Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[Redav]

After the first major German losses on the Eastern Front in 1941, divisional cemeteries were set up behind the front.

Here the dead were brought for burial, and the Divisions kommandeur and other officers attended to pay their respects. A total of 2.7 million German soldiers were killed on the Eastern Front and 1.4 million German civilians were killed. These figures are dwarfed by the 11.4 million missing and murdered Soviet soldiers, including 3.5 million prisoners of war who died in captivity. Soviet civilian losses were even greater 15.2 million.

 

[Redav]

American soldier standing in the ruins of the crypt of the Battle of Nations Monument in Leipzig, Germany 1945.

 

[Redav]

Rolf Valtin, civil war interrogator of the 1st. US Infantry Division, chat with a German Commander who surrendered strong point, when ammunition ran out February 26, 1945 Kreuzau, Germany.

 

[Redav]

Soviet soldiers helping a wounded German soldier on September 8, 1941.

Starting in 1942, the Stavka issued strict orders against summary executions. They took tactical intelligence very seriously and did not like to sacrifice the opportunity to interrogate prisoners.

 

[Conhoon]

WW1 – Treviso, Veneto, Italy. Piazza dei Signori. INDIAN 999 cc twin cylinder machine fitted with a sidecar being used by a soldier carrying a captain of Italian Royal army. IWM Q 26038.
Motorbikes proved useful, fulfilling different roles to those of trucks and armored cars. One of their greatest uses was in maintaining lines of communication. Motorcycle couriers provided fast transport for messages and so became somewhat commonplace. Motorbikes with sidecars were useful for ferrying officers from one place to another.

 

[Conhoon]

Children watch activity around a Matilda Mk II tank of 44th Royal Tank Regiment in School Hill, Findon, West Sussex, during exercises against 'enemy' parachute troops, 4 March 1941.
(Photo source - © IWM H 7680)

 

[Conhoon]

Repairing a Ju-87. Colorized photo by Richard James Molly.

 

[BravoZulu]

M3 105mm howitzers shell German forces retreating near Carentan, France. July 11, 1944

 

[BravoZulu]

A 210 mm German heavy field howitzer. Ukraine, summer 1941. The color slide was made by Leutnant Herbert Achenbach, member of the 3.Batterie / schwere Artillerie-Abteilung 681 (3rd Heavy Artillery Battery, Section 681) in the southern section of the Eastern Front.

 

[BravoZulu]

10cm guns of 16.Panzer-Division, August 1942.

 

[BravoZulu]

Finnish soldiers training with an Liekinheitin M/40 flamethrower, Finland 1941

 

[BravoZulu]

Pvt Terry Moore of F Company, 184th Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, leans against an embankment, a cigarette in his mouth and his Browning automatic rifle (BAR) in his hands, Okinawa, May 1945.

 

[BravoZulu]

German troops search captured Polish soldiers near Warsaw, Poland, September 1939. 65,000 Polish troops have been killed, many summarily executed after surrender; 420,000 captured by Germans & Red Army.

 

[BravoZulu]

German soldiers alongside recently captured Red Army POWs treating a wounded Russian, Suoyarvi, Karelia, 21 August 1941.

 

[BravoZulu]

11th Regiment, 5th Division US Private Charles Preston, of Nicholasville, Kentucky, brushes snow from a M1917 Browning machine gun mounted on his jeep. His unit was moving in against the German counterattack in the Ardennes during the 'Battle of the Bulge' which was then barely a week old, in the frontline of Luxemburg. 21 Dec 1944

 

[BravoZulu]

Soviet soldiers surrendering to the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte. Summer of 41/42. 57%, 3.3 to 3.5 million Soviet POW's taken by the Germans died in captivity.

 

[BravoZulu]

Two Chinese boys known as 'Big Wings' and 'Little Wings' who were adopted by 132 Squadron at Kaitak airfield, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Here 'Big Wings' demonstrates to his younger brother how a Spitfire peels off in flight.

When the squadron took over the airfield from the Japanese, the children, who are brothers, presented themselves at the orderly-room. One could speak English, and he informed the corporal that his father had been murdered by the Japanese, and his mother was seriously ill. A visit was made to the mother, and she was told that her children would be “adopted.”

She was delighted, and the station medical officer who examined her said that the news may speed her recovery.

 

[BravoZulu]

Close-up of shirtless Private First Class Paul Kaiser as he loads a Bofors 40mm gun in an anti-aircraft emplacement, England 1944

 

[Conhoon]

USS Ohio (BB-12) docked at Mare Island shipyard in 1915, colourized by Irootoko Jr.

 

[Newtonk]

American soldier standing in the ruins of the crypt of the Battle of Nations Monument in Leipzig, Germany 1945.View attachment 462048

Still looks like a scene from fortnight Indiana Jones cross over movie. But I'm sure it isn't. Like, the soldier found the loot box after defeating the boss. Time to level up.