Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[BravoZulu]

Royal Naval Air Service Sopwith Scheinder (a floatplane derivative of the Sopwith Tabloid) hoisted on board the cruiser HMS Undaunted, circa 1915

 

[Conhoon]

German troops resting by a cottage in the Szurduk Pass, Romania after the assault of November 1916.

(Photo commissioned by Ionel Cioca)
Colourised by Doug

 

[BravoZulu]

USS Hornet (CV-8) arrives at Pearl Harbor after the Doolittle Raid on Japan, 30 April 1942. PT-28 and PT-29 are speeding by in the foreground (colourised)

Yorktown class USS Enterprise (CV-6) steams toward the Panama Canal on 10 October 1945, while en route to New York to participate in Navy Day Victory Celebrations (colourised)

 

[Conhoon]

20 November 1917
A Mark IV (Male) tank H45 'Hyacinth' of H Battalion ditched in a German trench while supporting the 1st Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment, one mile west of Ribécourt. Some men of the battalion are resting in the trench.
Commanded by 2nd Lt. Jackson, H Btn, 24 Coy, 10 Sec. During the attack it reached the first objective of the day, 'The Hindenburg Line', before falling into the ditch.

(Photo source - © IWM Q 6433)
Photographer - Lt. John Warwick Brooke
Colourised by DBColour

 

[Connaught Ranger]

20 November 1917
A Mark IV (Male) tank H45 'Hyacinth' of H Battalion ditched in a German trench while supporting the 1st Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment, one mile west of Ribécourt. Some men of the battalion are resting in the trench.
Commanded by 2nd Lt. Jackson, H Btn, 24 Coy, 10 Sec. During the attack it reached the first objective of the day, 'The Hindenburg Line', before falling into the ditch.

View attachment 413173
(Photo source - © IWM Q 6433)
Photographer - Lt. John Warwick Brooke
Colourised by DBColour

Mmmm I see its marked with the Orc "Z" in two places . . .

 

[BCNTM]

SBS troops are shown waiting in ambush armed with a variety of weapons, including Bren guns and a Thompson sub-machine gun, during the campaign to free the Greek islands from Axis control


View attachment 412532

MP40 and a M1 carbine? at the back

 

[Conhoon]

Uffz. Karl Wolff of 3./JG 52. Wolff was shot down and bailed out over Sussex on 30 September 1940 in "Yellow 14". "Yellow 15" was the Emil he crash-landed one month earlier.

 

[santana]

UB-148—a UB.III series — was laid down during the winter of 1917 and 1918 at Bremen, Germany, by Aktiengesellechaft t Weser; launched on 7 August 1918; but never commissioned in the Imperial German Navy. She was completing preparations for commissioning when the armistice of 11 November ended hostilities. Two days later, she was interned at the Swedish naval base located at Karlskrona, Sweden, to await her fate.


By the terms of the armistice, Germany was required to destroy her aircraft and submarines or surrender them to the Allies. On 26 November, UB-148 was surrendered to the British at Harwich, England. Later, when the United States Navy expressed an interest in aeauiring several former U-boats, to use in conjunction with a Victory Bond drive, UB-148 was one of the six boats allocated for that purpose. Her American crew, sent to England early in March 1919, took her over later that month, began preparing her for the voyage to America, and placed her in commission Lt. Comdr. Harold T. Smith in command.


The U-boat departed England on 3 April 1919 in company with Bushnell (Submarine Tender No. 2) and three other submarines-U-117, UB-88, and UC-97. That task organization, the Ex-German Submarine Expeditionary Force, steamed via the Azores and Bermuda to New York, where it arrived on 27 April. After a period of repairs, the submarines were opened


for visits by the public. Tourists, reporters and photographers joined Navy technicians and civilian shipbuilders in swarming over UB-148 and the other submarines. Following that, UB-148 received instructions to call at ports along the east coast of the United States in the immediate vicinity of New York City in conjunction with the bond drive. At the conclusion of the drive that summer, she and U-111 were subjected to extensive tests and trials to evaluate their performance capability. When that experimentation ended, she joined U-117 and U-140 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, where they were laid up pending final disposition. She was dismantled at Philadelphia; and, during the summer of 1921, her hulk was used in gunnery and aerial bombing tests conducted off the east coast. Following those tests, UB-148 was sunk by gunfire from Sicard (DD-346)

 

[santana]

Omaha Beach in Normandy, photographed by Robert Capa on the morning of June 6, 1944. Robert Capa arrived on Omaha Beach with Big Red One commander George Arthur Taylor. It is believed that the photograph was taken an hour and a half after the first wave had landed on the beaches at H Hour, at 06:30. As can be seen in the image, around 08:00 in the morning, the armored traffic was still completely blocked.

