100-year-old veteran’s story preserved in interview
Colin Murray recalled his WWII service days
Earlier this year at the age of 100, local Te Awamutu man and WWII veteran, 2nd Lieutenant Colin Murray passed away. Three years earlier he gave an interview to US-based charity Remember WWII whose mission is to record video testimonies from all remaining WWII veterans. This interview is available on YouTube and runs for more than two-anda-half hours.
In it Colin recalls his time stationed in North Africa and later in Italy but also his memories of growing up on his family’s 350-acre farm in Tuhikaramea (today the Mormon Temple at Temple View stands on the site of their farm) and what it was like living through the Great Depression of the 1930s.
During WWII, he spent three years in the Waikato Regiment, after being conscripted at 18, trying to defend the country from the very real prospect of invasion. As the chances of invasion increased he and his comrades, many of whom he’d been at school with, were moved further north.
He was just 20 when in May 1942 the chances of invasion were greatly diminished by the US’ victory over Japan in the Battle of the
Coral Sea and so he was subsequently shipped over to Egypt where he was stationed in Maadi briefly before spending the following two years fighting his way up Italy’s Sangro River.
In his interview with Remember WWII Colin recalls his first night on the banks of the Sangro River.
It was icy cold and no sooner had he started digging the trench in which to sleep then he was sent across the river. The icy water was up to his chin as he waded across to try and capture a German soldier, which he was very glad there were none. Colin and his unit the 24th Battalion were not only cold and tired from marching the previous 20 miles but also very hungry having not eaten for the past 24 hours and he recalls they had to wait until nightfall before they could move about to get some food without risk of being seen by the enemy.
In the following days artillery fire rained down on the banks of the Sangro River as Colin and his unit captured the town of Marabella.
Later, as he and a comrade were digging another trench, a German sniper fired two shots at Laurie Thode of Auckland who’d been standing next to Colin and eventually with the help of another comrade they were able to carry Laurie into a nearby house. They tried to look after him until medical help could get across the river. Unbeknownst to Colin, Laurie died and is buried at the Commonwealth War Grave Sangro River War Cemetery in Italy.
In the weeks and months following Laurie’s death, Colin’s unit continued their advances and on their way captured many German soldiers before later taking part in the Battle of Monte Cassino.
In the post-war years, Colin became heavily involved in the local community, from heading the local National Party branch to serving as president of the Te Awamutu branch of the King’s Empire Veterans, also, judging at local A&P shows and serving as a JP.
He was a man of duty and service and a true local hero.