Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[Conhoon]

On the 17th of September 1918, Australian soldiers of the 1st and 4th Divisions under the command of Lieutenant General Sir John Monash launched an attack on the Hindenburg Line.

Utilising huge artillery barrages and supported by eight tanks (as well as a number of dummy tanks to confuse the Germans), the Australians successfully broke through the German position on the 18th of September.
In that day alone the Australian’s advanced on a six kilometre front and took all their objectives at a cost of 1,200 men, capturing 4,300 Germans in the assault. Despite their success, the Australians and allies had only managed to break through the first of the multiple layers that made up the Hindenburg Line – the Hindenburg Outpost Line.
The assault against the Line proper would not take place until a few weeks later on the 29th of September, at the Battle of St Quentin Canal.
Image: Troops of D Company, 45th Battalion, at their newly captured objective between Bellenglise and Le Verguier, overlooking Ascension Gully, in front of the Hindenburg Outpost Line. They are seen sniping the retreating enemy, who at the time were scampering up the opposite hill slope, in an effort to escape the gun and rifle fire. Identified, first from the right is Private J. O'Hehir.

 

[Conhoon]

Brigadier General James "Jumpin' Jim" Gavin, CO 82nd Airborne Division, checks his equipment before boarding a C-47 Skytrain plane for the airborne invasion of Holland (Operation Market Garden) from Cottesmore airfield, Rutland, England. 17 September 1944.

(Seen here armed with a M1 Garand rifle and a M1911A1 .45 ACP pistol)
Chalk number one of Serial A-7, 316th Troop Carrier Group. This plane was piloted by Major Kendig, CO of the 44th Troop Carrier Squadron
James Maurice "Jumpin' Jim" Gavin was a senior United States Army officer, with the rank of lieutenant general, who was the third Commanding General (CG) of the 82nd Airborne Division during World War II. During the war, he was often referred to as "The Jumping General" because of his practice of taking part in combat jumps with the paratroopers under his command; he was the only American general officer to make four combat jumps in the war.
Gavin was the youngest major general to command an American division in World War II, being only 37 upon promotion, and the youngest lieutenant general after the war, in March 1955. He was awarded two Distinguished Service Crosses and several other decorations for his service in the war. During combat, he was known for his habit of carrying an M1 Garand rifle typically carried by enlisted U.S. infantry soldiers, as opposed to the M1 carbine rifles traditionally carried by officers besides the Colt Model M1911, .45 caliber pistols.
Gavin also fought against segregation in the U.S. Army, which gained him some notoriety. (Wikipedia)
Always the first to jump in combat, Gavin led his men on missions in Sicily, Italy, Normandy (providing support behind the German lines for the D-Day invasion), Holland (the battle for the bridge at Arnhem), and the Battle of the Bulge.
James Maurice Gavin (March 22, 1907 – February 23, 1990)
(Photo and Caption: National Archives and Records Administration Still Pictures Unit SC 232810)
(Colorized by Craig Kelsay from the USA)

 

[Conhoon]

A view inside “Chalk 1”, the C-47 Skytrain carrying General James Gavin (a.k.a. "Jumpin' Jim" or "the jumping general") and the headquarters staff of the 82nd Airborne Division. In the foreground to the left is Col. John Norton, the divional G-3 (operations), and next to him, Capt. Hugo Olson, Gavin’s aide.

Gavin assumed command of the 82nd Airborne Division on August 8, 1944, and was promoted to major general in October. For the first time, Gavin would lead the 82nd Airborne into combat. On Sunday, September 17, Operation Market Garden took off. Market Garden, devised by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, consisted of an airborne attack of three British and American airborne divisions.
The 82nd was to take the bridge across the Maas river in Grave, seize at least one of four bridges across the Maas-Waal canal, and the bridge across the Waal river in Nijmegen. The 82nd was also to take control of the high grounds in the vicinity of Groesbeek, a small Dutch town near the German border. The ultimate objective of the offensive was Arnhem.
In the drop into the Netherlands, Gavin landed on hard pavement instead of grass, injuring his back. Five years later, he had his back examined at Walter Reed Hospital, where he learned that he had, in fact, fractured two discs in the jump.
Gavin failed to prioritise the capture of the bridge over the Waal and instead chose to concentrate his troops initially further south on the Groesbeek Heights. This failure led to the vital bridge being heavily reinforced and in German hands for a further four days and seriously delaying XXX Corp relief of 1st Airborne Div at Arnhem. The 504th took the bridge across the Wale river, but it was too late as the British paras of the 2nd Parachute Battalion, 1st Parachute Brigade of the British 1st Airborne Division, could not hold on any longer to their north side of the Arnhem bridge and were defeated. The 82nd would stay in the Netherlands until November 13, when it was transferred to new billets in Sisonne et Suippes, France.
Colour by Jake
Photo: NARA

