Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[Conhoon]

F/L John Alexander "Johnny" Kent, P/O Walerian "Walery" Żak and P/O Witold "Tolo" Łokuciewski (left to right) of 303 (Polish) Fighter Squadron, lounge on dispersal at RAF Northolt in September 1940.

Colourised by Doug

 

[Conhoon]

A group of German Luftwaffe Signal Corps soldiers (kradmelders/despatch riders), treat themselves to a beer on a terrace in the abandoned Dutch city of Breda (Northern Brabant, The Netherlands). May 1940

Two days after the German invasion in the Netherlands, in the early morning of the 10th of May 1940, a massive evacuation of the city of Breda in the southern part of the Netherlands, took place.
Breda threatened to end up between the front lines of the advancing Germans and French.
The approximately 50,000 inhabitants were ordered to evacuate the city on Whit-Monday the 12th of May and most of them started walking in the direction of Antwerp, Belgium. The inhabitants of Breda ended up in different places, some even as far as France, the Pyrenees and northern Spain!
A low point during the evacuation is the bombing of the school in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium.
On 17 May 1940 a large group of refugees was housed in a girls' school in Sint-Niklaas. The Germans bombed the school on the Gasmeterstraat on that day and 51 refugees from Breda died along with dozens of Belgians.
French troops came from Belgium to Breda to help defending the city, but never reached it. In retrospect, the evacuation had not been necessary: there was no fighting in Breda.
The German occupiers used the large number of military buildings in the city to house soldiers and personnel for the Fliegerhorst (airforce base) Gilze-Rijen, soon to be one of the largest airfields in Europe during WW2. (Gilze-Rijen nowadays, is still an active Airforce Base housing the Royal Dutch Airforce (KLu)
Colourised PIECE of JAKE
Photo: NIOD

 

[Conhoon]

Charles Eugene Glasscock of the 752nd Tank Battalion (seen here on the stretcher) after his tank was hit by artillary just south of Firenzuola.

 

[Conhoon]

Pilots of No. 274 Squadron don their parachutes and flying clothing from a makeshift rack during a practice scramble at their dispersal at Amriya, Egypt. On the extreme left is Flight Sergeant Joseph C Hulbert (KIA 4/1/41) and far right with the bandaged knee, is Flying Officer Arthur A P Weller (KIFA 13/12/41) and, bareheaded at third left, is the section leader, Flight Lieutenant Peter Wykeham-Barnes. One of the other pilots is Pilot Officer Philip H Preston. On the right an airman chalks up the situation on the operations board. Feb-April 1941

(Photo source - © IWM CM 136)
Hensser H (Mr)
Royal Air Force official photographer
Colourised by Doug

 

[santana]

Prinz Eugen in Norway 1940 or 1941

 

[Conhoon]

Troops of the Australian 2nd Division gather on a road behind the lines at Croix du Bac, near Armentieres, 18 May 1916.

The 2nd Division was formed in July 1915 from reinforcements then training in Egypt. It saw active service at Gallipoli during the late stages of that campaign before being sent to the Western Front in France.
The Division started arriving in France in March 1916, and the following month was sent to a quiet sector south of Armentières, to adjust to the Western Front conditions.
It was during this period that this photograph was taken, prior to the Divisions involvement in the attacks on Pozières a few months later in July.
The shoulder patches have been depicted here as that of the 20th Battalion, being white over a green, consistent with the grey-scale of the original black-and-white image.
Photographer: Lieutenant Ernest Brooks
Image courtesy of the Imperial War Museum London
Colourised by Benjamin Thomas

 

[Conhoon]

May 18, 1944
British soldiers look at the holes in the frontal armour of a knocked out German Sturmgeschütz 7,5 cm Stu.K. 40 Ausf. G self-propelled gun.
On the "Gustav Line" In the region of Aquino, Lazio in Italy.

This StuG could possibly be from the Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 907, and was knocked out by either a 17-pdr (3 inches - 76.2 mm) anti-tank gun of the 64th Anti-Tank Regiment (Queen's Own Royal Glasgow Yeomanry) - or - two 75mm AP rounds from a Sherman tank.
(Photo source - © IWM (NA 15178)
Colourised by Royston Leonard

 

[NebrHogger]

Imperial Cossack cavalry 1912

 

[santana]

May 17, 1943. The crew of the Memphis Belle, one of a group of American bombers based in Britain, becomes one of the first B-17 crews to complete 25 missions over Europe and return to the United States.

The Memphis Belle performed its 25th and last mission, in a bombing raid against Lorient, a German submarine base.

Photo caption :
The crew of the "Memphis Belle" back from its 25th operational mission.

