Hacker Cinema
With the Marines at Tarawa
1944 · Film · documentary · 18 min
Directed by Richard Brooks, Louis Hayward
Documentary short film depicting the harrowing battle between the U.S. Marines and the Japanese for control of the Pacific island of Tarawa. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with National Archives and Records Administration in 2005.
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Terrific first-person footage of the battle of Tarawa in 1943.
According to Wikipedia:
"The film is in full color and uses no actors, making it a valuable historical document. The documentary showed more gruesome scenes of battle than other war films to date.
Since the pictures were far too graphic to meet the standards of Hollywood producers and distributors, only the President could grant permission for its release to the general public. President Roosevelt consulted the only man who was present at the Battle of Tarawa that he personally knew and trusted, Time-Life photographer Robert Sherrod. Quoting Sherrod, "I tell the President the truth. Our soldiers on the front want people back home to know that they don't knock the hell out of them every day of every battle. They want people to understand that war is a horrible, nasty business, and to say otherwise is to do a disservice to those who died." Based on Sherrod's prompting, FDR agreed to release the film, uncensored."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_the_Marines_at_Tarawa
Far more detail about the battle here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tarawa