Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Desmond Norbett Courtney CALLEN (1910-1986)

redacted from a comprehensive biography compiled by his family. 

Desmond ‘Des’ Norbert Courtney Callen, was born on 25th September 1910, not that long after the Wright brothers took their first flight in 1903. He lived to see those rickety cloth and wire biplanes evolve into rocket ships that took men to the moon in 1969, and died on 2nd March 1986, some 75 and a half years later.

His lifetime spanned a period a time that included the most important events of the 20th Century - World War I, the Spanish Influenza pandemic, the Great Depression and World War II, followed by all of the geo-political changes since 1945. Unsurprisingly, living through such momentous events, particularly the Great Depression and World War II, shaped Des’s approach to life.

His children however,  had little knowledge or understanding of his time at war. His first child was not born until mid 1945 and by then he was more focused on the future and did not dwell on the past. While he would sometimes talk about events in the war, but these were but glimpses of his time away.

His Ships

Des had yearned to go to sea from his earliest days. He finally achieved this goal in 1934 when, aged 24, he had an unexpected opportunity to serve on a ship in the Australian merchant navy. Over the next five years, he served on four other such ships while, in parallel, qualifying to become a Chief Engineer.

By 1939, he had become the youngest ‘Chief’ serving on the Australian coast.  In 1938, a year before the war began, he applied to join Royal Australian Navy Reserve (Seagoing)(RANR(S)) and he was commissioned as an Engineer Lieutenant with effect 25th August 1939.

When war erupted a few days later, he was mobilised for war service, without having previously served even a day in the navy. He was to not to know then, but he would remain serving in the fulltime navy for six and half years, longer than most other reservists, and six months longer than the war itself.

Des served most of the war aboard a warship operating at sea, in harm’s way and these included:

HMAS Australia (II). Des first joined the heavy cruiser HMAS Australia (II), the flagship of the Australian fleet and Australia’s largest warship. While aboard, he saw some of the darkest days of the war, beginning with the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the entry of Italy into the war and the fall of France and the low countries and Denmark and Norway in mid-1940, and the various naval disasters in the Atlantic and elsewhere.

It was while on Australia (II) that he was involved in hunting the German ‘pocket’ battleship Admiral Graf Spee, defending convoys in the Atlantic against surface raiders, submarines, and aircraft, and fighting against the Vichy French at Dakar

HMAS Napier & HMS Woolwich. Des served in the Mediterranean from late 1940 until early 1942, in the newly commissioned destroyer HMAS Napier.  During this time, Britain and her empire faced the Axis powers alone and final victory seemed improbable. It was while aboard Napier that he was caught in the Glasgow blitz, witnessed the sinking of the battleship HMS Barham in the Mediterranean, and experienced the attack by Italian frogmen.

It was also when he was involved in the evacuation of Crete and was subsequently awarded a Mention in Despatches for his bravery. His time aboard included the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in late 1941 and the subsequent disasters of early 1942 and Napier’s transfer to the Pacific war.

HMS Lucia and HMS Wuchang. Leaving Napier for an emergency appendectomy in early 1942, Des spent four months in Ceylon servicing submarines while aboard HMS Lucia and HMS Wuchang.

Returning to Australia he had a number of shore postings at Navy HQ in Melbourne  HMAS Torrens in Adelaide, HMAS Cerebus Westernport Bay Victoria, before joining HMAS Hobart in Sydney on 2 February 1944, and just as his wife relocated from Adelaide to Sydney, HMAS Hobart relocated to Brisbane!

From April to August 1944 he was aboard the HMAS Swan, which took part in the campaign along the north coast of New Guinea.  He was re-assigned as Base Engineering Officer at HMAS Basilisk in Port Moresby.

Des's 1945 entailed moves back to HMAS Torrens in Adelaide, then to HMAS Penguin in Sydney, HMAS Moreton in Brisbane, HMAS Magnetic in Townsville and then a month back at HMAS Basilisk in Port Moresby.  By May 1945 he was assigned to HMAS Kuttabul then HMAS Rushcutter in Sydney and saw out the war there.

He was demobilised on 27th March 1946 and transferred to the Active Permament Reserve.

Following his demobilisation,  Des then returned to his pre-war calling and took up what was to become a long career with BHP's merchant fleet, eventually being appointed Commodore Chief Engineer of the BHP Fleet in 1972.  He retired on 25 September 1975.