Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[Conhoon]

Men of the 1st Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division halt for a rest, a chat and a smoke on their way to an advanced position near Wanssum, Province of Limburg, The Netherlands, 26 November 1944.

Wanssum turns out to be a difficult hurdle for the British.
Thursday 30 November.
It is a cold, clear night with a lot of wind when at 5 a.m. a group of British soldiers crawls forward across the fields at Wanssum. Barbed wire is cut, mines cleared. But when the British reach the edge of the village, it turns out that the Germans have been waiting for them.
The British are shelled from two sides and are forced to retreat. The second attack, a day later, also failed. It was not until 2 December that it became apparent that the Germans had left for the other side of the river Maas with the ferry. 70 British soldiers were killed during the operation to liberate the Wanssum area.
Colourised PIECE of JAKE
Photo: Laing (Sgt) No. 5 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit. IWM

 

[Conhoon]

Men of the 1/5th Battalion of the Buffs (East Kent Regiment) passing over the Jebel Hamrin, Mesopotamia. December 1917.

(Photo source - IWM Q24374)
Colourised by Doug

 

[BravoZulu]

Battlecruiser HMS Hood at the port of Fremantle, West Australia. Empire Cruise 1924 - colourised by Atsushi Yamashita

HMS Rodney leading other battleships 1933-35

HMS Nelson off Spithead for the fleet review in 1937 with two Queen Elizabeth Class battleships and two London class cruisers, colourised by Irootoko Jr.

From the anchorage plan (right to left):
Nearest line – Nelson, with Rodney's stem just in view astern.
Next line – Queen Elizabeth, Barham
Next line – Shropshire, Devonshire, Leander, Frobisher, Grenville, Garland
Next line (beyond Shropshire) – Antelope, Icarus

 

[BravoZulu]

10 Squadron Royal Naval Air Service, Sopwith Camels

 

[Conhoon]

An aerial photo of USS Indiana (BB-58) again in the Pacific on January 27, 1944, wearing Measure 32 Design 11D. Indiana is part of a task force en route to bombard the island of Maleolap. This photo was taken by an aircraft from USS Enterprise (CV-6).

Photo source: NARA 80-G-222923.

 

[Conhoon]

Italian Alpini in a rock shelter. (Kobarid Museum)
Monte Nero represents the initial period of the clashes along the Isonzo that took place after Italy entered the war on May 24, 1915.

The Italian Alpine troops achieved the first brilliant victory of the Isonzo front with the conquest of the top of Monte Nero (2244 m) snatched from the hands of the Hungarian defenders.
Colorized by ROCOLOR

 

[Conhoon]

This picture shows the RMS Mauretania arriving in New York, with American aviators and other troops returning from Europe after the war - December 2, 1918.

The Mauretania seen here in dazzle camouflage colours.
Starting in March 1918, Mauretania the ocean liner, received two forms of dazzle camouflage, a type of abstract colour scheming designed by Norman Wilkinson in 1917 in an effort to confuse enemy ships. The first camouflage scheme, applied early in March 1918, was curvilinear in nature and largely broad areas of olive with blacks, greys and blues. The second scheme was the more geometric design commonly referred to as "dazzle"; this design, applied by July 1918, was mostly blues and greys with some black. After her war service, she was repainted in a drab grey scheme and finally full Cunard livery by the middle of 1919.
(Photo source - Bain Collection, US Library of Congress)
Colourised by Doug

 

[Conhoon]

A Fokker D.VII, reg. F-301, of the LA-KNIL just before take-off from Andir Airfield. At the wings the first lieutenant H.G.B. Kruyff van Dorssen (left) and Second Lieutenant R. Drost (right).
January 3, 1922, Andir, Bandung, West Java, Dutch East Indies.

