Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

Workers of the Chinese Labour Corps hoisting parts from a salvaged tank by crane at the Central Stores, Tank Corps. Teneur, spring 1918.

An M4A3 Sherman tank of the 11th Armored Division, 3rd US Army is seen advancing into the center of the German town of Kronach on April 12, 1945

British Cavalry on manoeuvres crossing the Authie River, Auxi-le-Château, Pas-de-Calais. 17 September 1918.
(Photo source - © IWM Q 9316)


McLellan, David (Second Lieutenant) (Photographer)
Colourised by Doug

Two soldiers with the 4th Infantry Division stand guard over a group of young German prisoners of war near Dausfeld, Germany in 1945.

By January of 1945, the Ivy Division crossed the Sauer River, and began taking one town after another on its way to Germany…..among them Fuhren, Vianden, Priim, Adenau, and Reifferscheid. In capturing the last two, the division moved 20 miles in 24 hours. By V-E Day, it had marched to the Austrian border and was stationed just below Bad Tolz, in Southern Bavaria. It had moved fast, and had hit hard, but, like most combat divisions, had had to pay a heavy price for its gains. By V-E Day, the Ivy Division had suffered 22,660 casualties.

The 746th FEAF Band recorded the only known album by a frontline band unit in the jungles of the Pacific. Stream and add these veterans music to your Spotify and Apple Music playlists or download a digital copy of the album for free on the band website. Your streams and downloads will help these World War II veterans earn a Best Historical Grammy nomination later this year. Streaming is free….freedom is not.

Commander of I/JG-54 (1st group of the 54th Fighter Squadron) Luftwaffe Squadron, Hauptmann Hans Philipp with a fox in his arms against the backdrop of his Messerschmitt Bf-109F-4.
In 500 sorties, Hans Philip, nicknamed “Phipps”, scored 206 air victories, 178 of which on the Eastern Front and 29 against the Western allies. Philip was killed on October 8, 1943, his plane was shot down by an American P-47 fighter (pilot Robert S. Johnson).
Location: USSR
Date: May-June 1942

The forgotten role of the Australian commando squads and other units such as Special Forces, in the Pacific war. Units that adopted a fighting style and undertook entirely new missions for Australian forces.

In early 1941 a small British military mission came to Australia to establish commando units. He selected the rugged national park at Wilsons Promontory, Victoria, as a secret training area. Four independent Australian and two New Zealand companies were to be formed for the war in Europe. Eight Australian companies were eventually created. The invitation to create commando units initially received a lukewarm response. Little was known about the commandos beyond Australia's Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Vernon Sturdee, describing them as some form of "cloak and dagger gang." Some officers believed that well-trained infantrymen were just as capable as commandos and that such special units posed a burden to the infantry.

In February 1941, the first cadre of officers and NCOs began a six-week course before spending a further six weeks training their men. It was all "very quiet," one early volunteer recalled: "No one knew anything about the independent companies." Recruits were trained in guerrilla and irregular warfare, demolitions, advanced field crafts, map reading, and signal work. They were encouraged to be "cunning, ruthless and bold".

With Japan's entry into the war in December 1941 and the rapid advance across Southeast Asia and the Pacific, independent Australian companies soon sprang into action. The darkest fate befell Australia's first commandos, the No. 1 Independent Company. Most were captured following the seizure of Kaviang, New Ireland, in January 1942. However, it was in the vast jungles of New Guinea that the independent companies excelled, deployed on the flanks of the main infantry force, conducting reconnaissance and surveillance, and harassing the Japanese.

In Australia, meanwhile, independent companies reorganized. In December 1942 Wilsons Promontory was abandoned and the barracks moved to Canungra in south-east Queensland. In October 1943, the independent companies were designated "cavalry (commando) squadrons". Soldiers became platoons and platoons became troops. The change was bitterly accepted. Soldiers of the 2/6 Independent Company complained that in Australia "a 'commando' has come to mean a brash, dirty, unshaven, screaming guy covered in knives and knuckles."

During 1945, all 11 squadrons of Operational Commandos participated in Australia's final campaigns in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Borneo. The 2/8 Commando Squadron on Bougainville, for example, was employed by Australian commanders as cavalry, likening the squadron to their "eyes and ears" operating on the flanks of the main force.

