Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today we mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, and we give thanks to all who stood for liberty—and we remember and honour all who fell.

I'm pleased to inform the House that the Governor-General, David Hurley, and Mrs Hurley are in France representing Australia at the commemorations, and I spoke to them yesterday. Indeed, this is a remarkable occasion where many former veterans as well, not just from Australia but from the Allied forces, are gathering today.

D-Day was an unprecedented feat of collective willpower and daring—the free world's decisive reply to the poison of Nazi tyranny. It rightly holds a place in our collective hearts as one of the most extraordinary turning points in global history—and it turned on the courage of nearly 160,000 soldiers, sailors, aircrew and medics on that first day alone.

It was the greatest armada of ships, landing craft and aircraft the world had ever seen. Rarely has a shore been as fateful as the Normandy coast was on that day.

As General Eisenhower told them:

The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.

They carried those hopes and prayers across sky and sea. And they carried them on to those beaches, where they fought in the knowledge that the fate of the world hinged on them.

Cinema has given a sense of how it looked. Yet what will always remain elusive to us is how it truly felt: the chaos; the noise; the desperation; and, yes, the fear; yet also the determination; the camaraderie; the overwhelming sense of purpose. From that fierce cauldron of heroism and sacrifice would flow a force that ultimately swept half a continent.

Among all the British, Canadians and Americans, our tendency is not to think of D-Day as a story with masses of Australian voices. So many Australians were, of course, defending us much closer to home by then. Yet there were 3,300 Australians serving on D-Day, and they acquitted themselves as bravely and nobly as in any theatre of war.

There was even an original Anzac among them: George Dixon, a Tasmanian who was wounded at Gallipoli after managing to enlist—showing some creativity—aged just 15. Think about that. So he was no stranger to fateful shores when, decades later, he took charge of one of the Canadian tank-landing craft at Juno Beach. His story is just one of the thousands of those who were there at the beginning of this most extraordinary mission, this headlong drive to lift Europe out of the darkness into which it had been plunged.

Eight decades on, we are reminded tragically often that peace is far from a foregone conclusion. Yet, as we remember D-Day, we are also reminded about one of the most important truths: peace is always worth fighting for. On those French beaches eighty years ago, that is the great light those courageous thousands held up for the world.

Lest we forget.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Prime Minister for his fine words, and I join him in commemorating this 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings. There were many turning points in the Second World War: Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, Pearl Harbor, Stalingrad, Midway, El Alamein—to name but a few.

To this day, historians have different opinions about what events marked the end of the beginning and the beginning of the end, but one thing is certain: victory against the German war machine, the defeat of Nazi tyranny and the liberation of Europe would not have been possible without Operation Neptune, the Normandy landings; and Operation Overlord, the Battle of Normandy.

D-Day, 6 June 1944, was the day of days. Winston Churchill said:

This vast operation is undoubtedly the most complicated and difficult that has ever occurred.

He described it:

It involves tides, wind, waves, visibility, both from the air and the sea standpoint, and the combined employment of land, air and sea forces in the highest degree of intimacy and in contact with conditions which could not and cannot be fully foreseen.

Churchill said:

Thank God, we enter upon it with our great Allies all in good heart and all in good friendship.

What can be forgotten is that Operation Overlord was years in the making. Supreme commander General Dwight D Eisenhower said:

This operation is planned as a victory, and that's the way it's going to be.

Indeed, no effort was spared in planning, arms buildup, training, secrecy and one of the most sophisticated deception operations in military history: Operation Fortitude. Hitler kept some of his best forces in Norway and around Calais and awaited an allied invasion that would never come.

D-Day saw a combination of night-time airborne drops behind enemy lines to secure key crossroads, causeways and bridges; pre-assault bombardments of the German defensive positions; and five beach landings. By the end of the day, more than 155,000 Allied troops had secured a foothold in Normandy, from which they would go on to win the war in Europe. But the first day of the great crusade, as Eisenhower called it, came at a terrible cost, with more than 4,400 Allied troops killed.

Today, it's our honour as a nation, it's our privilege as a parliament, to acknowledge, to commemorate and to pay tribute to the 3,200 Australians who were involved in D-Day, including the 13 Australians who were killed By extension, we pay homage to the thousands more Australians who helped to liberate Europe from tyranny following D-Day and the hundreds killed over the course of the campaign. Those who served and sacrificed in the Second World War were truly the Greatest Generation. So many young men set aside their futures to ensure the future and freedom of others. On the Normandy beaches, some didn't make it one foot out of their landing craft. In the skies above Normandy, some didn't make it out of their aircraft. So many more fought and fell on European soil in the days and months that followed. Others made it all the way from D-Day to VE Day, returning home from the horror of war to find what peace they could, each in their own way.

On this 80th anniversary of D-Day, we are reminded that democracy and freedom are the result of neither luck nor natural occurrence. We are the beneficiaries and custodians of the great inheritance of democracy and freedom, which the Greatest Generation defended and preserved through their service and their sacrifice. Our gratitude to them must never wane. Our duty to them is to never drift into complacency when peace is threatened in our times. Our memory of them must never fade. Their lives and endeavours are a reminder of the commitment needed to repel tyranny, of the courage needed to preserve liberty. May they continue to be an inspiration, to our generation and those that follow us, of the importance of such commitment and courage. Lest we forget.