The Oberg Color Film Footage of Pearl Harbor - December 7, 1941

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fort MacArthur in San Pedro near Los Angeles established in 1914 by the US Army as a Coast artillery installation to defend Long Beach Harbor the facility also served as a training and induction Center during the first and second world wars in the 1950s missiles replaced the guns and they protected the airspace above the Los Angeles area through the 1970s today fort MacArthur is operated by the city as an historic site and Museum remembering six decades of active military history inside the parks battery Osgood Farley a former battery for two 14-inch disappearing carriage guns our exhibits featuring uniforms weapons and equipment that tell the story of a time when this was a US Army Post but one artifact in the museum's collection tells a different story one that unfolded 4,000 120 miles away from San Pedro that artifact is an unexceptional Revere model 88 motion picture camera that did something absolutely exceptional on Sunday December 7th 1941 when it was used to film 8 millimeter color footage of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor at the time the camera belonged to technical sergeant Harold S Oberg and his wife ADA the previous year the couple departed San Francisco for the Pacific on the u.s. army transport grant destination the Philippines there sergeant Oberg was to report for his new duty assignment at Clarke Army Airfield on Luzon but during the voyage ADA became violently seasick so seasick that sergeant o Burke's commanding officer decided it would be best if she went ashore to recover when the ship made a brief port call at Pearl Harbor while she was recovering sergeant o Berg's orders were changed and he was reassigned to the headquarters of the 11th bombardment group at Hickam Army Airfield the couple was then assigned to quarters on 16th Street in the posts senior enlisted housing area their new home was a two-story apartment in a c-shaped building was then only a few years old downstairs was a living room dining room and a well-appointed kitchen with cabinets refrigerator and an oven upstairs was the master bedroom a guest bedroom and the unit's only bathroom after moving in the couple began their new life in paradise they visited the islands sites enjoyed a luau when swimming off of Waikiki Beach and settled into a routine as new residents of Oahu the islands scenery made such an impression on the Oh Berg's that they decided to splurge and buy a handheld camera to shoot home movies that's when they purchased the Revere model 88 that's now a part of the collection at fort MacArthur at 7:55 a.m. on the morning of December 7th the sounds of low-flying aircraft and explosions rudely interrupted what should have been a peaceful Sunday morning Ada and Herold rushed to one of the windows in the master bedroom and looked out just in time to see a nakajima b5n type 97 carrier attack bomber pass overhead on its approach to release a torpedo at one of the ships of nearby battleship row although the oh Berg's lived on post at Hickam Army Airfield their quarters on 16th Street stood quite close to the Pearl Harbor Navy base in fact the distance from the apartment to the mooring berth of battleship USS Arizona was just 7,500 feet in other words just under a mile and a half the close proximity of the apartment on 16th Street to this important target of the Japanese attack was such that torpedo bombers from the first wave passed directly overhead on their way there when Harold recognized the insignia of the Rising Sun he turned to Ada and said this is the real thing with that he dashed off to the closet to put on his uniform and on the way out the door he told ADA to stay undercover with that he sped off in the couple's car toward the flight line to report the duty shortly after sergeant Oberg departed the first wave of the attack came to an end and ADA stepped outside thinking that it was all over she noticed that most of the apartments on 16th Street were empty and the doors were wide open she could see thick black smoke rising from several points of the direction of the Navy base and that's when she remembered the Revere model 88 motion picture camera it was in the bedroom closet and it was already loaded with color film from when the couple had gone into downtown Honolulu the previous week to see Christmas decorations although photography on Hickam was prohibited ada felt that the exceptional and historical circumstances that day created an exception before she could begin filming the second wave of the attack began and that drove her back toward the apartment for safety she then noticed women and children running down 16th Street away from the Navy base and she motioned some of them to come into the apartment for shelter even though she'd never seen them before only then did a to retrieve the camera and begin filming her initial two shots are from the window of the master bedroom looking toward forward island the first focuses on a massive plume of black smoke rising from USS California at berth f3 the southernmost birth of battleship Braille and the second is facing straight north toward smoke clouds rising from the wrecks of USS Oklahoma at berth f5 and USS Arizona at birth f7 ADA then proceeds downstairs walks out into the courtyard and films one shot over the roof of the northern wing of the apartment building the time is shortly after 9:30 a.m. on December 7th and her shot here captures a thick cloud of black smoke from the burning Mahon class destroyer USS shaw which had exploded spectacularly a few minutes earlier and floating dry dock yfd to she then enters a neighbor's apartment in another part of the building climbs to the upper floor and records two shots facing Porter Avenue and the Marine barracks on the Navy base a building now known as polar Hall today the first shot is from the window facing southwest and the second shot is the from the window facing Northwest in the distance smoke can be seen rising from the area of drydock number one where USS Casson USS downs and USS Pennsylvania are burning thirty six hundred feet away to the northwest just as the second wave of the Japanese attack was ending MPs came to the housing area on 16th Street warning the residents to leave Hickam in the interest of safety with only a few minutes at her disposal ada darted back inside the apartment grabbed some cash in the blanket but before leaving she wrote Herold a quick note on the back of an envelope and left it behind along with the Revere model 88 she then left Hickam Field writing in silence with two of her neighbors their first stop was Tripler Army Hospital but the three women were quickly sent on to the University of Hawaii throughout the second wave of the Japanese attack sergeant Oberg had remained on duty at 11th bombardment group headquarters at Hickam flight line just 3223 feet to the