The Fokker D.VII is considered the best aircraft of the entire First World War. The Allies were so apprehensive that at the end of the war they demanded that all D.VIIs to be destroyed or surrendered. About 140 aircraft were shipped to the United States.
In 1919 Anthony Fokker returned to the Netherlands and smuggled a train full of 98 D.VII's and 118 C.1's plus spare parts across the border. All at once the Dutch Military Aviation dept. (LVA) was equipped with the latest and most modern aircraft of it's time.
@ColourisedPieceofJake
Collection: Digital Selections LA-KNIL
approx. location nowadays:
https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sf...

 

[BravoZulu]

Troops of the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division, in action in the streets of Geilenkirchen, Germany, November/December 1944.

 

[Conhoon]

Pioneers of the 11/Liverpool enjoying an alfresco meal in exposed conditions near Ypres in December 1917.

Note the regimental badge on some helmets.

 

[Conhoon]

Pearl Harbor 80th Anniversary
Panoramic view of Pearl Harbor, during the Japanese raid, with anti-aircraft shell bursts overhead.

The photograph looks southwesterly from the hills behind the harbor.
Large column of smoke in lower right center is from the burning USS Arizona (BB-39). Smoke somewhat further to the left is from the destroyers Shaw (DD-373), Cassin (DD-372) and Downes (DD-375), in dry-docks at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard.
Observers quote, "This must be the second wave, because of all the flak that's up. Apparently one of the reasons that there wasn't a third wave was that American antiaircraft fire had greatly improved in effectiveness on the second wave, and that's when most of the 29 Japanese aircraft were shot down."
Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-32792
Color by Facundo Filipe

 

[Conhoon]

Pearl Harbor 80th Anniversary
Planes burning at Ford Island

Colour by Royston

 

[Conhoon]

Pearl Harbor 80th Anniversary
Pearl Harbor fighter pilots pose with a P-36 Hawk.

During the attack on Pearl Harbor, 14 US airmen were able to take off in their fighters.
During the ensuing dogfights, 12 Japanese planes were shot down by these five young USAAF officers.
Left to right they are-
1st Lt. Lewis M. Sanders. credited with one kill. Flying a P-36A
2nd Lt. Philip M. Rasmmussen, credited with one kill. Flying a P-36A while still wearing his purple pajamas.
2nd Lt. Kenneth M. Taylor, credited with four kills. Flying a P-40B
2nd Lt. George S. Welch, credited four kills. Flying a P-40B
2nd Lt. Harry W. Brown, credited with one kills. Flying a P-36A
Not present is 2nd Lt. Gordon H. Sterling, Jr. who also made it into the air and shot down a Japanese aircraft, but was then shot down over water and drowned after bailing out of his P-36A.
Photograph taken 17 December 1941
United States Air Force photo

 

[NebrHogger]

Russian army diver being sent to see why a Finnish ship sank in port -1915

PLA soldier who has somehow acquired an American Johnson automatic rifle.

 

[uktabber]

Those are great Pearl Harbor battle pics, the hanger burning is one I've never seen, bloody great pictures--Thanks for posting!!

 

[BravoZulu]

USS Maryland (BB-46) alongside the capsized USS Oklahoma (BB-37) during the attack on Pearl Harbor, as USS West Virginia (BB-48) burns in the background

 

[BravoZulu]

Pre-dreadnought battleship USS New Hampshire (BB-25) firing her 12", 8", and 7" guns in a broadside at the San Marcos during gunnery exercises, 1911 - colourised by Irootoko Jr.

 

[santana]

German Submarine U-312 . Bergen Naval Base.1944

 

[Conhoon]

Red Army soldier Lipovka M.I. establishes communication in the territory recaptured from the Germans.

Colour by Olga Shirnina (Klimbim)
Photo: Strunnikov

 

[santana]

The M2 Browning 50 Caliber machine guns on a P-40E Kittyhawk are tested fired on the Curtiss Wright firing range at Buffalo, New York. March 1942.

Photo by Curtiss-Wright Corporation