Charles W Hash

Overseas With Colonel Charles W Hash, 8mm Footage, showing World War II in color.

• Sold as a set of 4 reels of 8mm film stock. 
• Filmed by Charles W. Hash (American, 1910-1998).
• Various (Fort Lewis, WA and The Pacific Theatre): n.p, [ca. 1941-1944].
• Majority color, with some black and white.
• Approximately 800 feet total.
• Metal reels in two-piece outer cans.
• Cans with etched titles and dates and mounted labels.
• A full preliminary digitization of the films is available.

Freshly-discovered 8mm color film footage of World War II service — quite possibly the only entirely amateur WWII color footage by an American soldier extant — shot by Montana-native Charles W. Hash of the 41st Infantry Division.

Hash enlisted in the Army in 1930, served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, earning multiple decorations, including the Silver Star for actions in the Papuan Campaign. He was commissioned as a captain during WWII, commanding Company H (a rifle division) of the 163rd Infantry Regiment of the Montana National Guard. He later commanded the entire Army Reserve Forces of Northern California, and retired a Colonel in 1965. Despite his clear interest and skill, we find no evidence that Hash was officially involved in film at any point in his long and distinguished military career.

Spread across four, approximately 200-foot reels of film (totaling some 45 minutes), these films cover Hash's stateside training at Fort Lewis and combat duty with the 41st in Australia (near Rockhampton), Hollandia, New Guinea, Biak, and The Philippines. Footage is creatively titled using homemade screens of white pegboard letters laid over a standard G.I. wool blanket to mark dates, locations, and settings. He was clearly an avid hobbyist, with a strong documentarian instinct that belies what must have been his normal day-to-day responsibilities.

The footage here offered represents an unfiltered, vernacular look into the daily lives of ordinary combat soldiers. This is especially noteworthy because strict censorship regarding photography was in place during the War. And while many GIs captured snapshots of combat and wartime service, only a handful of similar moving picture footage is known. A motion picture camera would have been much more difficult to conceal than a standard film camera (though Hash's advanced rank perhaps made this less of an issue) and shooting in color would have been both prohibitively expensive and technically difficult for most soldiers of the era.