There's been some news coverage recently on the film and our search for home movies, photographs and other archival material.  Below you'll find links to three articles as well as their full text.

The Portage Daily Register had a piece on Ken Hatcher on March 29, 2008, which can be read here:  http://www.wiscnews.com/pdr/features/279275 

The Herald-Dispatch had a piece on Norval Carter on March 11, 2008, here: http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/x957118357

And The Ceres Courier had a piece on Walter Perra on March 12, 2008 here:  http://www.cerescourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&subsectionID=2&articleID=54542

Full text of all three below.  Enjoy!

A SACRIFICE OF FIVE: New documentary on Normandy features Pardeeville man

by Bill Bromley

Capital Newspapers 

At last Bill Hatcher's father isn't a stranger.

More than 60 years after Ken Hatcher was shot by a sniper in France during the Normandy invasion, he's coming alive to a son he never knew.

Ken Hatcher, who lived in Pardeeville before being drafted, is one of five World War II casualties featured in a documentary tentatively titled "Sacrifice." It's a film that creates portraits through personal stories and experiences and represents an entire generation who fought and died on the battlefields.

Hatcher and the other veterans already are the subjects of an 18-minute documentary shown at a visitor center at the American cemetery in Normandy. Now the filmmakers are working to expand the movie to feature length and get it released.

Bill Hatcher helped the filmmakers tell his father's story, something he has spent his brief retirement researching on the Internet. Working with the film crew helped him flesh out the man who was drafted a month before his youngest son's birth, and who died in a foxhole without ever meeting his baby boy.

"I'm piecing all of this stuff together, and it's starting to fill a big hole in my life, in my spirit," Bill Hatcher said.

Documenting Dad

The younger Hatcher only lived on the family farm north of Pardeeville off state Highway 22 for about a year. His mother remarried soon after his father's death, and over time Hatcher and his older brother and sister lost touch with that side of the family.

It wasn't until 3 1/2 years ago, when he retired from his post as Milwaukee County's director of economic development, that Hatcher began researching his father's life. Through online bulletin boards he gathered information about his father's combat history. One tidbit led to another until he discovered his aunt -- his father's sister -- was still alive. He also located the son of his father's commanding officer, the man who was with Ken Hatcher the day he died.

The elder Hatcher was a replacement infantryman. His company was trying to push back the advancing German lines in late July 1944. Six feet tall and sturdy, he was assigned to carry a heavy machine rifle, which made him a German sniper's target on the front line. Ken Hatcher was killed in a foxhole just days after arriving in France. He left behind a wife and three children at age 27.

"He never got to be as old as I am," said his 65-year-old son. "I grew up sort of thinking there was a piece of me missing."

The rest of the story

Now Bill Hatcher knows his father was a South Dakota native who graduated from eighth grade and entered the Civilian Conservation Corps. He drove a milk truck and helped his father on the family dairy farm outside Pardeeville, exhibiting a passion for working with draft horses.

Ken Hatcher married his sweetheart, Elizabeth Rozek, in February 1941, and continued to stay on the farm. He left to join his brother Troy in the Army in 1943, with a pregnant wife and two children at home.

He arrived at the front during a battle for St. Lo, a town in France. After the assault, a few remaining soldiers were out of ammunition and water. Capt. Frank Monan retrieved a canteen next to one of his fallen men — it belonged to Hatcher, a man he only met the night before.

A brigadier general familiar with the story through his online bulletin board postings told Bill Hatcher about the Normandy documentary being made through the American Battle Monuments Commission. Filmmakers were interested in profiling a replacement infantryman.

While touring Pardeeville with the film crew, Hatcher learned that his father's name appears on a war memorial in a village park. When the family assembled for interviews, Hatcher got a clearer picture of his father. "The whole experience just reached into your soul and grabbed your heart," he said.

In the film, Elizabeth Hatcher (now Murphy), tells of her decision to bury Ken in the soil he fought for. And Ken's sister, Nancy, details the effect of the loss on the family.

Expanding the film

Ken Hatcher's story, and that of four veterans from other states, may soon become familiar to a larger audience.

Associate producer Adam Schein said the film crew's original goal was take an in-depth look at a few soldiers who died in Normandy. Their 18-minute film is played at the visitor center to put a face on the epic battles waged there in 1944.

In making that short film, writer/producer/director Max Lewkowicz sought to "give these men who died a little more life than they were able to have," Schein said. The film project is a personal one for Lewkowicz, whose mother Fela Gutter was rescued from the Auschwitz death camp by American GIs.

Lewkowicz explores

the link between his mother and the five American soldiers who he chose to represent all GIs. On the movie's Web site, Lewkowicz explains that through their ultimate sacrifice, men like these five saved millions of others.

