Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[santana]

Lieutenant Vernon R Richards of the 361st Fighter Group. Bomber escort mission. 1944.

 

[santana]

Summer of 1943: Oberleutnant Gerhard Barkhorn (left) - initially commanding officer of 4.Staffel / II.Gruppe / Jagdgeschwader 52 (JG 52), and subsequently of II. Gruppe itself - and Leutnant Karl-Heinz Plücker, photographed on the airfield at Kharkov-Roganj in the Eastern Front. Barkhorn was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 23rd August 1942, plus Eichenlaub on 12th January 1943 and Schwerter on 2nd March 1944.

Although when this picture was taken Barkhorn had won Eichenlaub for 120 victories, he was wearing no decoration at the time.

 

[santana]

US Private Jerry Smith, on Okinawa during World War II. Jerry served in the Army's 718th Amphibious Tractor Battalion of XXIV Corps.

He was a driver and armorer on an LVT-4 amphibian tractor, or "amtrac." Picture taken in Nishihara-Cho, Okinawa Prefecture, June 1945

 

[santana]

U.S. Navy crewmen aboard the light cruiser USS Nashville (CL-43) cleaning up the port side 5″/25 gun battery, after the ship was hit in that area by a Kamikaze on 13th December 1944, while en route to the Mindoro invasion.

Note the fire damage to the guns and nearby structure.

 

[santana]

A Zaptiè was a colonial Carabiniere (look at own carabinieri patches of the Zaptiè). Here a Zaptiè in a check point few Kms off of Martuba, an important airfield in Cyrenaica. Spring 1941. The road signs indicate an Italian logistic unit and a 'Staffel Ymer'.

 

[santana]

P40 maintenance- Tunisia or Libya

 

[Conhoon]

Soldier of the Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own) Taken in photo by the coupled Farmer / photographer Louis and Antoinette Thuillier in Vignacourt located about thirty kilometers from Amiens.
photo taken during the spring summer 1916/ 1918

Vignacourt became an important military base located behind Allied lines during the Great War.

History From the collection
This photo is one of the 4000 photos on glass plate found in one of the attics of the Thuillier house in 2012. They had been sleeping there peacefully for almost 100 years.
Louis and Antoinette Thuillier, both farmers who loved new technologies, owned their own camera, which was rare in the early 20th century.
Louis taught Antoinette how to use it and they turned their farmyard into a photo studio. In front of an improvised backdrop, both civilians and soldiers would come to the farmhouse to have their photographs taken.
When the war ended, the photographic plates were stored in the attic and forgotten about for over a century. They now form the Thuillier collection, a truly unique set of photographs.
This collection was partially edited in 2 books by @Ross Coultart Investigative journalist and writer.
The lost tommies and the lost digger that I highly recommend.
For more Infos please visit this website
https://www.vignacourt1418.com/
Or this page
Vignacourt 14-18

Photo colorized by Johnny Sirlande for Historic photo restored in color by Johnny Sirlande
credit picture copyrighted

Kerry stokes fundation / Louis and antoinette Thuillier collection.

 

[Conhoon]

The Cavernous interior of the Messerschmitt 323 is clearly illustrated in this photograph showing a pair of DB 605 aircraft engines and other cargo being disgorged.

Read about the Wehrmacht's efforts to expand it's available airlift capacity in the latest issue of Iron Cross Magazine
Colour by RJM

 

[Conhoon]

Knocked-out German PzKpfw IVD tank, 25 August 1944.

 

[Conhoon]

25th Landwehr Regiment c.1916-18

In this group photograph of "Landwehr-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 25" an African soldier is seen standing second left. The regiment was garrisoned in Koblenz and the 1915 Tunic worn by two of the men, including the African, dates the photograph to the latter half of the First World War.
"The Germans, as the only colonial power amongst the Central Powers, used plenty of African soldiers of their Schutztruppen in the African theatres of war, but they had never planned to deploy these troops in Europe and would not have been able to do so during World War I for logistical reasons anyway.
However, there were a few black soldiers enlisted in the German Imperial Army (Continental Army). Most were involved in non-combat duties, like musicians. There is almost nothing written about them and the likely total is less than 15."

