This historic film, originally released as part of the Army-Navy News Magazine of the Screen in December of 1942, features Movietone cameraman Al Brick who photographed the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. As he explains, much of Brick’s footage was seized by the U.S. Government as the extent of the damage to the U.S. Pacific Fleet had to be concealed from the American public and the world-at-large for national security reasons. By 1942, with the Japanese reeling from the Battle of Midway and no longer launching offensive naval operations, and with America’s fleet on the move, release of the footage was allowed. The film, narrated by the famed commentator Lowell Thomas, contains footage of the Japanese attack and aftermath, including the devastating explosion on board the USS Arizona at the 1:30 mark. At 2:50, the USS West Virginia is seen and the USS Tennessee, as well as the capsized USS Oklahoma. USS Nevada is seen at the 3:17 mark. At 3:30, destroyers are seen sunk at anchor, and a seaplane base is shown utterly wiped out. Hickham Field is seen at 4:00. At 4:47, the recovery effort at Pearl is seen with the Tennessee and West Virginia, and USS Nevada, being salvaged and re-floated, as well as USS California at 5:30. The Nevada, California and West Virginia are all seen rejoining the fleet in the “year after Pearl Harbor”.

Much of the footage seen in this film was also used in John Ford’s epic propaganda film “December 7th” which you can find elsewhere on our channel.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com