By RUSTY DENNEN

In one corner of American filmmaking, Norman Hatch is a living legend.

Hatch, 89, who lives in Alexandria, was a combat cameraman during the Marines' march through the Pacific in World War II.

He's best known for film he shot during a few days in November 1943 as Marines hit the beach on a tiny atoll known as Tarawa.

His was the only film taken during the first day and a half of the battle--footage so riveting it helped a 1944 documentary film win an Academy Award.

Hatch, who rubbed elbows with movie stars, ordinary Marines and generals, was among a little-known cadre of military cameramen whose images helped shape public opinion back home.

Hatch is the subject of Charles Jones' new book "War Shots: Norm Hatch and the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Cameramen of World War II" (Stackpole Books, $27).

Hatch and Jones were at a book-signing Friday at the National Museum of the Marine Corps bookstore. Jones, 58, a former reporter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, with two other military volumes under his belt, spent two years researching and writing "War Shots."

In an interview last week, Hatch recalled the moments leading up to the Tarawa landing, and working under heavy mortar and machine-gun fire.

His ship had set out from New Zealand. In the hours before the battle at Tarawa, as Marines were stowing rifles, ammunition and supplies in their packs, Hatch was gathering his gear--lots of film, and 35 mm Bell & Howell cameras.

"Everything we were doing was brand new. We were flying by the seat of our pants," he said. "We sort of made things up as we went along."

The first order of business was keeping the equipment dry. "We knew we'd have to walk in water. We had long cans with 10 rolls of film in them," Hatch said. That sounds like a lot of film, but "the film went through the cameras at 90 feet a minute, so we had to be very careful about how we shot."

"When we went over the side into the boat, I had a can on each shoulder, and a camera on my left wrist." His trainee, Bill Kelliher, had a second camera and another two cannisters of film.