Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[Conhoon]

Flying Officer Raymond Newton (from Wellington, NZ), serving in 112 RAF squadron, stands next to a Mustang III on an airfield in
Italy.
Photograph taken 12th September 1944 by Cedric Raymond Mentiplay.

112 Squadron was initially equipped with the Gloster Gladiator, but in July 1941, it became one of the first squadrons in the world to become operational with the Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk, which it used as a fighter and fighter-bomber. In December, the Tomahawks were replaced by the improved P-40 Kittyhawk. In 1944 the Kittyhawks were replaced by the P-51 Mustang.
112 Squadron was nicknamed "The Shark Squadron", due to the fact that it was the first unit from any Allied air force to paint the famous shark mouth on their P-40s. The squadron copied the shark's mouth logo painted on some German Bf 110s of Zerstörergeschwader 76.
The nose art was carried over onto the Mustang III's and IV's they later flew.
The squadron had many personnel from the air forces of Poland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.
Colourised by Daniel

 

[santana]

Pilots of Polish 315 Sqn RAF and Mustang, 1944.

 

[Redav]

The Lobster fight!
April 15, 1941.Just a quick history lesson, Adolf Galland flew this airplane, along with a basket with lobsters, to Theo Osterkamp’s birthday party. En route he took a detour with his brand new Bf109F-0 to England and shot down two Spitfires for his 60th and 61st kills. His aircraft was so brand new that somehow he accidentally lowered his landing gear during the fight and still managed to shoot down two fighters. The aircraft was so brand new that the markings weren’t even completely painted on.

 

[Redav]

Abandoned German Panzer VI Tiger in the streets of the French city of Marle. September 1944.

 

[robson68]

Pilots of Polish 315 Sqn RAF and Mustang, 1944.

View attachment 477897

From the left F/O Bożydar Nowosielski, S/Ldr Eugeniusz Horbaczewski (Poland’s third highest scoring fighter ace with 16.5 confirmed kills), F/Sgt Stanisław Będkowski, P/O Gwido Świstuń, F/Sgt Józef Korczowski, F/L Michał Cwynar and unknown mechanic. Sitting on the ground W/O Tadeusz Jankowski. Picture was taken at Brenzett Airfield on 1st August 1944 roku. North American P-51 Mustang III, 'FB387' (PK-G) S/Ldr Eugeniusz Horbaczewski's aircraft.

 

[Conhoon]

Spitfire MK.Vb, Polish 315 Sqn at Northolt

 

[Conhoon]

Polish pilot Sgt. Kazimierz Chomacki sitting by Spitfire XVI QH-V after crash landing near Cloppenburg

Squadron 308 (131 Polish Fighter Wing “City of Kraków”), consisting of Polish pilots, was based in the city of Dinland of Sasex County in England from 1944 to 1947.

 

[Redav]

German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, Boston Harbor, January 1946.

 

[Redav]

The Polish Navy destroyer ORP Garland stationary, 1940

 

[Redav]

Three young Waffen SS Soldiers pose for the camera in the battlefield just after they were given Iron Crosses for valor

 

[Redav]

 

[santana]

Picture of Easy Company men celebrate V-E day in Berchtesgaden, May 8th, 1945. From left to right: Major Richard Winters, Captain Lewis Nixon, First Lieutenant Harry Welsh, First Lieutenant Thomas Peacock, and Captain Loyd J. Cox.

 

[santana]

V-DAY

 

[Conhoon]

Flying Officer Robert Stanford Tuck flying aircraft registration FZ-L number K9906 leads two flights of No.65 'East India 'Squadron Royal Air Force Fighter Command Supermarine Spitfire Mk1's in a close echelon starboard formation out of RAF Hornchurch in May 1939. F/O Tucks K9906/FZ-L, was one of the very first Spitfires issued to the squadron in March of 1939.

Photographer: Charles E. Brown.
Credit: Authors Personal Collection (Via RAF Museum)
Image Repair & Colourisation - Nathan Howland

 

[Conhoon]

Spitfire pilot, Flying Officer Jim Ferguson, No. 453 Squadron RAAF operating from landing ground B.70 near Antwerp about to provide fighter cover during Operation Market Garden.

 

[Conhoon]

Ltn. Emil Schaefer in his Albatros D.II D.1724/16
colorized by James F. Miller

 

[Conhoon]

A Wehrmacht Gebirgsjäger Mountain Troops soldier climbs a mountain most likely in the German Alps during training some time in the early 1940s

 

[Conhoon]

Reinforcements from the 28th Maori Battalion say goodbye to friends and family at Rotorua Railway Station, NZ, before leaving to go fight in WWII.
In the center of the photo, an unidentified mother and son hug.

Original caption - "All the sorrow in the world finds expression in the mother's last embrace."
Taken by John Dobree Pascoe in Rotorua on 11th of January 1944.
At the time of this photo being taken, the 28th Battalion was engaged in fierce combat with the German army in Italy, including hand-to-hand combat.
These replacements would probably have arrived in the ETO in time to take part in the Battle of Monte Cassino, where the Battalion suffered heavy casualties.
Over 11,000 Kiwi mothers would never see their son return from fighting in WWII.

Alexander Turnbull Library photo

 

[Redav]

A Soviet POW wearing a steel plate body armor identified as SN42 is curiously examined by a German soldier Eastern Front 1942

 

[Redav]

Berlin at the end of WW2, 1945.