Commander Dean Robertson Murray RAN (Rtd) as a sub lieutenant of a landing craft flotilla, Operation Overlord, June 1944, interviewed by Simone Sharpe

Place Europe: France, Normandy
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.
Description

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.

  • 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