Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

BravoZulu said:

Trainee pilot Madge Rutherford from the Women's Flying Training Detachment writes a letter home after finishing a Coca Cola. A Vultee BT-13 Valiant can be seen in the background. Avenger Field, Texas, July 1943.
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Madge Rutherford Minton, 84, of Indianapolis died Sunday November 7th, 2004.
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Nice Sun Glasses !!!

Blohm+Voss photo I colorized of the Wilhelm Gustloff's launch on May 5th, 1937.

Bersaglierie in Donetsk, 1941.

Just think............those building if they survived or were rebuilt and have again seen war and devastation and been destroyed again probably by the Russians.....enough already!!

Canadian Lance Corporal R. Pankaski of the Winnipeg Rifles is waiting for a barrage made by the 5.5 Artillery to clear the area ahead, before moving forward. Near Caen, France on July 25th, 1944.

Offiziersstellvertreter Wilhelm Hippert showing off the high-altitude oxygen apparatus used by German pilots during World War I. Photograph taken in c. 1917.

G.I.'s from (possibly) the 1st Btn, 314th Inf. Rgt. of the US 79th Inf. Div., during an attack on the Bolleville road, just north west of La Haye-du-Puits in Normandy. ca. July 8, 1944


The Dodge Command Car belongs to the 3rd A.D. 166th Signal Photo Co unit 6 and could be the transport of the photographer Rodger Hamilton.
The soldier on the right carries a .30 BAR Caliber Browning Automatic Rifle.
At 1830, on the 4th of July, 2nd Btn moved through 1st Btn's position to bypass La Haye du Puits to reach an assembly area about 800 yards northwest of Bolleville. 1st Btn was holding the line to the right, and 3rd was in a defensive position northwest of Ste. Catherine. 5 July - After six hours of heavy fighting, 2nd Btn managed to only advance one-half mile and was stopped cold until tank support arrived. 3rd Btn's K/Co was sent to recon La Haye du Puits and, at 0900, secured the railroad station on the north end of town. The Germans bombarded the station heavily and orders for K/Co to pull out were issued that afternoon. Later in the day, the entire 3rd Btn pulled back to regroup to the right flank (south of Bolleville) for the next day's assault.
1st Btn moved in south from Bolleville. Late in the afternoon, 3rd Btn ran into a battalion of Waffen SS in defensive positions of La Haye du Puits. The 315th, near Montgarden, was so far away that what resulted was a 500 yard gap in the 3rd's right flank. On the northern sector, a 1st Btn recon unit ran into resistance and had to fall back to Bolleville.
On the 7th of July, 2nd and 3rd Btn's tried to advance again with slight progress and at a high casualty cost. By nightfall, command of 2nd Btn had changed three times due to heavy losses. 1st Btn made another attempt to reconnoiter La Haye du Puits, but ran into heavy German defensive positions - mine-studded fields strung with checkerboard patterns of piano wire about one inch off the ground, mortar bursts, and machine gun batteries. Behind the 314th's position, the 8th Infantry Division was preparing it's 28th Regiment to relieve 2nd Btn's position. The next day's orders were for the 1st Btn to just contain the town, leaving the dirty work to the 8th Infantry Division.
But, as will become pattern, the orders changed sending 1st into town. The battalion broke up into smaller units to penetrate the German defensive positions. It was an awkward, almost Guerilla-like attack, but after a day of this tactic, on 8 July, the 1st Btn secured La Haye du Puits.
(Source - US Army Signal Corps)

Finnish ski patrol (Separate Detachment Sau) is about to chase the enemy partisans in the Savukoski area, Lapland on the 2nd of April 1944.


Colourised by JHL Colorizing

SBD-5 Dauntless aircraft flying over USS Washington and USS Lexington in the Pacific Ocean en route toward the Gilbert Islands, Nov 12 1943

Battleship USS Idaho bombarding Okinawa 1 April 1945

The Battle of Bazentin Ridge - 1916
#1 Troops of the 26th Brigade, 9th (Scottish) Division, led by a piper, returning after the attack on Longueval. Montauban, 14 July 1916.



#2 Wounded being transported to a dressing station by trench railway after the successful attack on Bazentin. 14 July 1916.
(They all wear an identifying yellow cloth strip sewn on their upper sleeves.)


