Audie and his closest friend, PFC Lattice Tipton, used grenades and carbine fire to force the surrender of a German machine gun nest when one of the enemy gunners raised a white handkerchief. As Tipton climbed out of the foxhole to survey the situation, Audie shouted for him to stay down, but enemy fire struck Tipton in the chest and killed him instantly. Grief-stricken and enraged by the treachery that caused his friend's death, Audie disregarded his own safety, hurled grenades into the nest, and killed the men who had faked the surrender. He then seized an undamaged German MG-42 machine gun and, firing from the hip, advanced up the hill at anything firing or moving, assaulting the last two machine gun positions in the area and wiping out both of them. Audie won the Distinguished Service Cross, but later said, "Lattie, who was the bravest man I ever knew, won only death for himself."