Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[Conhoon]

Daimler armored car opens fire at dawn, starting the battle for Tripoli. Libya, 18 January 1943.

 

[Conhoon]

Yevdokiya Nosal and Polina Gelman

Yevdokiya Ivanova Nosal (Russian: Евдокия Ивановна Носаль, Ukrainian: Євдокія Іванівна Носаль; 14 March 1918 – 23 April 1943) was a junior lieutenant and deputy squadron commander in the 588th Night Bomber Regiment (nicknamed the "Night Witches" by the Germans) during World War II. She was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 24 May 1943, making her the first woman pilot to be honored with the title during the war.

Polina Vladimirovna Gelman (Russian: Поли́на Влади́мировна Ге́льман, Ukrainian: Поли́на Володи́мирівна Ге́льман; 24 October 1919 – 25 November 2005) was a flight navigator in the all-female 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment who was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union in 1946 for having totaled 857 sorties during World War II.

 

[Conhoon]

British officer and his dog at the Wavans War Cemetery where Major James McCudden is buried, 13 July 1918.

McCudden remained in England until July 1918, but soon was given command of No. 60 and returned to France. On the morning of 9 July 1918, he travelled to the home of his fiancé, Miss Alex-Tweedie in Whitehall Court. While there, McCudden told her he wanted to surpass von Richthofen, the Red Baron, who had been killed in action few months before. McCudden set out across the English Channel. Flying in heavy mist he decided to head to Auxi-le-Château, France. Around 90 seconds after take-off from Auxi-le-Château, his plane plunged into the ground. Corporal W.H. Howard fought through the fire to free McCudden, lying next to one of the wings, for he had not worn his safety belt. James McCudden died at 20:00 on 9 July 1918 of a fractured skull, from which he never regained consciousness. McCudden's remains were then buried at the Wavans War Cemetery, with barely three dozen graves, in the Pas de Calais, France.
(Photo source - © IWM (Q 9042)
Colorized by Ben at Cassowary Colorizations

 

[Conhoon]

L/Cpl. William Marsters (15568), a Maori soldier of the 1st (Canterbury) Regiment, buying cakes from a local woman in Belgium while halting on a training exercise. Other soldiers and another female vendor are nearby. July 1917

William Marsters of Christchurch NZ died 21/5/1940

(Photograph taken by Henry Armytage Sanders)
National Library of New Zealand - H32 - Ref: 1/2-012755-G

 

[Conhoon]

Recovery of a crash-landed Bf 109G-6 (W.Nr 413601) 'Black 7', flown by Unteroffizier Jakob Vogel who made an emergency landing behind British lines. 07/24/1944.

Colour by RJM

 

[Conhoon]

Soldiers of the 2nd Polish Corps repairing the Willys Jeep off-road vehicle during the battle for Monte Cassino, Italy, 1944.

Photo from the collection of the Military Museum in Białystok, inv. No. MWB / D / 5178.

 

[Conhoon]

23 July 1918
Troops of the Duke of Wellington's (West Riding) Regiment, 62nd Division resting in a shell-hole after the capture of Marfaux.

Marfaux marked the furthest point of the German advance in July 1918, as the allied forces fought to prevent the German Army from surrounding Reims by the south-west. The village was retaken on 23 July 1918 by 51st and 62nd Divisions as part of the allied counterattacks in the Second Battle of the Marne.
(Photo source - © IWM Q 6867)
Colourised by Doug

 

[Conhoon]

PzKpfw VI 'Tiger' in the Orel region, north of Kursk, Soviet Union, possibly during one of the two Soviet counter-offensives (Operation Kutuzov) that occurred at the same time as the German summer offensive, Operation Zitadel. July-August 1943.

Original: Bundesarchiv (Bild_183-J14813)

 

[Conhoon]

"But too often, they pay with their life their loyalty to their master".
Liaison dog (estafette) of the 9th Zouave regiment. Estafette dogs had the mission of transmitting messages from one unit to another, usually from or to a forward position. Its speed and size were a great advantage to transmit messages quickly, thus avoiding the use of a soldier. On the sign we can read
"9.Zouaves. Here lies Boby, estafette dog killed in the service of France on March 9, 1940. Farewell. May your body and your instinct rest in peace: Dressieurs".
Although taken during the Phony War, this photo shows the rare skirmishes that took place and cost lives.

Place and date unknown, 1940, taken by André Zucca.

 

[BravoZulu]

Uniformed Recruiting Sergeants at Westminster. The image is taken from a series of 37 photographs published in the book, 'Street Life in London' (1877), with text written by John Thomson and the journalist Adolphe Smith. After taking photographs in the Far East, Thomson opened a portrait studio in London in 1875. Two years later he collaborated with the journalist, Adolphe Smith, to produce 'Street Life in London'. The book was conceived as a follow-up to Henry Mayhew's famous study, 'London Labour and the London Poor' (1861–2). The photographs were used to guarantee the book's authenticity.

 

[BravoZulu]

Airborne Troops of the 101st Airborne Division (probably 501st PIR) that landed behind the German lines in the south of The Netherlands examine what is left of one of the gliders that had "cracked up". Operation Market Garden, 18 September, 1944.

 

[BravoZulu]

Béla Békessy won Silver medal in sabre at the 1912 Olympics. In WW1 he served as captain of the hussars in Austro-Hungarian army and was killed in action during Russian Brusilov offensive in 1916

 

[BravoZulu]

Mobilization: A civilian offers a drink to soldiers, Paris, August 1914. These soldiers of the 5th infantry regiment, the Paris regiment, fell en masse, decimated in September at Godat, near Cauroy - lès - Hermonville in the Marne.

 

[BravoZulu]

Loading a 4000lb Cookie bomb onto a Lancaster Bomber. Photo by Hulton Archive

 

[BravoZulu]

Final pre-departure checks on a Vickers Wellington Mk Ic V

 

[Fluff]

Final pre-departure checks on a Vickers Wellington Mk Ic V
View attachment 324760

Always treat the prop as live......

 

[BravoZulu]

German soldiers passing through a burning village. On the left, an Obergefreiter carrying an 8cm Schwere Granatwerfer 34 (GrW 34) mortar on his shoulder.

 

[BravoZulu]

Private Warren D. Fuhlrodt of Blair, Nebraska, attached to F Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, is lifted out of an M4 tank of the 1st Tank Battalion after being wounded during the Battle of Kunishi Ridge. Friday, June 15, 1945.

Fuhlrodt was hit by an American white phosphorus grenade, either by a Japanese who found it, or by friendly fire. The phosphorus hit his back and legs, it's hard to put out and it burns more intensely in the proximity of aluminium and metal. With tanks being the only vehicles able to survive the journey back and forth to the hospital under machine gun and sniper fire, he was told he could be evacuated — if he could get himself into the tank. So, he crawled, alone and unaided, into the bottom hatch, because snipers would fire on anyone accessing the top hatches. Driven to a front line aid station, Fuhlrodt was evacuated from Itoman, that had been hacked into the landscape, by a Convair OY-1 Sentinel Grasshopper CASEVAC (Casualty Evacuation), strapped to the outside of the plane.

Fuhlrodt received first aid on Okinawa and then was transferred by sea to a hospital ship ('USS Samaritan' AH-10), where doctors intended to remove his legs. Fuhlrodt refused surgery and was able to make a full recovery.

 

[NebrHogger]

French native levies from WW1.

 

[BravoZulu]

Two Panzer V Panthers from the 5th SS Panzer Division (Wiking) as seen through the lens of an SF14Z scissors periscope from another Panther in the summer of 1944.