Each of the five stories represent a section of the war: the first American to die, a soldier killed in the first wave, a pilot, a medic tending to wounded, and a replacement.

The film crew feels there's enough compelling material to make a 90-minute feature that could play in theaters and on television.

They seek home movies and photographs of rural Wisconsin from the 1920s-40s to help illustrate Ken Hatcher's background. Once such contributions are assembled, the film should be finished in a matter of months.

"We expect that this will impact a lot of people," Schein said. "You absorb the memories of the people, friends and family.

"They were all kind of swept into this singular cause to liberate the world from tyranny."

A history lesson

Even if the full-length documentary isn't released, Bill Hatcher considers the filmmaking process a success. His father's military service, though brief, has been chronicled for future generations.

"His memory is definitely being preserved," Schein said.

Still, Hatcher said he hopes the veterans' stories reach a broader audience because the film contains a valuable history lesson. "The sacrifice is much the same a lot of kids are making today," he said, alluding to the Iraq war. "It kind of makes you wonder: Hasn't this world learned anything since 1944?"

How to get involved

Filmmakers seek home movies and photographs of rural Wisconsin from the 1920s through the 1940s as they expand "Sacrifice" to a full-length documentary.

To submit materials, call associate producer Adam Schein at (646) 290-6931 or send e-mail to adam@doggreenproductions.com

Photos of Huntington needed for Normandy documentary

Mar 11, 2008 @ 10:55 PM

By BILL ROSENBERGER

The Herald-Dispatch

HUNTINGTON -- An associate producer for Dog Green Productions is hoping Huntington natives and residents can help in the final editing process for a feature-length documentary called "Sacrifice," profiling the lives of five soldiers who died in Normandy.

One of the five soldiers whose life is explored is Elmer Norval Carter, who lived in Huntington until his deployment as a battalion surgeon for the 29th Infantry Division. He was killed on June 17, 1944, while trying to save a wounded soldier.

The producer, Adam Schein, is looking for footage of Huntington, either through pictures or film, from the 1930s and 1940s. He said it's important to know who the men featured in the documentary were so that visitors to a new Normandy center in France see where these men came from and what they left behind.

"How do you introduce people to the (Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France) who don't have relatives or loved ones buried there?" Schein said.

The visitors center, Schein said, has two short films about the five men. But only a full-length film could get their stories told.

"You can't get a sense of who they were as people without the full-length documentary," he said. "It's a very large story told through the eyes of a few people."

If you have any old film footage or photographs of life in Huntington during the 1930s and 1940s, contact Adam Schein at (646) 290-6931 or e-mail him at adam@doggreenproductions.com. You can also visit the project's Web site at www.normandy five.com.

Film company seeks Ceres home movies in 1930, '40s

Still photos or old home movies that depict life in and around Ceres in the 1930s or 1940s are being sought by a New York film production company producing a documentary involving a Ceres native.

Dog Green Productions needs the materials for a feature-length documentary about five men who were killed during the Normandy campaign of World War II. One of the men profiled is Walter Perra, a Ceres native. The film has been commissioned by the American Battle Monuments Commission, which oversees 24 cemeteries around the world where American GI's are buried.

"Any old film reels would be particularly useful to us," said Adam Schein, an associate producer. "Moving images provide the most vivid portrayal of the past for generations to come.

"Right now we are seeking any images depicting daily life in Ceres and the surrounding areas during the 1930s and 40s."

Associate producer Shelby Frantz said the Perra family provided some home movie footage of Walter. But the hope is to find "daily life" type of footage shot in Ceres.

"We are hoping to finish the film in the spring so we need to be touch in the next couple of weeks, by the end of the month probably," said Frantz.

A film crew was in Ceres over a year ago interviewing old-timers who either knew Perra or grew up in Ceres during that era.

Perra died at age 24 on June 15, 1944 when his plane was shot down over a small town called Les Corvees.

Perra, a St. Paul, Minnesota native was born in 1919 to Richard and Ida E. Perra. In 1931 they moved to Ceres when Walter was in the seventh grade. He and his brother Medrick Perra built model airplanes as youngsters, the first indication that Walter was interested in aviation. He took aeronautical courses locally and occasionally flew a biplane at Phillips Airfield. Before the war, Perra worked for Vultee Aircraft, but left to join the Army Air Corps. As a P-38 pilot, he flew numerous missions over enemy territory, disabling railroads and supply lines, and clearing the way for the advancing Allied forces.

Those interested in contacting Dog Green Productions to help out with photos or movies may call (646) 290-6931 or email adam@doggreenproductions.com.