Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[uktabber]

An American hero passed away this morning. Lawrence Brooks, the oldest living WWII veteran at 112 years old. Rest In Peace.

Discovered this in another forum from Jan. 6th 2022, They are going fast, both in the UK and USA.....it's sad, the greatest generation for sure!!

 

[Conhoon]

9 January 1918
A Royal Artillery signal rocket rack in a trench in the Arleux sector, near Roclincourt, held by the 12th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment, 92nd Brigade, 31st Division

(Photo source - © IWM Q 10616)
Aitken, Thomas Keith (Second Lieutenant) (Photographer)
Colourised by Royston Leonard

 

[Conhoon]

This is 'Jedburgh', Lt. John K. Singlaub, carrying a .30 cal. M1-A1 folding-stock carbine across his chest, a compact weapon favored for parachute operations. 11 August 1944.

John Singlaub is still with us today.
Singlaub served in WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, where (among many other awards) he received two Distinguished Service Medals, a Sliver Star, and a Purple Heart. He also was a founding member of the CIA, and he also served in the OSS (Office of Strategic Services).
Operation 'Jedburgh' was a clandestine operation in which personnel of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the Free French Central Bureau of Intelligence and Operations and the Dutch and Belgian armies in exile were dropped by parachute into occupied France, the Netherlands and Belgium to conduct sabotage and guerrilla warfare, and to lead the local resistance forces in actions against the Germans.
JEDBURGH OPERATIONS IN FRANCE
The first team in, codenamed "Hugh", parachuted into central France near Châteauroux the night before the Allied landings in Normandy, codenamed Operation Overlord. In total, 93 Jedburgh teams operated in 54 French metropolitan départements between June and December 1944.
The Jedburgh teams normally parachuted in by night to meet a reception committee from a local Resistance or Maquis group. Their main function was to provide a link between the guerrillas and the Allied command. They could provide liaison, advice, expertise and leadership, but their most powerful asset was their ability to arrange airdrops of arms and ammunition.
Like all Allied forces who operated behind Nazi lines, the Jedburghs were subject to torture and execution in the event of capture, under Hitler's notorious Commando Order. Because the teams normally operated in uniform, to apply this order to them was a war crime. However, of the Jedburgh teams dropped into France, only British Captain Victor A. Gough met that fate, being shot while a prisoner on 25 November 1944.
JEDBURGH OPERATIONS IN THE NETHERLANDS
From September 1944 to April 1945, eight Jedburgh teams were active in the Netherlands. The first team, code named "Dudley" was parachuted into the east of the Netherlands one week before Operation Market Garden. The next four teams were attached to the Airborne forces that carried out Market Garden. After the failure of Market Garden, one Jedburgh team trained (former) resistance men in the liberated South of the Netherlands.
In April 1945 the last two Dutch Jedburgh teams became operational. One team code named "Gambling", was a combined Jedburgh/Special Air Service (SAS) group that was dropped into the centre of the Netherlands to assist the Allied advance. The last team was parachuted into the Northern Netherlands as part of SAS operation "Amherst". Despite the fact that operating clandestinely in the flat and densely populated Netherlands was very difficult for the Jedburghs, the teams were quite successful.

 

[BravoZulu]

Battleship USS Texas, 15 March 1943

 

[BravoZulu]

HMS Ark Royal sinking on the 13th November 1941. Colourised by u/vorst17735

Destroyer HMS Campbeltown

Destroyer HMS Cossack, 23rd October 1941.

Destroyer HMS Cossack after being torpedoed.

HMS Anson firing her main guns at target practice in the North Sea, 1942

 

[BravoZulu]

Battlecruiser HMS Hood off the coast of Adelaide, 1924. Colourised by u/vorst17735

Four Revenge Class battleships, HMS Revenge, Ramillies, Royal Sovereign, and Resolution at sea in 1930

Four Revenge Class battleships sailing through heavy seas, around 1936

A Fairey Swordfish from 820 Naval Air Squadron of the Fleet Air Arm flying over her carrier, HMS Ark Royal, in 1939.

 

[BravoZulu]

HMS Duke of York with her guns trained starboard, 1940 Colourised by u/vorst17735

HMS Duke of York and HMS King George V moored in Scapa Flow, December 1941

Battleship HMS Duke of York in the Mediterranean Sea, 1939-1945

HMS Duke of York just off Iceland, probably around December 1943

HMS King George V with guns trained to port during WWII

 

[BravoZulu]

Rough seas break over the bow of battleship HMS King George V, January 1941

Queen Elizabeth class battleship HMS Barham in 1941

A battered HMS Terpsichore (D48) sails as lead destroyer in Task Group 38.3, August 1945. She is covered with spilled fuel oil as the result of an accident during a refuelling evolution. Colourised by u/vorst17735

 

[BravoZulu]

Survivors of the HMHS Britannic sinking aboard HMS Scourge. November 1916

HMHS Brittanic was a sister ship of Titanic and struck a mine off the coast of Greece on November 21, 1916. Despite sinking in less than an hour after the blast, over 1000 crew and patients were rescued and only 30 lost.

 

[Conhoon]

The caption says:
"Italien-Nord – Fallschirmjäger mit MG-Patronengurt um den Hals ein Butterbrot essend"that sound like: "Italy-North - Paratroopers with machine-gun ammunition belt around their necks eating a sandwich"
This is a famous german WW2 Bundesarchiv photo. This Paratrooper is probably belong to 1st or 4th german Fallschirmjaeger division that protect the central section the Gothic line in mid-north Italy.

