Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[Conhoon]

Christmas day on Bougainville Island
A group of RNZAF airmen are being served Christmas dinner by their senior Officers, as is traditional at Christmas time.
Christmas day, 1944. Probably at Piva Airfield, Bougainville.

The man serving the drink (extreme right) is Laurie Counsell.
RNZAF Official photo
Colourised by Daniel Rarity

 

[Conhoon]

WW1 - Christmas in the trenches 1915, western front, German soldiers.

 

[Conhoon]

Christmas at the front; a soldier with two turkeys walking through the snow. Photograph taken at Hesdin, 22 December 1917.

 

[Conhoon]

A British soldier 'shakes hands' with a kitten on a snowy bank in Neulette, Pas-de-Calais. 17th December 1917

 

[Conhoon]

December 24, 1935. On Christmas Eve, the President of the Republic of Poland, Ignacy Mościcki, shares the wafer with a soldier on guard in front of the palace.

 

[Conhoon]

"Santa" in London, December 1940

(IWM photograph colourised by Sanna Dullaway)

 

[BravoZulu]

A Sturmgeschütz III Ausf G of Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 280 stops at the junction of the Utrechtseweg and Onderlangs in Arnhem, September 1944 (colourised)

 

[BravoZulu]

A Panzer IV Ausf.G, Nº812 of Panzer-Regiment 25/7.Panzer-Division at the harbour of Toulon in France, during 'Operation Lila'. (In the background is the French Dunkerque-class battleship 'Strasbourg')

 

[SamWell]

 

[Conhoon]

Captured German parachute troops file past a Sherman tank of the New Zealand 4th Armoured Brigade on Via Caira at Cassino, 16 March 1944.

 

[Conhoon]

This C-47 (serial number 42-100862) was one of nineteen Skytrains shot down by the Flak of the Führer Begleit Brigade west of Bastogne on 27 December 1944. The aircraft in the picture was from the 94th Troop Carrier Squadron, 439th Troop Carrier Group, and was baptized ‘Aint Missbehavin’ by the crew. Photo taken on 30 December 1944.

The pilot, Captain Ernie Turner of the C-47 cargo transport crash landed safely after having dropped supplies to elements of the 101st Airborne Division which had successfully repulsed all attempts to capture the besieged city of Bastogne, Belgium.
Captain Ernie Turner, with Lieutenant Keistutis J. ‘Casey’ Narbutas as co-pilot, Staff Sergeant Richard G. Whitehurst as radio operator, and Staff Sergeant John E. Douglas as the crew commander escaped unharmed from the emergency landing at Savy northwest of Bastogne, behind the American lines.
Colour: Colourised PIECE of JAKE
Photo: (NARA, 3A-5323)

 

[santana]

A German Panzer IV of the Panzer Lehr Division knocked out in combat, Normandy, France, June 1944.

Panzer Lehr was formed from January 1944 onwards from various units of elite training and demonstration troops to provide additional armored strength for resisting the anticipated Allied invasion of western Europe.

 

[santana]

War In Abruzzo, United States jeeps are crossing a trestle bridge across a river (possibly the Sangro) after the German retreat. February 1944.

German troops have moved to positions north of the Gustav Line.

Their main objective is to hold Monte Cassino against British, United States, French, Polish and Canadian forces. Abruzzo, Italy.

 

[santana]

Gypsy (Sinti and Roma) Deportation , Sinti in the the courtyard of Hohenasperg prison prior to deportation to a camp in Poland.

District of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. May 1941/42.

 

[santana]

A knocked out box Pillbox, A military bunker of the Wehrmacht near the Siegfried Line has been destroyed.

The last bunkers had fallen by Spring 1945.

 

[santana]

Maintenance personnel loading ammunition into a North American Aviation P-51 Mustang at an RAF base in England, United Kingdom, 1944.
The P-51was a long-range, single seat fighter and fighter bomber. It also escorted bombers in raids.

 

[santana]

Torgau Link Up, A Russian woman of the Red Army and four United States GIs meet in Torgau. 25th April 1945.

Members of the United States 69th Infantry Division had met a Russian patrol south of Torgau which initiated a meeting of troops.

This was the first such event at the German front. Torgau, Germany.

 

[santana]

A flight of Curtiss P-40E Warhawks ("Kittyhawks" in the RAF & RAAF) of the 49th Fighter Group, USAAF, patrolling near Darwin, northern Australia, in 1942. Darwin was (still is) a strategic port & military base on the north Australian coast, and was bombed repeatedly by Japanese air forces during 1942-43. The 49th FG provided Darwin's air defence between March and September 1942 before being relieved by RAAF and RAF squadrons.

 

[santana]

An United States Air Force pilot is standing in front of his quarters. 1944.

He will be part of the invasion force. England, United Kingdom.

 

[santana]

Second Quebec Conference, Photo taken on a terrace of the Citadelle of Quebec during the high level second conference. 12th 16th September 1944.

From left to right: Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athelone and Governor General of Canada (1874 1957), President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 1945), Alice, Princess of Albany and Countess of Athlone, wife of Alexander Cambridge (1883 1981), Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874 1965), Eleanor Roosevelt (only partly seen) (1884 1962).

The meeting between British, Canadian and American governments discussed Allied occupation zones in the defeated Germany, the Morgenthau Plan and other topics. Canada