 

[Unknowncommando]

Soldier of the Royal Indian Army Service Corps and Mule with gas masks in France (World War II)

 

[santana]

First German soldier to receive the Knight's Cross, 1941.
A print from Signal, Signal was a magazine published 1940/45.

 

[Conhoon]

22 November, 1944
A group of German snipers, taken during the fight for a road leading out of Belfort, France, is led through the streets of the city by members of the 1st French Armored Division.

(Photo source - U.S. Army Signal Corps SC 196667)
Colourised by Doug

 

[santana]

Messerschmitt Bf 109 (MT-456), pilot (possibly flight master Aaro Nuorala) going to the cockpit.

 

[santana]

Major John S. Flickinger, the C/O of VMSB-244 Helldiver unit, pictured in his aircraft at Torokina in February 1944.

A hero of both the WWII & Korea, he later gained the rank of Lt. Col. with VMF (AW) - 115, flying jets, and received 5 Air Medals, The Distinguished Flying Cross, The Purple Heart, American Defense Medal, WWII Victory Medal, Bronze Star Medal, and both Rifle & Pistol Marksman Medals.

 

[NebrHogger]

RAF pilots on duty - Glasgow, 1940

 

[NebrHogger]

Louse patrol. Boiling might be more effective, but it's a combat zone on the eastern front, 1915.

 

[Conhoon]

24 November 1917
German and Canadian wounded receive hot coffee and biscuits from a YMCA hut near the front lines.

Source - Photographs and a scrapbook of newspaper cuttings and other records relating to the life and service of Brigadier General W.O.H. Dodds, CMG, DSO, in the Great War of 1914-1918 and extending to his death on 25 August 1934. Brigadier General Dodds joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1914 and was commanding officer of the 5th Canadian Division Artillery and served in France from 1917-1918.
(Colourised by Mark at Canadian Colour)

 

[Conhoon]

24 November 1944
Infantry attached to the British 8th Army, pass a German Panzer IV tank knocked out earlier by an M.10 tank destroyer on 'Route 9' to Faenza, Italy.

The British 8th Army advance made slow progress through November and December 1944, capturing Forlì on 30 October, capturing Ravenna on 5 November, crossed the Cosina River on 23 November, and finally capturing Faenza on 17 December.
As the German forces established new defensive positions along the Senio River, and the first snow of the winter about to fall, the British 8th Army's attack ground to a halt as well.
(Photo source - © IWM NA 20234)
No. 2 Army Film & Photographic Unit
Lupson (Sgt)
Colourised by Doug

 

[Conhoon]

Artificers of the 135th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery attending their 8 inch howitzers at La Houssoye, in the Oise department in northern France. 25 August 1916.

(Photo source - © IWM Q 4148)
Colourised by Doug

 

[Conhoon]

The original "Memphis Belle" meets the B-17 named after her.
Memphis Belle pilot Captain Robert K Morgan shows his B-17 to his fiancée, Margaret Polk.
Memphis Municipal Airport June 19th, 1943

The Memphis Belle was named to honor Polk, of Memphis, Tennessee, whom Morgan met before leaving for England.
B-17F, Serial No. 41-24485, was one of the first USAAF B-17 heavy bombers to complete 25 combat missions, after which the aircrew returned with the bomber to the United States to sell war bonds.
The famous Memphis Belle nose art is a representation of the George Petty “pin-up” illustration in the April 1941 edition of Esquire magazine. She was painted in the blue swimsuit on the left side and a red one on the right side.
Originally painted in the US by an unknown painter, the Memphis Belle’s nose art was touched up and later repainted by Cpl Tony Starcer at Bassingbourn, England.
The yellow star above the bomb art work represent the times the 'Belle' was the lead aircraft of the bomb group on that mission, the red star represents the times they were the lead plane of the whole bomb wing. However that info is subject to debate.
The 8 swastikas were painted after her combat tour had ended and represent the number of German aircraft shot down by the B-17 and crew, as according the the author of the book 'Memphis Belle - Dispelling the Myths', there is very good evidence that the gunners on board the Memphis Belle never shot down eight enemy aircraft, what those eight swastikas show is an 'overall total of enemy aircraft destroyed by the aircraft and it's returning crew'.
Due to aircraft availability, sometimes the crew would fly a different aircraft.
The engagement of Morgan and Polk ended during the war bond tour, however the two would remain good friends until her death in 1990.
The Memphis Belle is now on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.
Image courtesy of the Preservation and Special Collections Department, University Libraries, University of Memphis.
Info sources - https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/.../igphoto/2001906792/ https://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21499