(Photo credit: Joe Robinson / Bundesarchiv).
Color by Julius Jääskeläinen

 

[Connaught Ranger]

25th Landwehr Regiment c.1916-18

View attachment 365854
In this group photograph of "Landwehr-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 25" an African soldier is seen standing second left. The regiment was garrisoned in Koblenz and the 1915 Tunic worn by two of the men, including the African, dates the photograph to the latter half of the First World War.
"The Germans, as the only colonial power amongst the Central Powers, used plenty of African soldiers of their Schutztruppen in the African theatres of war, but they had never planned to deploy these troops in Europe and would not have been able to do so during World War I for logistical reasons anyway.
However, there were a few black soldiers enlisted in the German Imperial Army (Continental Army). Most were involved in non-combat duties, like musicians. There is almost nothing written about them and the likely total is less than 15."

(Photo credit: Joe Robinson / Bundesarchiv).
Color by Julius Jääskeläinen

Africans in German Imperial Army, 1870-1918 - Rare Historical Photos

Since the 17th century it was popular for European armies to have African bandsmen in their ranks. German Imperial Army had a few Africans enlisted.

rarehistoricalphotos.com

 

[Conhoon]

Tank driver Mikhail Smirnov
During an attack on German positions, an anti-tank shell hit in the forehead of T-34 and killed all the crew members except Mikhail Smirnov.
Smirnov burst with his T-34 into the German positions, crushed three anti-tank guns and destroyed another 30 enemy soldiers and officers from the machine gun.
Picture taken January 17, 1944, in the Leningrad region.

Additional Information:
The facts are true but there was kind of compilation of 2 soldiers. On the photo is Mikhail Smirnov, tank driver and he wasn't killed. He ended the war with 21 years, 3 medals and 4 orders. Here is an article about him. It's in Russian but you can recognize him on the double portrait (left):
http://www.oblgazeta.ru/.../pages/2011-09-10_og_335_7.pdf
The story about 30 killed enemies is also true. But it is about liutenant Alexander Volodin, 1923:
http://podvignaroda.mil.ru/?#id=34841407&tab=navDetailManAward
This is the site of the Ministery of Defens with scans of authentic documents.
Colour and caption sourced by Olga Shirnina "Klimbim"
Many thanks to Valery Smirnov who digged out this information!

 

[Conhoon]

"During the Battle of the Bulge, a US Army half track crosses a temporary bridge over the Ourthe River, in the war-torn Belgian city of Houffalize, in January 1945."

16 January 1945:
At 09.45, the 41st Cavalry of the 11th Armored Division made contact with the 41st Infantry of the 2nd Armored division in Houffalize, thus terminating the Bastogne Operation so far as the 3rd Army was concerned.
(AP photo)
(Colourised by Royston Leonard)

 

[JimHPTN]

Two US soldiers attend to the wounds of an Australian solider in New Guinea, taken during the actual advance during the early weeks of the Battle of Buna-Gona, 28 December 1942.

