Grover Dees attempted to halt the tank using a bazooka. Which did nothing to stop the tank other than anger it. Lt Spiessbach was wounded 3 times during this but still attempted to keep command and control of 1st Platoon. The company commander retreated from the battlefield resulting in a large amount of Fox company men to follow him in the retreat thinking that they were ordered to withdraw this action resulted in the Company Commander to be removed from the company that day. During this chaos the company called in field artillery fire on the tank but the artillery came in short and was landing on the men of Fox Company. Sgt. Murphy seeing everything possible going wrong knew he had to act. Sgt. Murphy went forward under the German and American artillery and he and other members of Fox Company were able to make the German tank and infantry withdraw. During this action Sgt. Murphy received a gunshot wound to top of head he was not hospitalized for a period over 24 hours.
On March 2, 1945 the 1st Platoon would have another heavy casualty producing day in a stone quarry. Then on March 7, 1945 Murphy was promoted to S/Sgt. due to casualties that 1st platoon suffered in February and March S/Sgt. Murphy had become one of the few original men in 1st platoon. On April 2nd 1st platoon hit some trouble with the 17th SS when crossing the Neckar River he was listed as MIA on the morning reports that day. But he showed back up in the Company.
April 6, 1945 is the worst day of combat that Fox Company saw in World War Two followed by April 8, 1945. The Company took the town of Buchhof at around 1130 hours at 1230 hours they received a counter attack / recon that they were able to push back. At around 1545 hours, Lieutenant Alfred Peshel was killed by the 1st shot that started the 2nd counter attack. The 17th SS was able to break the line in a few spots but they were quickly pushed back the fighting in many parts turned into hand-to-hand fighting. At dusk the company received orders to leave the town and to dig in outside of the town.
When the orders to leave the town was given it was decided that the First Platoon was going to lead the withdrawal, S/Sgt McComas J. Murphy’s squad was one of the first to be given the order to withdraw. Murphy had been wounded in the shoulder; despite this injury, he remained in his position and covered the withdrawal of the platoon. The First Platoon encountered several points of resistance. The most catastrophic resistance was a German machine gun that blocked the withdrawal. PFC Robert J Scott had been wounded during the German attempt to reclaim the town, but this did not matter to him: he “crawled toward an enemy machine gun position,” and destroyed the machine gun “with a hand grenade.”
By the end of the day, on April 6, 1945 Company F had 12 killed in action, 40 wounded in action including S/Sgt McComas J. Murphy, 2 non battle casualties, and 2 AWOL a total of 56 men. The company had suffered heavily on their officers and NCOs, having lost five of their six officers and twenty-one of their NCOs which would include S/Sgt McComas J. Murphy.
S/Sgt Murphy returned to Fox Company after recovering from his wounds. On Aug 27, 1945 he was transferred to the 36th Infantry Division. He was discharged on December 20 1945. At the time of his discharge he was 5 foot 10 inches tall had Blue eyes brown hair and weighed 180 pounds.
He was awarded the Combat Infantry Badge, 3 Bronze Star Medal 2 for Valor, the Purple Heart Medal with oak leaf cluster, The American Theater of operations, the European Theater of Operations Medal ETO with 2 battle star, and the World War Two Victory Medal. He also received the presidential unit citations for what his company did from April 2 – 12, 1945.
In 1950 he was working as a Coal Miner and living in Cassville, West Virginia and he was marred to Josephine E Murphy. He died on September 25, 1992, in Morgantown, West Virginia, at the age of 78, and was buried there.
1- Some information and photos from Angela Dorn
2- Some information and photos from Jarvis Kettlehake
3- The Battle of Buchhof and Stein am Kocher
4- the U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index,
5 – U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014
6- the 1920 United States Federal Census
7- the 1930 United States Federal Census
8- the 1940 United States Federal Census
9- the 1950 United States Federal Census
10- 63rd Division Records