Aussie D-Day hero Richard Pirrie to be honoured on memorial

The name of Richard Pirrie, the first Australian to die on D-Day will be added to a special Normandy memorial wall for the 80th anniversary of the landings.

The first Australian to die on D-Day, which coincided with his 24th birthday, was Royal Australian Navy sub lieutenant Richard Pirrie, from Melbourne.

On Wednesday in Portsmouth, south England, Pirrie is to honoured, along with 12 other allied WWII veterans, whose names will be added to the special Normandy memorial wall to acknowledge the close ties between allied nations forged during that extraordinary land invasion which began the liberation of France and the end of WWII.

Eight decades ago this week, on June 6 1944, Pirrie commanded a spotter boat, called Landing Craft Support (m) 7 off Juno beach in Normandy and was in position as the massive invasion began on June 6 to identify and message back to the naval gunners on HMS Invicta of the German positions.

Fellow officer Lieutenant Eric Langford later remarked that because of Pirrie’s intelligence “on our portion of the beach not one of our troops failed to get safely ashore’’.

But Pirrie, who had played football for Hawthorn in the VFL, then struck a floating mine around the same time as being fired upon by sniper fire. His death deeply impacted his parents, Isobel and Richard and his five siblings Kevin, Andy, Peter, Jake and Jim, and a small memorial to him was reverentially displayed on his parent’s mantelpiece for the rest of their lives.

Richard Pirrie’s intelligence helped ensure the safety of Australian troops as they landed at Juno beach. Picture: Supplied.

Richard "Dick" Pirrie 's letter to his family.

Pirrie’s nephew, Michael Pirrie told The Australian said that having his uncle selected by the Australian War Memorial to represent more than 3500 Australians who took part in D-Day on the wall, coupled with the current war in Ukraine, made this 80th anniversary “more vivid, more meaningful and more precious”.

He said:” the actions of Richard and others saved future young mens lives, and created a situation where those following didn’t have to go to war and fight to the death. D-Day was to save these values.’’

Michael Pirrie added: “That morning death was almost inescapable and I admire my uncle so much for his calmness of mind, amidst the dramatic gunfire to still identify where the Nazis where. To identify and relay the positions back to the ship with extraordinary accuracy required extraordinary courage.’’

Others to be honoured on the wall will be New Zealander naval volunteer reserve Neil W. Harton, two British naval servicemen Stan Ford and John Roberts, as well as representatives from Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, The Free French movement, the Hellenic navy, The Netherlands army, the Polish land forces, and the US army.

D-Day is to be commemorated in a series of services and events in Britain and in France from June 5 to 7 which will be attended by King Charles, Prince William and Princess Anne, foreign leaders and war veterans. Australian will be represented by Governor-General David Hurley and his wife who will attend the international ceremony in Saint Laurent sur mer, also known as Omaha Beach, as guests of the French president Emmanuel Macron.

On Tuesday scores of D Day veterans- now aged in their late 90s and 100 or more, prepared to depart Portsmouth to relive the perilous journey of 80 years ago. They are to be escorted by Royal Navy ships, where hundreds of armed forces personnel from the 16 Air Assault Brigade combat team of the British army will parachute in a historic D-Day drop zone.

Various commemorations will be held on Wednesday, starting at 0725 hours local time – the exact moment of the beach invasion – when a military piper will land on Arromanches-les-Bains in a landing craft and play a lament in tribute to those who led the beach landings. This will be followed by various services held by the French, the British, the Americans, the Canadians, the Royal British Legion and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Evening vigils will be held at the Bayeux war cemetery as well as at Pegasus Bridge, a key target for the allied troops.