southwest of the apartment on 16th Street but shortly after it concluded he returned home to check on Ada when he entered the apartment he quickly noticed the note and the camera secure in the knowledge that ADA was safe sergeant Oberg then drove back to the field but he didn't do so empty-handed he wanted to document what had happened - and so he took the Revere model 88 with him proceeded to the base operations building and climbed a set of spiral stairs that provided access to the roof once there sergeant Oberg began filming his opening shot faces north toward hangar number two with a thick cloud of black smoke rising from USS Arizona in the background two miles away then Oberg pans left to reveal even more smoke rising from the burning wreckage of the battleships USS Oklahoma and USS Maryland as well as the Tennessee class battleship USS California as the camera continues panning Hickam flagpole enters the frame with the fields distinctive 171 foot tall octagonal water tower in the background beyond it after panning past the airfields hospital building the well-known 3200 man barracks nicknamed the Hickam hotel comes into view Oberg shot even captures bomb damage to the building's roof we then see smoke from burning drums of aviation fuel rising skyward just to the south of hangar number 3 and as the camera sweeps past hangar number 5 douglas b18 bolo medium bombers can be seen mustard on the tarmac in the distance in the foreground is the severed fuselage of b-17 see number four zero two zero seven four a flying fortress from the 38th reconnaissance squadron that had been piloted by captain Raymond T Swenson earlier that morning as one of 12 b-17s scheduled to land at Hickam on December 7th 2:07 four arrived over Oahu with no ammunition and low on fuel in the middle of the air raid just after 8:00 a.m. during final approach to land two a6m2 zero fighters strafe the aircraft setting off a box of flares that eventually burned the aircraft's empanada the point that the weakened structure buckled and broke away while taxiing sergeant Oberg is now no longer on the roof of the operations building but filming 2:07 for from the grass next to the building Honolulu photographer Ty Singh Lou later captured the wreckage of Swensons b-17 C and this famous image together EDA and Herold Oberg had captured color footage of one of the most important days in American history Sunday December 7th 1941 but their story and their footage don't end there they remain separated in the days that followed the Japanese attack with her at the University of Hawaii and him on duty at Hickam on December 17th after the newspaper published where the spouses for service members were staying on whoa Harold drove to the University to find Ada and the couple was finally reunited a few days after that they broke out the Revere 88 again to film an underground air-raid shelter that was dug in an open courtyard across 16th Street from their quarters here Harold is filming as ADA emerges from the bomb shelter wearing her hbt coveralls a civilian gas mask and an in 1917 a1 helmet she's all smiles while putting away her gas mask and he would never guess that less than two weeks ago she was at Ground Zero during the attack on Pearl Harbor the camera has changed hands and now ADA is filming Harold as he struggles to fasten the chin straps on his in 1917 a1 helmet she's clearly coaxing him to do something entertaining and he responds by entering the shelter and then scrambling out in a simulated charge while drawing his m1911a1 pistol now Harold has the camera again and films a panning shot of the area around the bomb shelter a Red Cross banner flaps in the breeze neighbors appear to be moving out and Oahu's Cole our range can be seen in the background Harold then films Ada and the next-door neighbor in the front yard of their quarters with 16th Street behind them the reel of film ends with a well composed and especially poignant shot of a 48 star American flag one month later as the spouses and dependents of servicemembers were being evacuated from the territory of Hawaii ADA returned to California but not by sea fully aware of the misery created by her intense seasickness the family chipped in and purchased a one-way ticket to San Francisco for her on Pan Am's Honolulu clipper while the price for her flight was a whopping 200 $78 it's paired ADA the ordeal of another uncomfortable voyage at sea although the flight brought her back to the u.s. west coast much faster than a ship would have it taught her that she was also prone to air sickness in fact she was so sick when the Honolulu clipper touched down in San Francisco Bay that she had to be carried off of the aircraft nevertheless she was home and she was safe Harold returned to California several months later and brought the Revere 88 motion picture camera along with the reel of color 8-millimeter that the couple filmed during the Japanese attack on December 7 1941 Harold died in 1963 of a heart attack but ADA eventually remarried and moved back to San Pedro her hometown in the mid-1980s she donated all of her memorabilia from December 1941 to the fort MacArthur museum including the scrapbook of photographs the Revere model 88 camera and the reel of color film that captured one of the most infamous moments in American history these items are currently on display there in the battery Osgood Farley historic site although the story of Ada and Harold Oberg may not be a particularly well-known chapter in Pearl Harbor history that story is nevertheless preserved at fort MacArthur and because of that it will not be forgotten ADA passed away in 1995 but she left behind a legacy in this remarkable story assembling that story took years of work and would not have been possible without the generous assistance of December 7th historians mike winger and jesse Higa special thanks also go to dr. Harley Richards and the team at Florida dental implants and oral surgery for critical assistance with the video production finally none of this would have been possible were it not for the cooperation and support of Steven Nelson and the team at the fort MacArthur Museum to learn more about fort MacArthur and the battery Osgood Farley historic site please visit ft m.a.c org and thank you for watching you

Info

Channel: midway512

Views: 1,407,104

Rating: 4.7472348 out of 5

Keywords: Pearl Harbor, December 7, World War II, Second World War, Hawaii, Oahu

Id: 1b6auSQPvGs

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 14min 56sec (896 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 06 2018

Reddit Comments

This short documentary tells the story of Harold & Eda Oberg, & the film footage they recorded of the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941. The couple captured shots during & after the attack on Hickam Army Airfield.

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/magenta_placenta 📅︎︎ Dec 19 2018 🗫︎ replies