Person of the Week: Norman Hatch

March 26, 2010— -- The Battle for the island of Tarawa was one of the first American victories in the Pacific in World War II. It was also one of the war's fiercest and bloodiest battles.

On the front lines with the troops was U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Norman Hatch. But instead of shooting a rifle, Hatch was shooting film.

"The film shot on Tarawa was a first because it showed what combat was really like," Hatch said. "It shows it up close and dirty."

As the filmmaker, this marine, a combat cameraman during the war, waded in right beside his comrades who were about to attack.

"When I was looking through the viewfinder, I was living in the movie," he said. "I was disassociated from what was going on around me."

Even as he saw Marines get shot and fall to the ground beside him, Hatch made sure to document every second of the battle with his 16mm camera.

"You cannot take pictures laying down. Being a cameraman was like somewhat of being somebody with a target on your back," Hatch said. "We were upright walking in, while everybody was down at helmet level in the water."

In the face of such danger, he still stayed focused on the mission at hand.

"The adrenaline kicks in and you know what you've got to do. A cameraman is no different than a mortar man or a machine gunner," Hatch said. "Guys would say, 'What you doing here?' We have to be here -- it's the only way people back home are going to know what's going on."

More than 1,000 marines would die in the 76-hour battle. The Japanese lost almost 4,000.

"There wasn't any end. You just walked away. There wasn't anyone left to fight," Hatch said.

The footage of the carnage was like none that had been seen before -- President Franklin D. Roosevelt had to grant special permission for it to be shown to the public in newsreels.