The Marines at Tarawa

[Guest SUNTZU]

YouTube - With The Marines at Tarawa

WWII Combat Cameraman: 'The Public Had To Know' : NPR

During Word War II, Norman Hatch was a combat cameraman who witnessed — and filmed — some of the most bitter fighting in the Pacific theater. His efforts ended with, of all things, an Academy Award — for footage so brutal that it took special permission from President Franklin Roosevelt to allow his short documentary to be shown as a newsreel.

A new 10-part miniseries on HBO called The Pacific has revived interest in the United States' island-by-island campaign against the Japanese in the 1940s. Six decades after those battles, Hatch, sitting in the basement den of his Alexandria, Va., home — filled with film canisters and movie posters — still remembers it clearly.

'You Get Over This Wall And You Fight'

Hatch says he caught the photography bug early in his native Gloucester, Mass. He and his friends would grab their cameras and head to Boston's Howard Theater, an old burlesque house, where they would secretly snap pictures of the dancers on stage.

When he joined the Marine Corps just as World War II began, Hatch was eager to put his photography skills to work. By November 1943, Hatch was a staff sergeant in the Pacific — capturing footage on a hand-cranked 16mm movie camera.

More at link and an interview with the cinematographer, Staff Sgt. Norman Hatch.

[E4 No More]

To think Tarawa was a cake-walk compared to Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

[Hgunner]

I don't think any of it was a cake-walk.

[Mike.357]

thanks for posting SUNTZU. great stuff.

The dubbing job was fantastic as well as the footage.

[Guest FroggyOne2]

Semper Fi

[Will Carry]

Tarawa was no cake walk. In many ways the lessones learned a Tarawa saved lives on Iwo Jima. Tarawa was a ClusterF#$@!. From the very begining it was a sh!# storm of a ClusterF#$@!. The Navy still had not learned how to shoot their guns. They were too far out to sea to really hit anything and their shooting was pathetic. If they hit any Jap bunkers it was just by luck. They got the tides wrong and the landing craft and amracs got stuck on reefs. Marines had to wade 700 yards fully exposed to Jap motors and machine guns. Then they had to fight against well dug in defensive positions, in tropical heat.

You really should read a book about Tarawa before you go calling it a "cake walk", no offense intended. Iwo Jima was bad and so was Okinawa, but fighting the Japs anywhere was never a cake walk. Tarawa may have been the worst battle the Marines fought in WWII ......except for all the rest.

Edited April 7, 2010 by Will Carry

[Guest Halfpint]

... Fond memories of Parris Island "classes." I never looked for any of the videos we watched on the Island, but it's nice to see them in general circulation. The Pacific campaign as a whole was a defining moment for the Corps.

Semper Fi.