In 2016, Major General Jeffery Sengelman, Commander of the Australian Special Operations Command, reflecting on the service, sacrifices and achievements of Australia's independent companies, Special Units M and Z, and those who served with the SOA in World War II, commented: “They walked into the darkness, fanned out into the unknown, and met the threat. That is courage."

In the image. Lieutenant Edward 'Ted' Frederick Byrne, NX58832, of the 2/7th Cavalry Squadron (Commando) at Bumbum in the Ramu Valley, New Guinea, 20 October 1943.

Born on May 23, 1921, to William and Edith Byrne on what was then a hill in Campsie, New South Wales, Ted was the seventh child and considered this unusual circumstance lucky. He did well academically at school and was an enthusiastic cricketer at his local club Croydon Park, where he won trophies as an all-rounder.

Ted enlisted in July 1940, and at the time this photograph was taken, he had been in the 2/7th since the Battle of Wau, New Guinea, in January-February 1943. He was mentioned and awarded the Military Cross for his "skill and coldness" on patrol, he is "great offensive spirit in the face of adversity" and for trying to rescue wounded men.

Promoted to captain, Byrne was wounded in action during his second campaign in New Guinea on January 12, 1945. Following the war and his service in Malaya with the Royal Sussex Regiment, to which he had been posted, Ted returned to Australia and civilian life.

He married his wartime sweetheart, Betty Reta Chamberlain, in Sydney in 1946 and they had three children, Garry, Gail and Teddy. Although Ted and Betty later divorced, they continued being very close and especially enjoyed being together with their grandchildren Christopher and Ted's beloved dog Jason, and later Luke. Ted worked for a time at stockbrokers Joseph Palmer and Sons. He established his business as an agent in Sydney for some of Melbourne's best fashion manufacturers and built it up in Culwulla Chambers to be one of the most respected in Sydney.

At the age of 96, after a long and fulfilling life, Ted Byrne passed away on August 8, 2018.

20 September 1917. Battle of the Menin Road Ridge. Troops of the 13th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry preparing to advance on the village of Veldhoek.

American tank crews bound for North Africa practicing their M4 Sherman for manoeuvres in the California desert, October 1942.

Operation Market Garden, Richard "Dick" Winters and the Easy Company

At the start of the battle The 101st Airborne Division was withdrawn from the front line in July 1944 and sent back to England to take on replacements and train for its next jump. As the new commander of "Easy Company", Richard "Dick" Winters, was promoted to captain. Winters and his men's next action came on September 17, 1944, when Easy Company jumped into the Netherlands as part of "Operation Market Garden."

In an account of Winters's memoirs, some excerpts from the actions of the “Easy Company” at the beginning of the allied operation over the Netherlands: “Compared to Normandy, the jump on September 17 was relatively easy. Unlike on D-Day, Easy Company and the entire 506th jumped in broad daylight several miles north of Eindhoven. Approximately five minutes from the drop zone, the regiment encountered heavy flak from German flak batteries. The aircraft of the regimental headquarters were the most affected. Colonel Sink and his second-in-command, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Chase, almost suffered the same fate as the Easy Company commander on D-Day when their planes were hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire as they approached the area. launch. When Sink saw a part of the wing hanging off, he turned to his men and said, "Well, there goes the wing," but no one seemed to think much of it. Both Sink and Chase landed safely and quickly organized the regiment to advance their objectives. The only danger I personally felt was the need to get out of the drop zone as quickly as possible. Since the drop zone was so concentrated, the entire 506th Regiment using a single drop zone, it was literally raining down gear: helmets, pistols, and other packs. The march out of the drop zone was long, hot and dusty. It took us too long to reach the goal.

As we consolidated our forces, the enemy remained active. The Allied 1st Airborne Army had fallen into a hornet's nest. German troops were prepared for an immediate counterattack to cut off the lonely road from Eindhoven to Arnhem. On September 19, two days after the start of the operation, "Easy Company", with a tank platoon attached for support, was given the mission to advance towards Helmond, 12 km east of Eindhoven to make contact with the enemy. As we passed through Eindhoven, the Dutch were out again, cheering, waving flags, offering food and drink. We crossed the start line and passed through Nuenen, a small town whose main claim to fame was being the birthplace of Vincent van Gogh. As soon as we left Nuenen, we were met by heavy fire from enemy tanks. The Germans destroyed several of our tanks and immobilized the company so quickly that it was impossible for us to advance. Most of the men took cover in ditches along the road as we only had a few buildings that we could use as cover to set up and return fire. All we could do was keep the fire going until nightfall. We then gave up the fight and crawled back through the ditches until we could consolidate the company's position and return to Eindhoven.