All of the crew hold the DFC and Air Medal with Three Oak Clusters, and all started with this Boeing B-17 "Flying Fortress" and survived with only one casualty, a leg wound to the tail gunner. June 43.

 

[santana]

African American Soldiers of the US 92nd Infantry (Buffalo) Division pursue the retreating Germans through the Po Valley, Italy, end of April 1945.

Bloodied by an Axis counteroffensive in December 1944 and again during an offensive in the Serchio River valley in February 1945, the now veteran 92d Division, preceded by air and artillery bombardments, attacked before dawn with the 370th Infantry and the attached 442d Regimental Combat Team. As troops of the 370th advanced through the foothills along the coastal highway toward Massa, they received heavy enemy fire and were halted.

On 1 April, the 370th RCT (92nd Div.) and the attached 442nd Regimental Combat Team (Nisei) attacked the Ligurian coastal sector and drove rapidly north against light opposition from the German 148th Infantry Division, which was supported only by Italian coastal units. The 370th took over the Serchio sector and pursued the retreating enemy from 18 April until the collapse of all enemy forces on 29 April 1945. Elements of the 92nd Division entered La Spezia and Genoa on 27th and took over selected towns along the Ligurian coast until the enemy surrendered on 2 May 1945.

Between August 1944 and May 1945 the 92nd Division suffered 3,200 casualties, and the factoring in of losses from the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (442nd RCT) and other units attached to the division brings the total up to 5,000 casualties.

 

[santana]

North Africa

Two grinning veterans of the Battle of Tobruk who don't seem to answer Lord Haw Haw's description, "Rats of Tobruk."

Alexander Robert Mchutchison from Northcote, Vic (Left) and Patrick Joseph Mackenna from Griffith, NSW, both from the 2/13th Battalion. December 1941.

 

[santana]

Cutella Airfield, south of Vasto, Abruzzo’s Region, Italy, 1944.
An RAF Wing Commander inspects a 1,000-lb GP bomb slung beneath the fuselage of a Curtiss Kittyhawk Mark IV of No. 450 Squadron RAAF in a dispersal.

Two 500-lb GP bombs are also slung from the wing loading points. The Kittyhawk was widely employed during the Campaign of Italy as fighter-bomber with good results.

 

[santana]

A group of Australian and New Zealand personnel examine a CAC Boomerang from 5 (Tactical Reconnaissance) Squadron RAAF, based at Piva Airfield at Torokina, Bougainville, Solomon Islands, probably in January 1945.

Barely two months after Pearl Harbour, Japanese bombers attacked Darwin, Australia’s Northern Territory capital, in the first of 97 raids.

Australia had never before produced a frontline combat aircraft. The new plane had to use whatever components were already on hand: engines from a torpedo bomber, structural elements from a trainer. It was designed by Friedrich David, who was officially an enemy alien. Born with few advantages but succeeding through dogged persistence, the Commonwealth Aircraft Company CA-12 through CA-19 Boomerangs were true “Aussie battlers.”

An Austrian Jew, Fred David had been sent to Japan by Ernst Heinkel to save him from Nazi persecution. There he helped develop the Mitsubishi A5M “Claude” fighter and Aichi D3A “Val” dive bomber before the Kempeitai secret police began to show an unwelcome interest in him. Fleeing to Australia just as war broke out, David was interned as an enemy alien until CAC’s general manager, Wing Commodore Lawrence Wackett, arranged for his release and appointed him chief engineer. Even so, David had to report to the police every two weeks.

Australia was producing two military aircraft at the time: the obsolescent Bristol Beaufort torpedo bomber and the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) Wirraway (Aboriginal for “challenge”), a trainer and general-purpose aircraft developed from the North American NA-16 - known as the Harvard I to Commonwealth forces. David designed the Boomerang around the Beaufort’s 1,200-hp Twin Wasp engine, reusing the jigs used to build the Wirraway’s wing, centre section, landing gear and tail assembly.

Initial tests brought good news and bad. The Boomerang’s agility and high rate of climb meant it could hold its own in mock dogfights against a Bell P-39 Airacobra and a Curtiss Kittyhawk (the RAF name for the P-40D and later variants), but its comparatively underpowered engine was a concern, especially above 15,000 feet.

The RAAF ordered 105 CA-12 Boomerangs in February 1942, the same month as the initial raid on Darwin, receiving the first aircraft just five months later. An order for 145 more led to the CA-13, CA-14 and CA-19 versions, each with minor improvements. A single CA-14 was fitted with a General Electric supercharger to improve high-altitude performance, but it barely fit into the compact fuselage and its large intake resulted in buffeting problems. By this time, though, the Boomerang was being replaced by faster Supermarine Spitfire Mk. Vcs (the first 70 of which reached Australia in January 1943) and P-40D Kittyhawks from Britain and the US.