 

[Conhoon]

17th September 1944
The First Lift of the British 1st Airborne Division took off from various airfields spread from Lincolnshire, to Dorset, and Gloucestershire to Kent. The parachute element consisted of the 1st Parachute Brigade, and support elements, and the glider-borne element was mainly the 1st Air Landing Brigade and some Divisional Units, such as the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron.

The aim was for the Reconnaissance Squadron to ‘dash’ to the main road bridge in Arnhem, and hold it until the three Parachute Battalion’s of the 1st Parachute Brigade marched from their Drop Zone to reinforce them. The Air Landing Battalion’s would defend the DZ ‘s and LZ’s for the Second Lift.
Usually misidentified as Airborne Signallers, this is a group of the 1st Battalion, The Border Regiment at the edge of D.Z. ‘X’, mid way between Sinderhoeve and Jonkershoeve, looking south towards the Klein Amerikaweg.
Second from left is a Sergeant, fifth from the left is an Officer and on the right the soldier is hoisting a Vickers MMG onto his shoulder. Sunday, 17th September 1944.
Colourised PIECE of JAKE
Caption: https://www.facebook.com/PARA?
Photo: Sgt. D.M. Lewis AFPU / IWM

 

[BravoZulu]

Flight Lt. Douglas R Turley-George (left) and Flying Officer Charles Fenwick (spare pilot) in front of their Hawker Sea Hurricane on board the catapult-armed merchant (CAM) ship SS EMPIRE TIDE, off Hvalfjörður, Iceland 14 June 1942 © IWM A 10112

 

[Conhoon]

OPERATION MARKET GARDEN from a German perspective.

German anti-aircraft gunners of a 2 cm FlaK 38 gun smoke cigars and have a chat with war correspondent Lieutenant Erich Wenzel (pictured with a bottle of wine) during the battle for Arnhem on Boulevard Heuvelink, during Operation Market Garden. 19 September 1944.
This picture was taken in Arnhem on the morning of Tuesday 19th September by a Luftwaffe photographer, or Kriegsberichter, named Jacobsen, who, with Erich Wenzel, were from a Propaganda Kompanie attached to Luftlotte 3. They arrived in Arnhem on this day and began to document the battle with this 2cm Flak 38 gun, sited on the corner of Johan de Wittlaan and Boulevard Heuvelink.
This was one of four guns, another can be seen in the background, from Deelen Airfield which were transferred to the 9th S.S. Panzer Division's Flak Abteilung on Sunday 17th September to assist with anti-aircraft cover but also to guard against a possible break-out from the Bridge by the British troops there. Jacobsen and Wenzel spent the next 48 hours in the area and shot several rolls of film, of which six have survived more or less intact.
Colourised PIECE of JAKE
Source: NIMH

Jacobsen (Propagandakompanie der Luftwaffe)

 

[Conhoon]

German soldiers advance along the Utrechtseweg near the Arnhem City Museum, while German tanks (StuG's) have passed.

Colourised PIECE of JAKE
Source: NIMH

 

[Conhoon]

German soldiers advance along the Utrechtseweg near the Arnhem City Museum, while German tanks (StuG) approach in the background.

Photo: Kriegsberichter Jacobsen (Propagandakompanie der Luftwaffe)

 

[Conhoon]

A Sturmgeschütz III (StuG III) type 'G' of Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 280 stops at the junction of the Utrechtseweg and Onderlangs in Arnhem, The Netherlands as the soldiers from the 9. SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen search the last of the buildings for British troops on 19 September 1944.

Oberwachtmeister Josef Mathes, commander of the 3rd battery of StuG Brigade 280, is the helmeted man standing in the conning tower. Sturmgeschütz Brigade 280, was temporarily attached to the 9. SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen.

Mathes' StuG III was hit by a British PIAT round early in the day, making a small dent upon impact on the left armor plating by the gun.

Note the clearly visible Zimmerit layer and the 'Saukopf'. The Zimmerit coating was a barrier that prevented direct contact of magnetic mines with metal surfaces of vehicles.
From October 1943, G versions were fitted with the Topfblende pot mantlet (often called Saukopf "Pig's head") gun mantlet without a coaxial mount. This cast mantlet, which had a sloped and rounded shape, was more effective at deflecting shots than the original boxy Kastenblende mantlet that had armour varying in thickness from 45 mm to 50 mm.