As soon as we got back to Eindhoven, the German air force dealt a terrible blow to the city center. The image of that antenna and the artillery shelling remains etched in my mind to this day. The Dutch, who just that morning had been so happy to be freed, and who had cheered us on as we marched towards Helmond, were now inside, closing their shutters, lowering their flags, looking dejected. It was a sad sight. They obviously felt we were abandoning them in the face of a determined enemy advance. Large fires continued to burn in the city, and it was not until morning before Eindhoven residents brought the fires under control. To the population of this city, their world seemed to be coming to an end. We feel bad too, limping back to the city. For the first time, the Easy Company was forced to withdraw. Without sufficient armored support, our position was tactically untenable. Furthermore, we had ascertained the location of the enemy and determined their intention. I immediately arranged the men for the night and proceeded to battalion headquarters to report the situation…”

U.S. Marine aims his M1 Garand rifle atop Japanese ammunition crates on the Island of Iwo Jima, February/March 1945

"Leaping Lena’, a USMC Higgins boat takes aboard a load of weary Marines to take them to a waiting transport for transfer to another South Pacific base from Guadalcanal. The Leathernecks leaped at the chance to leave the island after their long fight with the Japanese.

Wartime air traffic control trainees practice on model aircraft before working with the real thing.

A medic of the 4th infantry division taking care of another medic after the successful invasion of Utah beach. The photograph was taken on 6 June 1944 during Operation Overlord.

Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division, run a phone line over a knocked out Tiger II Tank (Also known as King Tiger or Royal Tiger) as a woman and 2 young ladies walk by during the final days of the Battle of the Bulge.

Goronne, Belgium, 8 January 1945

Allied soldiers landing on Juno Beach - 6 June, 1944

Two little Chinese boys were been adopted by a R.A.F. Spitfire Squadron stationed at Kaitak airfield, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

When the squadron took over the airfield from the Japanese, the children, who are brothers, presented themselves at the orderly-room. One could speak English, and he informed the corporal that his father had been murdered by the Japanese, and his mother was seriously ill. A visit was made to the mother, and she was told that her children would be “adopted.”

She was delighted, and the station medical officer who examined her said that the news may speed her recovery. The children have been named “Big Wings” (aged eleven) and “Little Wings” (aged eight).

A US P-51D Mustang of the 8th Air Force in flight over England, ca.1945. Note the auxiliary fuel drop tanks under the wing, which nearly doubled the Mustang’s operational range from 750 to 1,375 miles. It had a top speed of about 390 mph.

March 1945, the last desperate offensive against the Soviets, trying to defend their oil reserves in Hungary, especially around Lake Balaton, and recover Budapest. Known as the Lake Balaton Offensive, it lasted two weeks, thinking that it would be another similar objective as in the Ardennes Offensive but it ended up being a German failure, allowing the Soviets to take advantage of the situation and continue their march towards Vienna.

This major counterattack became known as the Vienna Offensive and quickly overwhelmed the retreating German defenders, largely because of the massive numerical advantage the Soviets had. Desperately defended by Germans short of just about everything, Vienna fell on April 13.

Adolf H. was furious at the failure of the operation and, above all, at the loss of Vienna, which he often regarded as more important to him than Berlin. Following this, he issued an order to the commander of the 6th SS Panzer Army, known as the Order of the Armbands, that his troops, especially the 1. SS-Panzer-Division, Leibstandarte SS remove their SS armbands as indication of his fall from grace. Hitler claimed that they had not fought honorably. 'Sepp' Dietrich refused to carry out that order and never passed it on to his troops. Fully aware of the situation Germany was in, Dietrich joked that "we call ourselves the 6th Panzer Army, because we only have 6 Panzers left".

With the Americans overstepping the Elbe River line and advancing across the Alps, where they captured Hitler's famous Berchtesgaden, the end of the war was drawing near.

Ground crew from the 553rd BS, 386th BG hand painting invasion stripes prior to D-Day.

23 September 1944. 1st Airborne Division soldiers display a yellow parachute to signal to Allied supply aircraft from the grounds of 1st Airborne Division's HQ at the Hartenstein Hotel in Oosterbeek