View attachment 365629
Following the Allied victory at Milne Bay across August and September, the Japanese advance across New Guinea had been brought to a virtual stand-still. As the historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote a few years after the end of the war, in 1950:
'...the enemy had shot his bolt; he never showed up again in these waters. The Battle for Milne Bay was a small one as World War II engagements went, but very important. Except for the initial assault on Wake Island, this was the first time that a Japanese amphibious operation had been thrown for a loss ...
Furthermore, the Milne Bay affair demonstrated once again that an amphibious assault without air protection, and with an assault force inferior to that of the defenders, could not succeed.'
US General Douglas MacArthur now turned his attention to liberate New Guinea, as an initial step towards the Allied push northwards to reclaim the Phillipines, beginning with the Battle of Buna-Gona, on New Guinea's north-east coast (16 November 1942 – 22 January 1943).
The experience of the US 32nd Infantry Division - just out of training camp and utterly unschooled in jungle warfare - was nearly disastrous however. Young officers, with no field experience, were completely out of their depths in the most challenging of conditions and circumstances.
MacArthur relieved the division commander and on 30 November instructed Lieutenant General Robert L. Eichelberger, commander of the US I Corps, to go to the front personally with the charge "to remove all officers who won't fight ... if necessary, put sergeants in charge of battalions ... I want you to take Buna, or not come back alive."
The Australian 7th Division under the command of Major General George Alan Vasey, along with the revitalised US 32nd Division, restarted the Allied offensive. Gona fell to the Australians on 9 December 1942, Buna to the US 32nd on 2 January 1943, and Sanananda, located between the two larger villages, fell to the Australians on 22 January.
New Zealand-born George Silk (1916-2004) was Australia's second official war photographer, joining photographer Damien Parer in the Middle East in May 1940.
It was, however, in the Pacific theatre that Silk made his preeminent reputation. Profound problems with Department of Information’s refusal to pass for publication photographs Silk had taken at great risk of Australians in action against Japanese troops around Buna, around New Year’s day of 1943 led the photographer to resign his position with the department, both in protest and because he was in a state of complete exhaustion. Silk then worked for the American Life magazine, for whom he photographed action in the Pacific and in Europe.
Photographer: George Silk

"The experience of the US 32nd Infantry Division - just out of training camp and utterly unschooled in jungle warfare - was nearly disastrous however. Young officers, with no field experience, were completely out of their depths in the most challenging of conditions and circumstances.
MacArthur relieved the division commander and on 30 November instructed Lieutenant General Robert L. Eichelberger, commander of the US I Corps, to go to the front personally with the charge "to remove all officers who won't fight ... if necessary, put sergeants in charge of battalions ... I want you to take Buna, or not come back alive."

This is precisely why I generally dislike MacArthur and think that he was seriously overrated. From what I've read, he also had a bad habit of blaming subordinates for his failures.

 

[BravoZulu]

"The experience of the US 32nd Infantry Division - just out of training camp and utterly unschooled in jungle warfare - was nearly disastrous however. Young officers, with no field experience, were completely out of their depths in the most challenging of conditions and circumstances.
MacArthur relieved the division commander and on 30 November instructed Lieutenant General Robert L. Eichelberger, commander of the US I Corps, to go to the front personally with the charge "to remove all officers who won't fight ... if necessary, put sergeants in charge of battalions ... I want you to take Buna, or not come back alive."

This is precisely why I generally dislike MacArthur and think that he was seriously overrated. From what I've read, he also had a bad habit of blaming subordinates for his failures.

While pretty revered in Philippines, his reputation in Australia is heavily tarnished for his undervaluing of anything that took the spotlight away from himself, his treatment of allies and subordinates and his overblown self aggrandisement and self promotion (and I'm being nice )

 

[JimHPTN]

While pretty revered in Philippines, his reputation in Australia is heavily tarnished for his undervaluing of anything that took the spotlight away from himself, his treatment of allies and subordinates and his overblown self aggrandisement and self promotion (and I'm being nice )

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A bit off topic, but the videos above are good, showing the history of the some of the major battles of the Australians in the Pacific. MacArthur shows up rather prominently in them, and not in a good light.

 

[Chazman]

Captain J. McMahon of the U.S. Ninth Army carrying a little German girl over a destroyed bridge. May 1, 1945, Tangermünde, Germany.
Color by Christos Kaplanis

 

[Conhoon]

A Soviet soldier aiming a 120-mm regimental mortar (mod. 1938) on the Kalinin Front

Color by Olga Shirnina (Klimbim)

 

[Conhoon]

The Polish Navy ships ORP Podhalanin and ORP Kujawiak in the base at Hel, Poland, 1938.

 

[Conhoon]

Regimental Colour Guard of the 11th Regiment of the Šumadija Division of the Serbian Army on the Salonika Front, 1916

Colourised by Doug