Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[NebrHogger]

An American soldier finds a German who'd buried himself to avoid capture.

 

[BravoZulu]

Tail gunner Lawrence Benner, on a Lancaster bomber, Royal Canadian Air Force, 1943

Average life expectancy for a tail gunner was 5 sorties. Lawrence completed 27. He died in 2017 at the age of 91.

 

[BravoZulu]

Poilus of the 160th Infantry Regiment in 1917, France

 

[Conhoon]

A Sherman Firefly passes a 7th Armoured Div., Brigade Motor Btn. Humber scout car crew through the village of Cantaloup, during the advance towards Aunay-sur-Odon from Caumont in Calvados, Normandy. 31 July 1944.

(Photo source - © IWM B 8371)
Colourised by Doug

 

[BravoZulu]

Remembering the 620 officers and men of the 1st Herts Regt who went over the top into a hail of machine gun fire near Ypres 105 years ago on 31st July 1917. Within two hours every single officer and more than 75% of other ranks were killed or wounded.

 

[BravoZulu]

1 August 1943. Wing Commander W.G. Leer of the R.A.A.F. poses in front of his caricature, Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea.

 

[santana]

An American soldier handling a bazooka belonging to the 1st Special Service Force, photographed outside Rome, on June 4, 1944. This unit was one of those that escaped from Anzio

 

[santana]

British Royal Air Force flight crews give a thumbs up to the photographer, after returning to the base of operations after an attack on German warships in Norway, 1940.

 

[santana]

The commander of the German submarine U-177 Lieutenant Commander Robert Giese at the periscope. It can be said that this photo shows the standard and stereotypical image of the commander of a German submarine that developed after the war.

One of the clauses of the Kriegsmarine charter agreement stated: "The commander is the sovereign on his ship." This gave the commander almost unlimited powers, but at the same time placed a very great responsibility on him, especially in a combat situation. The commander of the submarine in battle was the center of attention of the crew, and therefore he had no right to emotions and was simply obliged to maintain restraint and composure. This is how the famous German submarine ace Wolfgang Luth wrote about it: "It is well known that when depth charges start to go off, everyone looks at the officers."

Robert Karl Friedrich Gysae (January 14, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was a German submarine commander in the Kriegsmarine during World War II. He received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves from Nazi Germany. Gysae commanded U-98 and U-177, and is credited with sinking twenty-five ships in eight patrols, for a total of 146,815 gross register tons (GRT) of Allied shipping.

Gysae, commander of U 98 and U 177, later commander of the 25th Flotilla, holder of the Knight's Cross and Oak Leaves. He spent 506 days at sea during eight campaigns. It is worth noting that Giese had a seven-month break between campaigns, during which he tested the new U 177, trained its crew and was treated in hospital after being injured during an air raid. Thus, his 506 days can be divided into two parts: 194 days in six trips to U 98, and another 312 days in two trips to U 177. Giese survived the war and died at the age of 78.

 

[santana]

The Navajos and the secret Navajo Code on the Pacific Front.

After war broke out between the United States and Japan, Philip Johnston, who for part of his life had a close relationship with the Navajo culture, had the idea of using the Navajo language to convey military messages. On the morning of May 4, 1942, 29 Navajo recruits were sent to San Diego, California. It was the first time they had been on a bus. Many had never even left the reservation or seen the city lights. Like most Marines, the Navajo men struggled to complete the seven weeks of training. In many ways military expectations were at odds with Navajo traditions and culture. The Navajo Indians used to have long hair. As Marines they had to wear their hair in short, military-style haircuts. However, all 29 Navajo recruits graduated from boot camp and went on to the next level of training.

The Navajo recruits were sent to Camp Elliott in southern California. There, they were finally briefed on the Navajo Language-Based American Code Project. The men were taught about basic electronics and how to communicate through radio broadcasts. They learned how to use, care for, and repair the radios that they would use to send their messages. But first they had to create the unbreakable code. “The chief came and told us to use our language to come up with words that represent the letters from A to Z, and come up with a code for military terms,” explained Navajo code announcer Chester Nez. “They put us all in a room to figure it out and at first we all thought we would never make it. It seemed impossible because even among ourselves, we didn't agree on all the correct Navajo words." Despite the difficulty of this task, the men worked together and soon created the perfect code.


