He ordered his men to withdraw, and remained alone with a telephone at his post beneath a tree, directing his men. Of the seven officers who began with the assault, Murphy was the lone remaining officer at the end of the action. 128 men began with Murphy, but only an estimated 40 remained. German tanks advanced launching heavy machine gun fire, pistols and rifles directly at his position.
Another tank destroyer loaded with gasoline and ammunition had been hit by enemy fire and abandoned by its crew who expected it to immediately explode. Murphy kept in contact by land-line telephone[99] and continued to fire his M1 carbine until the last of his ammunition was spent. Murphy climbed aboard the abandoned, burning tank destroyer and used its .50 caliber machine gun to cut down the German infantry.
It was like standing on top of a time bomb … he was standing on the TD chassis, exposed to enemy fire from his ankles to his head and silhouetted against the trees and the snow behind him.

—Eyewitness account of Pvt. Anthony V. Abramski
He wiped out one full enemy squad who had crawled in a ditch within 100 feet (30 m) of his position. Murphy was surrounded by enemy infantry fire, and he stood in the midst of rising smoke and flames, his clothing ripped by artillery aimed directly at him. He sustained a leg wound, “bleeding profusely”, and he continued to spin the machine gun around killing the enemy combatants. Murphy’s hour-long, single-handed battle came to a halt when his telephone line to the artillery fire direction center was cut by enemy artillery. He wandered in a complete daze to an outpost.