The 1st German paratrooper division spent a good part of January and February 1945 engaged in small operations on the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, while in March it sold some elements to the new 10th Fallschirmjäger-Division. The division, after the Allied breakthrough, began to fall back in the direction of Rovereto, but never managed to reach the city of Trentino: it was in fact intercepted in Veneto by US troops, a few days before the surrender of the German forces in Italy (2 May 1945).
The 4th German Paratrooper Division, still in force with the I Corps, it fought the British eighth army in Rimini in August, but was forced to retreat and in December the clashes continued in the Bologna mountain area. In March 1945 it gave up some units that formed the 10. Fallschirmjäger-Division and in April it resumed the retreat, clashing from Ferrara to Verona up to Bolzano, until it surrendered, on May 2, while it was deployed between the latter city and Vicenza.
Source: Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-571-1714-09A
Color: Ghost Of Past - Colourizations

 

[BravoZulu]

Off Duty in crew quarters below deck on the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown. Circa 1944

 

[santana]

US Army Paratrooper

 

[santana]

French soldiers photographed shortly after leaving Bir Hakeim, June, 1942.

The Battle of Bir Hakeim
The battle took place at Bir Hakeim, an oasis in the Libyan desert south and west of Tobruk, during the Battle of Gazala (26 May – 21 June 1942).

The 1st Free French Brigade (Général de brigade Marie-Pierre Kœnig) defended the position from 26 May – 11 June against much larger Axis forces of Panzerarmee Afrika (Generaloberst Erwin Rommel).

On the night of June 10 to 11, 1942, after sixteen days of a heroic resistance to the German-Italian troops, the soldiers of the 1st Free French Brigade of General Koenig managed to break the encirclement of Bir Hakeim and joined the positions held by British forces.

This photograph, taken by one of their own, shows a group of Free French belonging to the Pacific Battalion, shortly after their victorious exit. Their names are Adrien Dieoula, Maurice Hubert, Vincent Henri (or Georges), Laurent Merer, Ernest Legrand, Georges Cottin and Alexandre Black.

 

[santana]

A British Churchill Crocodile Flamethrower fires his flameprojector at a German holdout.

British infantry of the 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade were engaged in a bitter battle for the southern Dutch town of Sint Joost (Limburg Province). In the afternoon flamethrowers were deployed to break the German resistance in the houses.

Many civilians were caught up in the heavy fighting
which would eventually destroy 75 percent of the houses in the village.

The thrower had a range of up to approx. 120 yards (110 m).
The fuel was projected at a rate of 4 imperial gallons (18 l) per second. The fuel burned on water and could be used to set fire to woods and houses.

January 21st, 1945, Sint Joost, the Netherlands

 

[santana]

80815 Flight Lieutenant Robert William Foster(left) chats with 49239 Flying Officer Michael Charles Hughes as he climbs out of the cockpit of his Spitfire Mk Vc following a Japanese raid over Darwin, Australia, on 22 June 1943. Both pilots had 'kills' during the raid.

The two pilots were serving with No. 54 Squadron Royal Air Force (RAF), which had joined No.1 Wing (Spitfire Wing) of the Royal Australian Air Force in mid-1942. The unit was responsible for the air defence of the Darwin area following the initially Japanese bombing of the city on 19 February 1942, weeks after their entry into the conflict through the surprise attack on US forces at Pearl Harbour in December.

No. 54 Squadron arrived in Australia on 7 September 1942 and was initially based at Richmond, New South Wales, before moving north to Nightcliff, Darwin, on 17 January 1943.

Foster got the squadron's first victory on 6 February, a Japanese Mitsubishi Dinah. Between 15 March and 6 July 1943 he destroyed four Mitsubishi Bettys, probably destroyed two others and damaged a Betty and a Zeke. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), gazetted on 13 August 1943.

He returned to England in early 1944 to take up various roles, and was released from the RAF in February 1947 after which time he resumed his pre-war career with Shell and BP. In 2009, he became Chairman of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association.

Foster died on 30th July 2014 after several months of illness. His funeral in Hastings was overflown by Hurricane R4118, which he had flown in action in the Battle of Britain.

Michael Hughes remains much more of an enigma. He survived the war and a notice in the London Gazette in 1959 suggests he had remained in the RAF until that time, at which point he relinquished his commission. If anyone knows his subsequent story, please comment below!

 

[santana]

Russian Soldiers

 

[santana]

Prince Umberto II (later in 1946 last king of Italy for just one month), inspecting the CIL (Italian Liberation Corps, the southern army fighting against the Germans). May 1944

 

[santana]

A knocked out Panzer IV F in Tunisia, May 1943.

The Panzer IV Ausf F1 was part of the main German tank force in 1943 but somewhat outdated as it was only equipped with a short barrelled 75mm gun.

It had been upgraded in terms of armour thickness but by 1943 this tank was almost obsolete and the M4 Sherman was more than a match for it, and it was easily knocked out by the British 6-pounder or American 57mm anti-tank guns.

 

[santana]

American soldiers with captured German anti-aircraft guns and munitions. Tunisia 1943.

 

[santana]

Patton on Cover of Life Magazine, 7th July 1941.