Battleships in World War II part of Operation Neptune, in support of the D-Day landings in June 1944. D-Day also saw the deliberate sacrifice of two old dreadnoughts ( and ), which were scuttled as part of the breakwater around the Allied Mulberry harbours. The sinking of "Prince of Wales" and "Repulse" off the coast of Malaya in 1941 demonstrated that even the most modern battleships could not hold off aerial attacks without decent aerial defenses. The British HACS fire control system had been rendered inoperable by the extreme heat and humidity of the Malaya tropical climate, and the anti-aircraft artillery had managed to shoot
Dick Pirrie VFA. He enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy during World War II. Temporary Sub-Lieutenant Richard Perrie was the first member of the Australian Navy to be killed in action during the landings at Normandy on D-Day (6 June 1944). He was mentioned in dispatches (MiD): Dick Pirrie Richard Michael Pirrie (6 June 1920 – 6 June 1944) was an Australian rules footballer who played with Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League (VFL). The son of Richard Francis Pirrie (1879-1962), and Isobel Agatha Pirrie (1897-1982), née McGuire, Richard Michael Pirrie was born in Hawthorn on 6 June 1920. He attended St