US Marine Corps commanders were so impressed with the code that they expanded the program. Philip Johnston was put in charge to recruit more Navajo Indians. Most came from Indian reservations. Some transferred from other branches of the military. The group quickly grew to include more than 400 men. Navajo code talkers were posted to the Pacific front during the summer of 1942, with Guadalcanal being their first assignment. Sometimes they were among the waves of troops to assault enemy positions. They often had to move quickly while carrying their bulky radios. They also had to set up their equipment while under heavy enemy fire. Navajo code couriers sent and decoded messages to US troops in many major battles in the Pacific, reporting locations, updating information, and making requests for reinforcements. The encoders could translate three lines of English in 20 seconds, instead of the 30 minutes it took to encode a message with existing machines, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. And while those machines needed to be kept secure, a Navajo coder with a radio could go anywhere.

The island of Iwo Jima was the scene of a key battle that took place from February to March 1945. During the battle, six coders worked day and night to send more than 800 messages without a single error. The code worked exactly as Philip Johnston and the Marines had hoped. The American troops received important messages and the enemy ears could not understand anything of the radio transmission. This contribution helped United States troops capture Iwo Jima. Navajo men were "the simplest, fastest and most reliable" for sending secret messages, Marine Captain Ralph Sturkey wrote in his Battle of Iwo Jima report. The Japanese were never able to break the Navajo code. war 13 Navajos had died on the Pacific Front.

 

[santana]

A Soviet soldier poses with his PPS-42/43, 7.62 mm submachine gun somewhere in Germany, 1945.


The PPS (Russian: ППС – "Пистолет-пулемёт Судаева" or "Pistolet-pulemyot Sudayeva", in English: "Sudayev's submachine-gun") is a family of Soviet submachine guns chambered in 7.62×25mm Tokarev, developed by Alexei Sudayev as a low-cost personal defense weapon for reconnaissance units, vehicle crews and support service personnel.


The PPS and its variants were used extensively by the Red Army during World War II and were later adopted by the armed forces of several countries of the former Warsaw Pact as well as its many African and Asian allies.

 

[santana]

A German tank Pz.Kpfw. IV, knocked out during the fighting on the Kursk bulge. Summer of 1943.

 

[santana]

Rin Tin Tin, posing as a Red Cross rescue dog, 1943.

 

[santana]

Coca-Cola in World War II.

"We'll see to it that every man in uniform gets a five-cent bottle of Coke, wherever he is, and whatever it costs the company." -Robert Woodruff, 1941. At the outbreak of World War II, Coca-Cola was bottled in 44 countries, including those on both sides of the conflict. But far from devastating the business, the war simply presented a new set of challenges and opportunities for the entire Coca-Cola system.

This effort to supply Coca-Cola to the armed forces was launched when an urgent cable arrived from General Dwight Eisenhower's Allied Headquarters in North Africa. Dated June 29, 1943, he requested the shipment of materials and equipment for 10 bottling plants. Preceded by the directive that the shipments should not replace other military shipments, the cablegram also called for the shipment of 3 million full bottles of Coca-Cola, along with supplies to produce the same amount twice a month. Within six months, a Company engineer had flown to Algiers and opened the first plant, the precursor to the 64 bottling plants shipped abroad during World War II.

The plants were installed as close as possible to combat zones in Europe and the Pacific. Military personnel consumed more than 5 billion bottles of Coca-Cola during the war, in addition to countless servings through dispensers and mobile, autonomous units in combat zones. But Coca-Cola's presence did more than just boost the morale of the troops. In many areas, it allowed local people to taste Coca-Cola for the first time, a taste they obviously enjoyed. And when peace returned, the Coca-Cola system was poised for unprecedented global growth. From the mid-1940s to 1960, the number of countries with bottling operations nearly doubled. As the world emerged from a time of conflict, Coca-Cola emerged as a global symbol of friendship and refreshment.

 

[santana]

German armored troops entering Marseilles. November 1942

 

[santana]

Lt. Ronald Speirs, jumpmaster for his “stick” of paratroopers from the 2nd Platoon of Dog Company/506th PIR/101st Airborne Division, before their jump. Speirs would eventually become the leader of Easy Company and known to a wider audience from the books and HBO mini-series “Band of Brothers”

Ronald Speirs was a US Army Officer who served with the US 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division during World War II. On June 6, 1944 he played a part in the early morning airborne landings as part of the Allied invasion of Normandy.

Later he fought in Operation Market Garden in Holland and at the Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne, during which he was reassigned as Commanding Officer of Easy Company. In the final few months of the war, Speirs and Easy Company were assigned occupation duty at Berchtesgaden in the German Bavarian Alps, home to the famous Eagle’s Nest. Although Speirs had enough points to go home after the end of the European Campaign, he chose to remain with Easy Company. Japan surrendered after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, before Speirs and Easy could be transferred to the Pacific Theater.

