The Irrepressible
p. 10 · Read in the full issue
Parers
Damien on Guam
FRESH laurels are coming the way of Damien Parer, who has been film ing the recent fighting on Guam for Paramount News. Until he resigned last year, he was ace cameraman for the Australian Department of Information in the Middle East and New Guinea.
A recent despatch from Guam by the Melbourne “Herald” war correspondent, Denis Warner, says: “The Marines think of him as a sort of legendary figure the bullets cannot touch. Four of their own corps’ camera men have been killed in the fighting here, but none took the same risks as Parer to get what he calls ‘the best action pictures I have taken this war.’
“In the final fight for Orote airstrip, where Japanese resistance was easily the fiercest of the campaign, Parer preceded the infantry, following the tanks on foot.
He was not injured, but many infantry men, sheltering in fox-holes behind him, were killed and wounded by machine gun bullets and mortars, Parer came back to press headquarters that night exhausted, but the happy possessor of remarkably close action pictures.”