A subsidiary attack of the Somme Offensive, and having captured Mametz Wood on 12 July, the British moved onwards toward High Wood in a continuation of the push through German lines. The Battle of Bazentin Ridge, which ran from 14-17 July 1916 and comprised part of the second phase of the Somme Offensive, was launched primarily by Reserve Army (twelve battalions) with Rawlinson's Fourth Army providing a further battalion, on a front extending from Longueval to Bazentin-le-Petit Wood.
(Photos source - IWM Q4012 & Q 166)
Colourised by Doug

A picture of August Von Mackensen, a field marshal in the German army in World War I, 1915.

July 1916
An infantryman of 'A' Company, 11th Battalion, The Cheshire Regiment, on sentry duty in a captured German trench near the Albert–Bapaume road at Ovillers-la-Boisselle, during the 'Battle of the Somme'


(Photo source - © IWM Q 3990)
Brooke, John Warwick (Lieutenant) (Photographer)
Colourised by Doug

The official caption for this photo states: Londoners (of the Royal West Kent Regiment) seem quite pleased with their dug-out of stone on Monastery Hill*. Fifth Army, Cassino area, March 26, 1944.


*The location is probably wrong, the 6th Royal West Kents were positioned on Castle Hill, not Monastery Hill.
Perhaps the reason why these men of the 6th Royal West Kents (78th Infantry Division) seem happy is because they were about to be relieved by elements of the New Zealand Division after the failure of operations ‘Hector’ and ‘Revenge’ and the calling off of the offensive operations known as the 3rd Battle of Cassino.
Two nights before, these men had made a diversionary attack on Hill 165, a heavily defended German position. This attack, together with an artillery barrage on Monastery Hill was aimed at diverting the attention of the Germans around Hangman’s Hill, thus allowing the Gurkhas who were holding that isolated key position for nine days, to slip away back to Allied lines. This they did with great success, with ten officers and 247 men reaching safety without being detected. For now, Monastery Hill would remain in German hands.
At least two of these soldiers are veterans of the North African Campaign, as attested by the African Star ribbon.
Photo taken by Sgt. McConville, IWM (NA 13362)

A New Zealand Bren gunner provides fire support to his comrades making a push in the Monte Cassino area high up in the Mountains Italy 14th of May 1944

The rear gunner of a German He 177 ‘Greif’ long-range bomber climbs into the tail gun position. 1943-45.


The He 177’s tail gunner position was somewhat spacious allowing the gunner to wear his parachute. Still, it was isolated which meant that if the gunner had a problem during the flight he couldn’t get any assistance from the other crew members. On the positive side, it was easier for him to bail out from a stricken aircraft than for the rear gunners of Allied heavy bombers.
The gun is the 20 mm cannon version of the MG 151 known as MG 151/20.
Original: Bundesarchiv

USS Copahee (CVE-12) escort carrier left the Garapan anchorage off Saipan on 8 July 1944 with a load of captured Japanese planes (13 Zekes and 1 Kate) and equipment (37 engines) to be used for intelligence and training purposes, and arrived in San Diego on 28 July.



In the summer of 1944, the U.S. landed on Saipan and captured Aslito Field, a major JNAF installation. There, the Americans recovered a large number of Mitsubishi A6M5a Model 52 Ko Zekes of the 261st and 265th Kokutais captured at Aslito Field on Saipan, in relatively good condition. The best of them, along with several additional engines, were loaded aboard the escort carrier, USS Copahee and taken to the U.S., where the Navy used one of them for evaluation testing and the rest for spare parts.
Image Repair & Colourisation - Nathan Howland @HowdiColour.

Corporal Ryan B. Ragnvald warm his cold feets by a fire. He is looking at a few of 'Yanks' pin up girls. He is a member of a close support 105mm artillery unit on the Fifth Army front. Italy, November 1944.

A British Cromwell Tank crewmen of "C" Squadron, 5th Royal Tank Regiment enjoying some laughs towards the end of the war. Hamburg, Germany, May 1945.

British troops using a German Maxim MG 08
THE SECOND BATTLE OF THE MARNE, JULY-AUGUST 1918


Photo source - © IWM Q 6853
Colourised by Doug