Colourised PIECE of JAKE
Photo: Propaganda Company of the Luftwaffe.

 

[Conhoon]

The heavily damaged tram (Motor-Car 77) of the Nederlandse Buurtvervoer Maatschappij (NBM) came to a halt on the, with rubble and debris covered intersection of the Utrechtseweg and Bovenover-Onderlangs. A killed soldier lies in front of it. 19 September, 1944, Arnhem, Gelderland, The Netherlands.

Kriegsberichter Jacobsen pictured the advancing colonne of StuG's in persuit towards Oosterbeek.
It's late afternoon and with most of the British troops having surrendered and the rest either killed, wounded or withdrawing in chaos to Oosterbeek, the battle here is all but over.

Colourised PIECE of JAKE

Photo: Kriegsberichter Jacobsen, Propaganda Company of the Luftwaffe
Source: NIMH

 

[Conhoon]

German ‘Heer’ grenadiers tactically advance through a drainage ditch in the Arnhem Area, September, 1944, The Netherlands.

"Arnheim Grenadiere gehen durch Gräben vor"

Source: Bundesarchiv Bild 183-S73822.
Photo by Kriegsberichter Pospesch.

 

[Conhoon]

A young German SS Soldier is photographed near the corner Bovenbergstraat / Utrechtsestraat in Arnhem by Kriegsberichter Erich Wenzel, 19 September 1944, Operation Market Garden.

 

[Conhoon]

This particular photo shows the ease with which German units fused together into Kampfgruppen during Operation Market Garden in September, 1944.
Here an officer of probably Waffen SS Division Hohenstaufen takes charge of a unit consisting of troops of the Luftwaffe, Heer and Police, an exotic combination at least.

The official caption only reads: “Schlacht um Arnheim (…) Zu den rasch zusammengefasste Deutsche Kräften, die gegen die gelandeten Truppen eingesetzt werden, gehören Grenadiere des Heeres, Männer der Polizei, Fallschirmjäger und SS-Panzergrenadiere.”

The location was unknown. The photo is much used in books on the battle because it illustrates the diversity of German troops quite well, and thus the German improvisational abilities. The details in the background have often led to wrong conclusions.

The scene was often wrongly placed at the railway yard in Arnhem, because of the visible overhead lines. It turns out that it is not Arnhem, but a city further south: the photo was taken in the Keizer Lodewijkplein (nowadays the Trajanusplein) in Nijmegen! The trees in the background are in the Hunnerpark.
We are looking northwest, the Waal bridge is behind the trees. The SS Hauptsturmführer, identifiable by the rank insignia, is most likely Karl Heinz Euling, the commander of the German positions in that area.

Colourised PIECE of JAKE
Photograph: Kriegsberichter Pospesch, Bundesarchiv.

 

[Talibanhunter]

A crewman of PzKpfw III Ausf. D ‘242’ from Pz.Rgt. 1, 1. Panzer-Division sits atop his knocked-out tank. Poland, September 1939

View attachment 335571
With only 14,5 mm* of armor, the PzKpfw III Ausf. D was vulnerable to all Polish anti-tank guns, including the 7TP tank and TK-S tankette’s 20 mm gun and the Karabin przeciwpancerny wz.35’s 7,92 mm shell.
In this photo, the holes made by Polish anti-tank guns and rifles can be clearly seen, 3 of them grouped close to the frontal cross. Judging by the position of some of the hits, it is quite possible that the radio operator and the loader were either killed or seriously injured.
At least 6 hits of a larger caliber (I’m inclined to 20 mm) with several other small caliber ones, possibly wz.35’s 7,92 mm can be seen. What seems to be a 7th hole situated below the driver’s vision port might just be damage to the photo and not an actual hit. I couldn’t reach a decision so I left it as is.
51 PzKpfw III took part in the Polish Campaign, 20 of them on Pz.Rgt.1. Of the 51, 24 were lost either to enemy action or technical breakdowns.
*Some sources refer to 30 mm on the Ausf D but this might be a confusion with the Command version that had 30 mm.
Original's source: unknown

PzKpfw IV , (Panzer Kampfwagen 4).

 

[uktabber]

WOW.............again, great pictures to share, NICE!! Thanks for sharing these great shots of the battle at Arnhem!! You don't see the German side of this one too much!

