A small but vital role in a very big day: D-Day landings mark 80th anniversary
Australia’s small but pivotal role in the battle that triggered the downfall of Nazi Germany in Eastern Europe will be commemorated eight decades on.
Copy images of Richard Pirrie who was killed in the the D Day landings during WW11. Wednesday, June 4, 2014. The anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy will be on June 6. (AAP Image/David Crosling)
Some 3200 Australian airmen, sailors and soldiers took part in the perilous D-Day campaign in France on June 6, 1944, as their brothers and sisters faced off against Japan closer to home.
The Normandy landing was the largest seaborne invasion the world has ever seen and triggered the beginning of Europe’s liberation from the fascist regime of Adolf Hitler.
Alongside British, American and 11 other Allied forces soldiers, the Australians helped form a beachhead from where the armies of the free world would march on Berlin.
About 2800 served from the skies while 500 served in navy warships and a number of soldiers helped in the ground offensive with the British Army, RSL National President Greg Melick said.
At least 14 Australians were killed on D-Day and hundreds more throughout the Normandy campaign.
“This Thursday, D-Day’s 80th anniversary, we will join with communities around the world to remember them and all who fought for freedom and peace,” Mr Melick said.
Governor-General David Hurley and his wife will represent Australia at commemorative events hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and in the United Kingdom to mark the D-Day anniversaries.
One of the first Australians to be killed on D-Day, Sub-Lieutenant Richard Pirrie was recognised on the Normandy Memorial War in Portsmouth, England on the eve of the anniversary.
Sub Lt Pirrie, who had turned 24 on the day, was in command of a small spotter boat which he took as close as possible to shore to identify and direct fire against the Germans.
His actions successfully neutralised German positions and not a single Allied troop in that portion of the beach failed to get to shore safely.
But the Australian was killed after his boat was struck by gunfire from Germans on shore and a floating mine.
“He was so successful that the Germans realised what he was doing and directly targeted his small boat,” Australian War Memorial director Matt Anderson said.
Richard Pirrie who died in the D-Day landings.
Richard Pirrie turned 24 on the day he died in the D-Day landings. (David Crosling/AAP PHOTOS)
Sub Lt Pirrie’s nephew Richard Pirrie said many people see D-Day as an American, British and Canadian struggle.
“But Australian blood was spilled too,” he said.
About 27,000 Australian airmen participated in the Western theatre during the Second World War.
One in five did not survive.
