WWII Digitized 8mm Color Footage – Early War Marines Horse Around on Beach 1941

Private WWII color footage is one of the hardest avenues of militaria collecting to break into. Reels of film are often tossed away after estates sales, never viewed for their content. It’s a rare occasion to find a small piece of WWII history tucked away in a film collection, undigitized and likely unviewed for decades.

In this case, I was able to acquire a quick 1:28 film shot by a group of buddies on the beaches of a training camp somewhere on the Pacific during WWII. This educated guess is based on the early field gear pictured in the film which includes the shortly-used M1917A helmet. The hand cranked radio generator, the pith helmet as well as the offshore battleships point towards an early film. Sadly, the color of the footage wasn’t really picked up during the digitization. Each frame is scannable with my Epson V700, but the color was lost during the professional digitization. Enjoy!

The Hawaiian music was added by the digitization company.