Place | Europe: France, Normandy |
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Accession Number | S03242 |
Collection type | Sound |
Measurement | 1 hr 7 min |
Object type | Oral history |
Physical description | digital audio tape (DAT); maxell R-125DA; 48kHz; 16 bit; stereo |
Maker |
Murray, Dean Robertson Sharpe, Simone Australian War Memorial Preston, Lenny |
Date made | 28 January 2004 |
Access | Open |
Conflict |
Second World War, 1939-1945 |
Copyright |
Item copyright: Status to be assessed |
Copying Provisions | Copyright restrictions apply. Only personal, non-commercial, research and study use permitted. Permission of copyright holder required for any commercial use and/or reproduction. |
Commander Dean Robertson Murray RAN (Rtd) as a sub lieutenant of a landing craft flotilla, Operation Overlord, June 1944, interviewed by Simone Sharpe
Murray speaks of his early schooling; enlistment in the navy at 14 years of age; service prior to posting as an attachment to a Royal Navy unit; attendance at courses at various Royal Navy schools in England; commissioning as a sub lieutenant; posting to a combined operations planning section and then to a landing craft flotilla; conduct of specialised instruction on landing craft, including beaching techniques, to Royal Marines who had never been to sea before; posting to the Empire Halberd, a cruise liner converted to take landing craft; preparations for the invasion of Normandy; impressions of the night before the landing at Normandy; his role during the invasion; the disembarkation of landing craft assault (LCA) from Empire Halberd supported by bombers and warships' guns; return of the LCAs to Empire Halberd in high wind and heavy seas; further reinforcing runs from Southampton to Gold Beach; posting out of command operations to a Royal Navy destroyer as part of the Eastern Fleet in Ceylon; impressions of the invasion at Normandy - the size, the 'smoothness' of the operation; transfer to Australia; posting in an Australian destroyer Nazim supporting air attacks on mainland Japan; escorting the USS Missouri to Tokyo Bay; encounters with allied POWs; return to Australia at the end of the war; his service career until resigning from the Navy and career after discharge; how he plans to remember the anniversary of D Day.
A transcript of this recording may be available. For further information please contact the Sound section.
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Listen to
Commander Dean Robertson Murray RAN (Rtd) as a sub lieutenant of a landing craft flotilla, Operation Overlord, June 1944, interviewed by Simone Sharpe