 

[Conhoon]

PzKpfw IV , (Panzer Kampfwagen 4).

I'm sorry, but unfortunately You are wrong.
This is the Pz.Kpfw III Ausf.D (this version - with a rebuilt chassis). Attached is a photo of such a tank from the campaign in Poland.

 

[Conhoon]

On September 20, 1944, died 12-year-old Corporal Witold Modelski, pseudonym "Warszawiak". One of the youngest participants of the Warsaw Uprising. For his courage, he is awarded the Cross of Valor.

"He obtained a weapon for himself, lifting it almost from under the tank. He was irreplaceable, full of initiative. He helped the soldiers in the most difficult advances."
He belonged to the group of liaisons. "Warszawiak" was dressed like a real soldier in a French helmet, in a soldier's uniform, and he wore a hand grenade under his belt. Where none of the liaison officers dared to report, "Warszawiak" always volunteered, despite the hurricane fire.
He died during the defense of buildings No. 10 and 6 at ul. Wilanowska.
After the war, his mother, with the help of Polish Red Cross nurses, found Witold's body during the exhumation of the soldiers of the uprising in Górny Czerniaków. She herself, under the cover of night, took his body to Powązki cemetery and buried it next to the cemetery wall. Only a few years later, his body was transferred to the quarters of soldiers and nurses from the "Parasol" battalion.

 

[Conhoon]

F/Lt. Colin Hamilton MacFie, aged 20 of No. 616 Squadron, RAF Fowlmere, Cambridgeshire. September 1940.

(616 based at Coltishall, visiting 19 Squadron at Fowlmere)
On Circus 33 on 5th July 1941 Macfie was shot down south of Dunkirk in Spitfire IIb P8651 and captured.
At some time Macfie was in Stalag Luft 3. He was liberated in May 1945.
He was awarded the DFC (gazetted 8th August 1941), being then credited with two enemy aircraft destroyed and three damaged.
He retired from the RAF on 18th October 1963 as a Squadron Leader.
He died on 7th December 1981.
(Photo source - © IWM CH 1395)
Colourised by Doug

 

[Conhoon]

Members of the 2nd Australian Infantry Battalion are loading Pan magazines as used on the Lewis Gun, outside their billets in the Cavalry Barracks at Ypres, Flanders (West-Vlaanderen), Belgium
1 November, 1917.

The 2nd Battalion was among the first infantry units raised for the AIF during the First World War. Like the 1st, 3rd and 4th Battalions it was recruited from New South Wales and, together with these battalions, formed the 1st Brigade.

The battalion was raised within a fortnight of the declaration of war in August 1914 and embarked just two months later. After a brief stop in Albany, Western Australia, the battalion proceeded to Egypt, arriving on 2 December. The battalion took part in the ANZAC landing on 25 April 1915 as part of the second and third waves, and was led by Lieutenant Colonel G. F. Braund, who was killed in action nine days later. On 6 August, the 1st Brigade led the charge at Lone Pine. Among the dead was the commander of the 2nd Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel R. Scobie, killed during a Turkish counter-attack. The battalion served at ANZAC until the evacuation in December 1915.

After the withdrawal from Gallipoli, the battalion returned to Egypt. In March 1916, it sailed for France and the Western Front. From then until 1918 the battalion took part in operations against the German Army, principally in the Somme Valley in France and around Ypres in Belgium. The battalion's first major action in France was at Pozieres in the Somme valley in July 1916. Later the battalion fought at Ypres, in Flanders, before returning to the Somme for winter.
In early 1917 the German Army withdrew to the formidable defences of the Hindenburg Line.

As the 2nd Battalion advanced towards these defences in April 1917, Private T. J. Kenny attacked several enemy machine gun positions with grenades, earning the 2nd Battalion's only Victoria Cross. The battalion spent much of the rest of 1917 fighting in increasingly horrendous conditions around Ypres.

In 1918 the battalion returned to the Somme valley and helped to stop the German spring offensive in March and April. The battalion subsequently participated in the Allies' own offensive, launched to the east of Amiens on 8 August 1918. This advance by British and Empire troops was the greatest success in a single day on the Western Front, one that German General Erich Ludendorff described as "the Black Day of the German Army in this war".

Colour by Jake @colourisedpieceofjake
Source: Australian War Memorial

 

[BravoZulu]

Protected cruiser HDMS Valkyrien circa 1890, note the bow with the homage to Vikings with swords and battleaxes.