Autographed Nazi vehicle identification flag : Private W J Murray, 2/2nd Machine Gun Battalion

Red cotton flag with a brass grommet of 9 mm diameter in each corner. Appliqued at the centre of one side is a white disk on which is a black swastika. The centre of the flag has the service numbers and printed names, or signatures, of members of the 2/2nd Machine Gun Battalion.

This vehicle identification flag was collected on 16 November 1942 by QX9860 Private William Johnstone Murray of the 2/2nd Machine Gun Battalion (2/2 MG Bn). Murray was part of a burial party in the area of El Daba airfield in the aftermath of the Second battle of El Alamein, when he discovered the flag in an abandoned German position. The flag was signed by his colleagues in the battalion while travelling on the troopship Queen Mary back to Australia in 1943. At least five German flags are known to have been collected in north Africa by men of the battalion.

Murray was born on 5 October 1919 in Rothsay, Scotland. He was working as a waiter before enlisting in Brisbane on 24 June 1940. He was posted to 1st Platoon, A Company of the 2/2nd Machine Gun Battalion shortly after arrival in the Middle East in August 1941. The battalion spent the next four months carrying out garrison duties in Egypt and from January 1942 in Syria, where it became attached to the 9th Division. In June 1942, the battalion moved in support of the British 8th Army that had retreated to the Alamein 'box'. The 2/2nd MG Bn played an important part during the subsequent battles and suffered heavy casualties fighting alongside the infantry defending the Alamein line in July and during the counter-attack in October to November.

After rest and recuperation in Gaza, the battalion sailed from Palestine in late January 1943 and reached Sydney at the end of February. In August 2/2 MG Bn was sent to Milne Bay and subsequently fought in Papua New Guinea at Lae and later on the Huon Peninsula. The 9th Division, including 2/2 MG Bn, returned to Australia in early 1944.

The 2/2nd MG Bn spent 1944 training at Ravenshoe on the Atherton Tableland before it took part in a series of landings on Borneo as part of the OBOE operations in May 1945. Following Japan's surrender the battalion was concentrated on Labuan but its ranks gradually thinned, as men were either discharged or transferred. It was during this period that Murray returned to Australia, receiving his discharge on 7 November 1945.

The following is a list of the names written on the flag. Some are signatures and others printed names. With one exception the names are all those of men from the battalion:

QX1568 Sapper Charles Anderson, 13th Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers

From 2/2nd Machine Gun Battalion, of which at least 40 are men serving in Murray's A Company:

NX51182 Edward Rupert Mayes; QX16872 William Clancy Wilson; NX22032 William Joseph Cosgrove; NX26075 Private Angus William John Vidler; WX12040 Private Jack Edward Vardy; NX31307 Private Ralph Charles Kemp; QX21052 Corporal David Arthur Collier; NX27980 Private Henry James Barrett Ellis; NX31614 Private Allan Charles Mortlock; NX19297 Private William Edwin Fairbairn; NX50478 Private Herbert Patrick ‘Barcoo’ Wynn. NX51492 Private Ralph Jacka Lister; NX29577 Private Robert Bruce Hutchison; NX27162 Lance Corporal Edward Vincent Cutcliffe; NX58557 Private William James Scott; NX5617 Lance Corporal Victor Edward James Brinkley; NX19847 Private Charles Henry Arthur Williams; NX53888 Private William Whittaker; NX54376 Private Hector Munro Cadell; QX12680 Private Clifford John Smith; NX21525 Corporal Normal Henry Challis; NX27361 Private John Leslie Parsons; NX21496 Sergeant John Robert Boughton; NX7335 Private Arthur Rowland Clark; NX15252 Private Joseph Leonard Hogan; NX41155 Private Reginald George Moore; NX15865 Corporal Reginald Harris Somerville; NX50600 Private Edward Darcy Walter MacMaw; NX30976 Private Harry Walpole Genders; NX30084 Corporal Clyde Davy; NX30245 Private George William Anderson; NX17709 Sergeant Cevers Stanley Stumbles; QX28644 Private William John Swee; NX94887 Private Harold Ashton Fountain; QX1982 Private Percy O’Donnell; NX52759 Lance Corporal James Lyons; WX12083 Private Edward George Nancarrow; NX19945 Private Douglas Pratt Wyllie. NX15836 Corporal Ian Gordon Wood; NX31308 Lieutenant Alexander Edward William Starkey; NX53353 Sergeant Cedric Ernest Oliver; NX51338 Sergeant William Arthur David Morgan; QX16870 Private John Clegg Waterhouse; NX15849 Sergeant Ronald George Allenden; QX25158 Private Frank Matthew Bridson; NX15867 WO2 James Sefton Farquharson Stewart; WX10407 Private James Cyril Hastings Tilly; QX23680 Captain Ivan Wells Alcorn (Chaplain); NX34043 Sergeant Clarence Silver Rowe; QX20654 Lance Corporal Edwin James Millar; NX29622 Corporal James ‘Bill’ Woods; QX11145 Private Ronald James Donoghue; NX29619 Private Jack ‘Rose’ Wakeham; NX19701 Private Frederick Samuel Court; NX20200 Lance Corporal William Alfred Matheson; NX50953 Lieutenant Wallace Bruce Young; NX29328 Private William George Parkhill; QX12908 Private Thomas George Fraser; NX22822 Private Robert John Howlett; QX12051 Private James Donald Nimmo; QX8742 Private Frank Kemp; QX9919 Lance Corporal Henry Alexander Archer Campbell; NX82107 Private Gordon Alexander Gillespie; NX45454 Private Archibald Hoggan; NX5796 Private Anthony Gourlay Barnby. QX8926 Private Willem Montague Van Gelder; NX20306 Private George Kenneth Crain; QX17455 Private Leonard Roger Mason; NX54250 Private Noel Stanley Hatter; NX3608 Private William Leslie Bayliss; NX2451 Lance Corporal George Edward Harrison; QX9035 Private Charles Sydney Kent; QX9860 Private William Johnstone Murray; NX34344 Private David Murray Garland; NX79328 Sergeant Kenneth James Cartledge; NX67175 Private Michael Leo Connolly; NX30159 Private Kenneth Clement Wright; NX34448 Lance Sergeant Jack Gregson; NX32307 Sergeant Derrick Louis Plank; NX38853 Private John Hoggan; NX72322 Private Holder Stanley Christian; NX25630 Private Richard Leslie Collier; NX25076 Sergeant William Alexander Hutchison; NX19295 Sergeant James Walter Fairbairn; QX1736 Private William Johnston; NX20445 Private Johnathan Henderson; NX22803 Private Allan Joseph Woods. NX19335 Lance Corporal Edward John Ballard; VX26746 Private Robert Raymond Fulton; NX29625 Private George Alfred Nelson; NX25154 Sergeant Augustus William Longhurst MM, KIA 15 April 1945; NX23245 Private Maurice Trigger; NX22934 Lance Corporal Geoffrey William Wentworth Boucher; NX27688 Private Frank Stratton Colver; QX13499 Staff Sergeant Gerard Allen Steel; NX24058 Private Edward Denny Day; NX200184 Private Thomas Richard Pinson; QX16865 Sergeant Leonard Randall; WX10819 Private Robert Andrew Cuneo; NX51182 Private Edward Rupert Mayes.