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Collection Veterans History Project Collection

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Veterans History Project Service Summary:

  • Service History Note: The veteran risked his life to document the brutal battle on Tarawa Island as the Marines assaulted the beachhead and took the island. The film, "With the Marines at Tarawa" won an Academy Award for outstanding documentary short subject in 1944.
  • War or Conflict: World War, 1939-1945
  • Branch of Service: Marine Corps
  • Unit of Service: 2nd Marine Division; 5th Marine Division
  • Location of Service: Washington, DC; Tarawa Atoll (Gilbert Islands); Iwo Jima; Pacific Theater
  • Highest Rank: Major

View full service history

"The minute something starts to happen, your training with a camera tells you you’re there to take pictures, so you look for the pictures to take." (Video Interview, 34:23)

Enlisting in the Marine Corps after rejection from the Navy, Staff Sergeant Norman Hatch applied to photo school three times with no success. A lucky break finally allowed him to train with the “March of Time” newsreel photographers, who taught him to use his motion picture camera to tell a story. By 1943, he was in the Pacific Theater, filming the Battle of Tarawa. One of the bloodiest of the war, the invasion lasted for three days; Hatch landed on the island with his fellow Marines, and kept his camera rolling throughout the intense action. His footage of the invasion, "With the Marines at Tarawa," went on to win the 1944 Academy Award for Best Short Documentary.

About this Item

Title

  • Norman Hatch Collection

Names

  • Thompson, Kevin
  • Rocky Run Middle School
  • Sawatzki, Jamie
  • Jake Acosta
  • Alice Park
  • Hatch, Norman

State of Birth

  • MA

Home State

  • VA

Headings

  • -  Hatch, Norman
  • -  World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal Narratives
  • -  United States. Marine Corps.

Notes

  • -  Jada Williams and Ashley Scherbenske also interviewed the veteran.

Repository

  • Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Gender

  • Male

Status

  • Veteran

Service History

  • World War, 1939-1945

    • Service History Note: The veteran risked his life to document the brutal battle on Tarawa Island as the Marines assaulted the beachhead and took the island. The film, "With the Marines at Tarawa" won an Academy Award for outstanding documentary short subject in 1944.
    • Branch of Service: Marine Corps
    • Unit of Service: 2nd Marine Division; 5th Marine Division
    • Location of Service: Washington, DC; Tarawa Atoll (Gilbert Islands); Iwo Jima; Pacific Theater
    • Highest Rank: Major
    • Dates of Service: 1939-1981
    • Entrance into Service: Commissioned
    • Military Status: Veteran

Materials

  • Video: DVD [1 item] -- Oral history interview (collected 05/31/2007)
  • Video: DVD [1 item] -- Reference copy (collected 05/19/2010)

Collection Number

  • AFC/2001/001/60276

Cite as

  • Norman Hatch Collection (AFC/2001/001/60276), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Online Format

  • image
  • video

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

Using VHP Material in Publication or Exhibition

The Veterans History Project (VHP) at the Library of Congress collects, preserves and makes accessible the firsthand recollections of U.S. military veterans who served from World War I through more recent conflicts and peacekeeping missions, so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand what they saw, did and felt during their service. The Veterans History Project Collection includes oral histories along with documentary materials such as original letters, diaries, photographs, and memoirs.

Veterans and interviewers contribute these materials to the Library for scholarly and educational purposes, retaining any copyright they may hold. Therefore, permission must be obtained before using the interview or other materials in exhibition or publication. Researchers or others who would like to make further use of these materials should contact the Veterans History Project for assistance.

As a publicly supported institution, the Library generally does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot give or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute material in its collections. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item from the Library’s collections and for securing any necessary permissions rests with persons desiring to use the item.

Please contact us with questions.

Obtaining Copies of VHP Materials

In order for VHP materials to be duplicated, we must receive written permission from the interviewee for you to obtain a copy of the recording unless the proposed use is limited to personal use, research, or other uses permissible by copyright law. If the interviewee is deceased, their next-of-kin may grant written permission.

Please contact VHP for assistance if you need to contact a veteran for permission to use their materials in exhibition or publication, or if you have received permission from the veteran and need access to high-resolution copies of VHP collection materials.

Citing VHP Materials

Please use the following formats when citing Veterans History Project materials (substituting the appropriate name and collection ID number).

Materials as a whole:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Manuscript material:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Memoirs (MS02), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Transcript (MS04), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Correspondence (MS01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Recording:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Audio recording (SR01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Video recording (MV01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Photograph:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Photographs (PH01), photographer unknown, Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Photographs (PH03-PH14), Ralph Williams photographer, Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Computer file:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Computer file (CF01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Artifact:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Artifact (AR01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Thompson, Kevin, Rocky Run Middle School, Jamie Sawatzki, Jake Acosta, Alice Park, and Norman Hatch. Norman Hatch Collection. 1939. Personal Narrative. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.60276/.

APA citation style:

Thompson, K., Rocky Run Middle School, Sawatzki, J., Jake Acosta, Alice Park & Hatch, N. (1939) Norman Hatch Collection. [Personal Narrative] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.60276/.

MLA citation style:

Thompson, Kevin, et al. Norman Hatch Collection. 1939. Personal Narrative. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.60276/>.