Even after 66 years ago last Friday after his death Damien Parer remains one of Australia's most
well-known combat cameramen. He was born on 1 August 1912 at Malvern in
Melbourne but was educated largely in
Bathurst, at Saint Stanislaus School. Parer joined the school's camera club and decided early on that he wanted to be a photographer. Having left school and failing to find photographic work in
Melbourne, he resumed his education before finding an apprenticeship. Also interested in motion pictures, having completed his apprenticeship, moved to
Sydney to work with the director, Charles Chauvel.
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When the Second World War began, he had become experienced in stills photography and motion picture work, and was appointed as official movie photographer to the AIF. He sailed for the Middle East in January 1940 where he filmed on board
HMAS Sydney after it had sunk the Italian cruiser, Bartolomeo Colleoni. he was on board another ship, HMAS Ladybird when she bombarded Bardia and he advanced with the infantry at Derna, his first experience of close action. At Derna he decided that he needed to film from as close to the action as possible, sometimes even in advance of the troops. Acquaintances later recalled that from the moment Damien made this decision he was doomed to die on the battlefield.
He filmed in Greece and in Syria, covering the action from aircraft, the deck of a ship and on the ground with the infantry. After Syria he travelled to Tobruk in August 1941 before covering the fighting in the Western desert. By mid-1942 he was in New Guinea ready to cover the fighting against the Japanese. During this phase of the war, he filmed some of his most famous sequences, some at Salamaua and, most notably, those used in Kokoda front line. This documentary won its producer, Ken Hall, an Oscar for documentary film-making. Behind the footage lay Damien Parer's deep desire to draw to public attention, the conditions under which the Australians were fighting in New Guinea.
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In late 1942 he travelled to Timor to film Australians of the 2/2nd Independent Company who were fighting a guerrilla campaign on the island, the result of which was his documentary, Men of Timor. He then returned to New Guinea where he flew on a series of hair-raising Beaufighter operations against Japanese shipping in the Bismarck Sea. After that he moved to the Salamaua area where he filmed, among other actions, the
well-known assault on Timbered Knoll.
In August 1943, after more than 12 months of rancour and disagreement, Parer left the Department of Information's employ to work for the
United States company, Paramount News. His early assignments involved filming further air raids over New Guinea. On 23 March 1944 during a period of leave he married Marie Cotter in
Sydney. Their union was a brief one as he returned to action, leaving the war in New Guinea behind to accompany the
United States Marines. He filmed them first on Guam and then covered the Peleliu operation.
On 17 September 1944, keen to get shots of the faces of advancing US soldiers, He was walking backwards behind a
tank, filming a group of marines advancing under fire. He was killed by a burst of Japanese machine gun fire.
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Many of us would have seen the TV series called “Pacific” which was an awesome program and I have done a lot of research about Peleliu , it must have been one hell of a place to have been at the time.
Some gripping reading of his experiences with the RAAF,
well worth the read.
Damien Parer in action with the RAAF
.