After RAAF fighter squadrons reequipped with Spitfires and Kittyhawks, the Boomerang found its true calling as a close support and tactical reconnaissance aircraft with Nos. 4 and 5 squadrons in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Borneo. The fighter’s armament, ruggedness and agility suited it for this new role. Operating in pairs, one at treetop height and one flying top cover, Boomerangs dealt with enemy positions ahead of advancing Allied forces. In addition to employing their guns, they could carry bombs weighing up to 500 pounds on a central hardpoint, as well as 20-pound smoke bombs to mark targets.

No. 5 Squadron also received Boomerangs in 1943, and was sent to Bougainville as part of No. 84 (Army Co-operation) Wing. On April 16, 1945, when two Australian brigades were held up by a Japanese force blocking a vital road, No. 5’s Boomerangs placed smoke bombs just 25 yards apart and 300 yards from the Australian front line, enabling Royal New Zealand Air Force F4U Corsairs to clear the way, with no Australian casualties.

Group Captain G.N. Roberts, who commanded the New Zealand Air Task Force, said, “The excellent pinpointing by the Boomerangs has made the job a great deal easier and much more effective.”

 

[santana]

A portrait of Air Vice Marshal Sir Keith Park while commanding RAF squadrons on Malta, September 1942.

Shown here preparing to fly his Spitfire in Malta.

Air Vice Marshal Sir Keith Park, a New Zealander who was a principal Royal Air Force commander in the Battle of Britain and who later commanded the RAF in the Mediterranean, Italy and the Far East.

 

[santana]

An LCVP (Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel) from the US Coast Guard's USS LST-168 taking Australian troops of the 7th Division ashore during the landings at Balikpapan, southeast coat of Borneo, on 1 July 1945.

The landings, slightly north of Balikpapan itself, formed the final stage of Operation OBOE-2 and had been preceded by heavy shelling and aerial bombing by both the Australian and US Air Forces, and Navies. Like many similar Pacific battles at this late stage of the war, the Japanese forces were outnumbered and outgunned, but many adopted to fight to the death.

It was a sizeable operation with more 33,000 army, air force and navy personnel landed from 1 July 1945, in what would be the largest ever amphibious assault by Australian forces.

An oil-port, Balikpapan had seven piers, a refinery and a large number of warehouses around the docks which were quickly set alight during the initial bombardment. The smoke in the background is the result of the burning oil refinery.

Standing on the LCVP is US Coast Guard Combat Photographer James L. Lonergan, filming the action. The image itself was taken by another Coast Guard photographer, Gerald C. Anker.

 

[santana]

B-17 Flying Fortress 'Miss Donna Mae II' downed by friendly bombs.

The "Miss Donna Mae II" drifted out of position while over the target and under another B-17 "Trudy" 42-97791, also from the 332nd BS.

One of the 1,000 lb. bombs from "Trudy" tore off the left horizontal stabilizer and sent the plane into an unrecoverable spin. One of the wings came off at about 13,000 feet.

All 11 crew member were killed. Crashed Oderbergerstrasse, Berlin 19th May, 1944.

 

[santana]

Infantry of the 11th Royal Scots Fusiliers, 49th West Riding Division (supported by the 5th Canadian Armoured Division), check houses at the Arnhemseweg in the town of Ede and are welcomed by the lady of the house of No. 44, The Netherlands, 17 April 1945.

 

[santana]

Mk III 'Valentine' tanks taking part in an extensive exercise, moving forward down a country lane in Scotland. 21 August 1941.

On 1 September 1941 the battalion became the 66th Battalion, 16th Armoured Brigade (1st Polish Corps).

 

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A captured Focke Wulf Fw 190A-3 at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, with the RAE's chief test pilot, Wing Commander H J "Willie" Wilson at the controls, July 1942.

Oberleutnant Armin Faber was a Luftwaffe pilot in World War II who mistook the Bristol Channel for the English Channel and landed his Focke-Wulf 190 (Fw-190) intact at RAF Pembrey in south Wales. His plane was the first Fw-190 to be captured by the Allies and was tested to reveal any weaknesses that could be exploited.

In June 1942, Oberleutnant Armin Faber was Gruppen-Adjutant to the commander of the III fighter Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 2 (JG 2) based in Morlaix in Brittany. On 23 June, he was given special permission to fly a combat mission with 7th Staffel. The unit operated Focke-Wulf 190 fighters.

The FW-190 had only recently arrived with front line units at this time and its superior performance had caused the Allies so many problems that they were considering mounting a commando raid on a French airfield to capture one for evaluation.

