Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

French pilot Jules Védrines in the cockpit of his Morane-Saulnier N in September 1915


Before Fokker’s famous gun-synchronizing device made his appearance, another system, invented by French manufacturer Raymond Saulnier, had already been tested in combat by Roland Garros, the first pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft using a fixed machine-gun.
Unlike Fokker’s interrupt mechanism, which effectively blocked the machine-gun from firing when the rotating propeller’s blades were passing in front of the gun, Saulnier’s system worked as a synchronizer between the gun and the rotating blades enabling the bullets to pass between the blades of the spinning propeller. Due to the imprecise nature of an automatic gun's firing, variations in the spinning propeller’s velocity, and the very high speed at which any gear synchronizing the two had to operate made this system far from perfect with bullets hitting the blades every so often.
Saulnier’s friend, aviator Roland Garros came up with a solution, albeit a crude one, in the form of wedge-shaped bullet deflectors installed on the propeller’s blades. These would deflect any bullet that might have struck them. The system worked to a degree, considerably reducing damage to the blades, but it also reduced the propeller’s efficiency making the already slow Morane-Saulnier fighter even slower.
This particular photo shows the whole firing system with the deflectors clearly visible. Concerning these early weapon systems, I cannot help but wonder about how difficult and complex must have been for the pilot when he had to reload the gun (in this case, a Hotchkiss Model 1909 Benét-Mercié machine-gun) by inserting a new 25 round magazine, while at the same time piloting his aircraft and attempting to keep his opponent in sight.
Jules Charles Toussaint Védrines (1881-1919) was an early French aviator, notable for being the first pilot to fly at more than 100 mph (in 1912 flying a Deperdussin Racing Monoplane) and for winning the Gordon Bennett Trophy race in 1912.
During the Great War, he was posted to the French 6th Army flying reconnaissance and clandestine missions in his Blériot XXXVIbis. By war's end, he had flown over 1,000 hours.
On April 21st, 1919, Védrines was killed in a plane crash near Lyon while attempting to fly a Caudron C.23 from Villacoublay to Rome.

"You will not all understand this, they destroyed our youth !! Throughout the entire occupation, we dreamed of being able to repay the Germans for all the humiliations. Out of 32 of my friends who passed their high school exams, 15 survived the occupation ... "
Witold Kieżun, soldier of the unit for special tasks of the Polish Home Army. Decorated with the Order of Virtuti Militari, the Cross of Valor.



Photo from the collection of Andrzej Lewandowski

5 May 1915
Soldiers of the Lancashire Fusiliers, part of 29th Division, are seen on board Trawler 318 used during the Dardanelles landings, before disembarking at 'W' and 'V' beaches off Cape Helles.


On 26 May 1915, the Lancashire Fusiliers were transferred to 125th Brigade of the 42nd (East Lancashire) Division.
(Photo source - © IWM Q 13219)
Colourised by Royston Leonard

Soldiers of the 2nd Polish Corps in the Battle of Monte Cassino, May 1944

German 5th SS Panzer Division "Wiking" Pz.Kpfw.V Panther 534, May 1944, Poland.

Amsterdam, Het Gooi, early May, 1945

German Wehrmacht soldiers pull out of the Amsterdam area and pass some locals near 't Gooi'. The soldiers still have to hand in their weapons and equipment at a collection point.
Surrender of German forces in the Netherlands was negotiated on the eve of 5 May 1945 (three days before the general capitulation of Germany), in the Hotel de Wereld in Wageningen.
By the end of the war, 205,901 Dutch men and women had died of war-related causes. The Netherlands had the highest per capita death rate of all Nazi-occupied countries in Western Europe (2.36%).
Over half (107,000) were Holocaust victims. There were also many thousands of non-Dutch Jews in the total, who had fled to the Netherlands from other countries, seeking safety, the most famous being Anne Frank.
Another 30,000 died in the Dutch East Indies, either while fighting the Japanese or in camps as Japanese POWs. Dutch civilians were also held in these camps.

Photo collection Anefo

30 June 1944, off Enewetak Atoll. 14-inch projectiles are loaded on board USS New Mexico (BB-40) prior to the invasion of Guam.


USS New Mexico's 14-inch projectiles on starboard deck forward while being replenished at Eniwetok, Marshall Islands 30 Jun 1944

The women of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment of the Soviet Air Forces — better known as the Night Witches — had no radar, no machine guns, and no radios. All they had onboard was a map, a compass, rulers, stopwatches, flashlights, and pencils.


Yet they successfully completed 30,000 bombing raids and dropped more than 23,000 tons of munitions on advancing German armies over the course of four years during WWII.

Am I imagining things or does that Polish soldier in Monte Casino in the stone rubble not have a boot on his right fool??? Take a look......??

British Army Sgt. R. S. Baker of the Army Film & Photographic Unit (AFPU) and a soldier of the British Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) receive bread sprinkled with salt from a young Soviet soldier as a sign of friendship amidst the ruins of Hitler’s Reich Chancellery after the defeat of German forces at the Battle Berlin and the surrender of the Axis forces in Europe. Berlin, Germany. May 1945.

uktabber said:

Am I imagining things or does that Polish soldier in Monte Casino in the stone rubble not have a boot on his right fool??? Take a look......??

Click to expand...

Take into account that he may simply have his shoes wrapped in cloth (to reduce the sound of knocking on rubble). The reconnaissance groups did so.

Heavy tank JS-2 from the 1 st Czechoslovak Army Corps (Czechoslovak unit in the 4 th Ukrainian Front of the Red Army) in the center of the capital of Czechoslovakia – Prague. Date: May 10, 1945

May 1945, Germany, An American soldier is flanked by two Red Army girls soldiers as they do guard duty on the River Elbe at Torgau, where the Allies met from the east and west.

Soviet tank "Sherman" in the German town of Grabow, Germany 3 may 1945

Soviet and American troops on the bank of the river Elbe in Torgau. 1945

A Soldier from 11th Armoured Division guards two youthful German prisoners and a haul of
' panzerfaust' anti-tank weapons, 7 April 1945.


The Germans were part of a bicycle-mounted tank-hunting unit.

Photosource--© IWM ( BU 3197)
photographer-Norris(Sgt)
No.5 Army Film & Photographic Unit

Colourised by Rui Candeias

William Marsters,a Maori Soldier of the 1st Canterbury Regiment buying cakes from a local women in Belgium while halting on a training exercise 1917.



Photosource- Alexander Turnball Library, Wellington,New Zealand.
N.Z records/22847966.
Photographer- Sanders,Henry Armytage.

Colourised by Jecinci.

Private Leon Ravet of Parramatta NSW and Private Bernard Kentwell of Cronulla,NSW. New Britain 4th April 1945.


Both men Served with the 19th Battalion (South South Syndey Regiment)

Men of the Royal Garrison Artillery, hauling a 6 inch 26 cwt howitzer in position on the Balkan Front in May, 1917.


(Photo source - © IWM Q 32922)
Creator - Ariel Varges
Colourised by Doug - Colourising History

Poles in the Battle of Monte Cassino.
During the fights for the deaths of 923 Polish soldiers, 2,931 were wounded, and 345 were missing.
On the local war cemetery there is an inscription: "Passers-by, tell Poland that we have fallen faithful in its service".
In the photo, soldiers with equipment taken from a German bunker. May 1944



Photo: National Digital Archives