Speirs remained in the Army when the war was over which lead to an extensive military career spanning more than 20 years. He saw combat in Korea, commanding a rifle company in the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team. Later, he served as an American foreign liaison intelligence officer and was the American Director of Spandau Prison. He was also the US American military Senior Advisor to the Royal Lao Army. His final assignment was in the Planning and Policy Division at the Pentagon, Washington DC. He retired from the military in 1964 after 22 years in active duty.

His numerous awards and decorations from his military career include a Silver Star, Legion of Merit, a Bronze Star with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters, and a Purple Heart with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters. Lt. Colonel Ronald Speirs passed away on April 11, 2007 at the age of 86. An American hero and leader of men.

 

[santana]

Tank troops Colonel General Pavel Rotmistrov, commander of the 5th Guards Tank Army, stands next to a T-34 during the Kirovograd Offensive operation. It was an offensive by the Red Army's Second Ukrainian Front against the German 8th Army in the Kirovograd area of central Ukraine between January 5 and 16, 1944.

 

[Conhoon]

1st Battalion, Irish Guards prepare to leave Wellington Barracks, Westminster, London, following the outbreak of the First World War. 6 August 1914.

"As soon as war became inevitable, the general mobilisation was ordered and on the 4th August 1914, the mobilisation notices were sent to every Irish Guards reservist totalling over 1300 men.The 1st Battalion was at the time stationed at Wellington Barracks and the first reservists reported there the very next day.
The 1st Battalion was inspected by the Colonel of the Regiment, Field Marshal Lord Roberts, on the 11th August and the next day embarked for France to a concentration area 40 miles south of Mons. It was in this neighbourhood that the first clash of the British Expeditionary Forces (BEF) with the German Army took place, on the morning of the 23rd August 1914. Meanwhile the French, who were on the right of the BEF had to withdraw and to avoid being surrounded by the Germans the BEF had to conform and withdraw also. This 'Retreat' (which is know to the Veterans and the Regiment as the 'Retirement') is a legendary epic, and the 1st Battalion, therefore, took part in what must be one of the most testing battles of the early part of the Great War. At the beginning of the 'Retreat' the Battalion acted as rearguard to the 2nd Division and sustained its first casualties. Two days later it was again in action at LANDRECIES, but it was on the 1st of September, at VILLIERS COTTERET that the Battalion fought it's first serious engagement in which it had over 100 casualties, including the Commanding Officer and Second-in-Command killed and the Adjutant wounded. As the only Major left, Major H.A Herbert-Stepney took command of the Battalion for a hectic 18 days and was later killed on the 6th November 1914 near YPRES. The 'Retreat' lasted until the 5th of September 1914 by which time the front had stabilised. It was a long drawn-out rearguard action and a severe test of skill and endurance, entailing withdrawing a distance of nearly 200 miles.
The strength of the Regiment on mobilisation in 1914 was 997. During the Great War 293 Officers and 9340 Other Ranks served as Irish Guardsmen of whom 115 Officers and 2235 Other Ranks gave their lives and a further 195 Officers and 5541 Other Ranks were wounded. The numbers don't add up because some of the individuals were wounded more than once and are counted accordingly."
(The Irish Guards - A Brief History, World War I)
(Photo source - © IWM Q 66157)
Colourised by Doug

 

[Conhoon]

39th Garhwal riflemen, Garhwal Brigade, 7th (Meerut) Division (Estaire La Bassée Road, France). August 1915

They were also part of 20 Brigade with 2 Leicesters and 2/3 Gurkha Rifles. They suffered heavy casualties in Flanders and were recalled to their base at Lansdowne, Uttarakhand in India from where they went to Mesopotamia.
The British Library - Photographer: H. D. Girdwood.
Colourised by Doug

 

[Conhoon]

The Wola Massacre was one of the greatest atrocities committed by the Germans in WWII. Soon after the Warsaw Uprising broke out, the occupant retaliated against the civilian population of Warsaw, indiscriminately killing men, women and children.
The Wola massacre (Polish: Rzeź Woli, lit. 'Wola slaughter') was the systematic killing of between 40,000 and 50,000 Poles in the Wola neighbourhood of the Polish capital city, Warsaw, by the German Wehrmacht and fellow Axis collaborators in the Azerbaijani Legion, as well as the mostly-Russian RONA forces, which took place from 5 to 12 August 1944. The massacre was ordered by Adolf Hitler, who directed to kill "anything that moves" to stop the Warsaw Uprising soon after it began.