7th Staffel was scrambled to intercept a force of twelve Bostons on their way back from a bombing mission; the Bostons were escorted by three Czech-manned RAF squadrons, 310 Squadron, 312 Squadron and 313 Squadron. A fight developed over the English Channel with the escorting Spitfires, during which Faber was attacked by Sergeant František Trejtnar (Czech) of 310 Squadron. In his efforts to shake off the Spitfire, Faber flew north over Exeter in Devon. After much high-speed manoeuvring, Faber, with only one cannon working, pulled an Immelmann turn into the sun and shot down his pursuer in a head-on attack.

Trejnar bailed out safely, although he had a shrapnel wound in his arm and sustained a broken leg on landing; his Spitfire crashed near the village of Black Dog, Devon. Meanwhile, the disorientated Faber now mistook the Bristol Channel for the English Channel and flew north instead of south. Thinking South Wales was France, he turned towards the nearest airfield - RAF Pembrey. Observers on the ground could not believe their eyes as Faber waggled his wings in a victory celebration, lowered the Focke-Wulf's undercarriage and landed.

The Pembrey Duty Pilot, one Sergeant Jeffreys, grabbed a Very pistol and ran from the control tower and jumped onto the wing of Faber's aircraft as it taxied in. Faber was apprehended and later taken to RAF Fairwood Common by Group Captain David Atcherley (twin brother of Richard Atcherley) for interrogation.

Faber's plane was a Fw 190A-3 with the Werknummer 313. It was the only fighter configuration to be captured intact by the Allies during the war. All other captured aircraft were either of the long range bomber or fighter bomber configuration.

Group Captain Hugh Wilson, the pilot mainly responsible for test flying captured enemy aircraft, was asked to fly 313 from RAF Pembrey to RAF Farnborough under the guarantee not to crash. This was an impossible guarantee to give, so the aircraft was dismantled and transported via lorry instead.

At Farnborough, the Fw-190 was repainted in RAF colours and given the RAF serial number MP499. Brief testing and evaluation commenced on 3rd July 1942 at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) at RAF Farnborough. Roughly nine flying hours were recorded, providing the Allies with extremely valuable intelligence.

After 10 days it was transferred to the Air Fighting Development Unit at RAF Duxford for tactical assessment, where it was painted with yellow undersides and a 'P' (in a circle) for prototype, and had Faber's unit 'Cockerel' head insignia repainted back on either side of the nose. It was flown in mock combat trials against the new Spitfire Mk.IX, providing the RAF with methods to best fight the Fw 190A with their new fighter.

The Fw-190 was flown 29 times between 3 July 1942 and 29 January 1943. It was then partially dismantled and tests done on engine performance at Farnborough. It was struck off charge and scrapped in September 1943.

Interesting to note:

Whilst a prisoner of war in Canada, Faber managed to successfully convince British authorities that he suffered from epilepsy. Remarkably, it appears the authorities were taken in by his ruse and in 1944 they allowed his repatriation. Shortly after his return, he was again flying in front-line fighter operations.

 

[santana]

An iconic picture from the 3rd battle of Kharkiv, on board with a Panzer IV Ausf. G from the Totenkopf Division, 1943.

During World War II, Kharkiv was the site of several military engagements. The city was captured by Nazi Germany on 24 October 1941. There was a disastrous Red Army offensive that failed to capture the city in May 1942.

The city was successfully retaken by the Soviets on 16 February 1943. It was captured for a second time by the Germans on 15 March 1943. It was then finally retaken on 23 August 1943.

Seventy percent of the city was destroyed and tens of thousands of the inhabitants were killed. Kharkiv, the third largest city in the Soviet Union, was the most populous city in the Soviet Union captured by the Germans, since in the years preceding World War II, Kyiv was by population the smaller of the two.

The significant Jewish population of Kharkiv (Kharkiv's Jewish community prided itself with the second largest synagogue in Europe) suffered greatly during the war. Between December 1941 and January 1942, an estimated 15,000 Jews were killed and buried in a mass grave by the Germans in a ravine outside of town named Drobytsky Yar.

During World War II, four battles took place for control of the city: First, Second, Third and Fourth Battle of Kharkov
Before the occupation, Kharkiv's tank industries were evacuated to the Urals with all their equipment, and became the heart of Red Army's tank programs (particularly, producing the T-34 tank earlier designed in Kharkiv). These enterprises returned to Kharkiv after the war, and continued to produce tanks.

Of the population of 700,000 that Kharkiv had before the start of World War II, 120,000 became Ost-Arbeiter (slave worker) in Germany, 30,000 were executed and 80,000 starved to death during the war.