Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[Conhoon]

2nd U-boat Flotilla, both boats are preparing to depart Lorient. On the left is U-654 and the boat in the foreground is Teddy's U-564, whose crew is gathering for the official departure in the evening.

 

[Conhoon]

Three Fallschirmjäger and a motorcyclist wearing a coverall drillich and gauntlets, are poised on a BMW R75 and sidecar on the Route de Rouen in Grand-Bourgtheroulde, during the retreat from Normandy, late August 1944.

 

[Conhoon]

Luftwaffe observer Lt. Heinz Riedel from Stab I./KG 30 gets out of his flyingsuit at 'Fliegerhorst Eindhoven' after returning from a mission, early March 1941, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

Only a few days after this picture was taken during the night from 14 to 15 March, Heinz Riedel was killed during a crash landing near the airfield after their Junkers Ju88-A5 (Werke #214) was damaged by a British night fighter. The damage was assessed at 60%. The wounded pilot Fw M. Borchard failed in his attempt to land the plane in the dark and Riedel died in the crash. The other crewmembers, pilot Borchard, radio operator Gelhaar and machinegunner Tatzberg were injured but survived.
The Junkers Ju 88A-5 of I/KG 30 in the background is not Riedels plane but the 'Kommandeur-Flugzeug' of the Stab (Unit) It shows the insignia on the nose which bears the emblem of the Eagle on a red, white, yellow background used by Stab I./KG30, and, hardly visible, on the starboard engine a typical emblem of many Luftwaffe aircraft at the beginning of the War: the umbrella of Prime Minister Chamberlain under a bombsight.
Although Lt. Heinz Riedel was burried at the German War Cemetery near Ysselsteyn, The Netherlands, many crews are buried with their planes at their crash sites.
The coming weeks, in the province of Friesland, two crashed planes with their crews still inside, will be excavated after 81 years. These are the remains of a German and a British plane that crashed during the Second World War. The wrecks are located in the northeast of Friesland, near Hallum and Ternaard.
The remains of the five British crew members are probably still on board. The Vickers Wellington HE346 crashed on June 26, 1943 in the same summer as the German BF109, flown by Georg Wilhelm. That aircraft will be recovered at the end of August. Relatives will also be present.
The Dutch WW2 Plane Loss Register 'SGLO' has listed all military aircraft crashed and shot down in the Netherlands between 3 September 1939 and 5 May 1945. The Register contains the basic data like the locations of almost 6,000 aircraft of Dutch, German, French, British and American origin.
@Colourisedpieceofjake
Photo: NIOD

 

[NebrHogger]

British sailors line up for their issue of grog.

 

[BravoZulu]

French Zouaves from the Constantine Division at rest. Fance, Summer 1914. Not colourised (autochrome)

 

[Conhoon]

Two soldiers belonging to the Gotland Infantry Regiment (I 27), Swedish Army, posing for a photograph in full kit with beer glasses at the photographic studio of Nils Johan August Lagergrens in Visby, Gotland, Sweden. Photograph taken in the early 1900s.

 

[santana]

Leutnant from a PK-unit posing on a VW-Kübelwagen

 

[Conhoon]

Soldiers from the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking after completing their mission relax and smoke in a Polish village in the Zerczyce area July 1944

 

[Conhoon]

Two British paratroopers in German custody in a captured British jeep. Arnhem, September 1944, colorized, Photo by Lieutenant Erwin Seeger. Also looks like an airborne Jeep by style of the steering wheel.

 

[Conhoon]

Men of Luftlande-Sturm-Regiment 1 enjoying some cigarettes at the Luftwaffe barracks in Cologne-Dellbrück after the battle of Fort Eben-Emael, 12 May 1940.

 

[Conhoon]

9 August 1918
Battle of Amiens. Capture of the Chipilly Ridge by the 58th (London) Division. Royal Engineers and infantry of the Division in reserve, resting in a trench near Albert.

(IWM Q9190)
Colourised by Doug

 

[Kadir93]

Crown Prince of Greece Constantine watching heavy artillery guns shelling Ottoman positions at the battle of Bizani during the last stages of the First Balkan War, Epirus region, 4–6 March 1913.

 

[santana]

"Private First Class David Kenyon Webster E (Easy) Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th PIR- 101st Airborne Division poses for the camera with the local population in Eindhoven, 18 September, 1944, The Netherlands"

David Kenyon Webster was born 2 June, 1922, in New York City, New York. David would go on to be educated at the Taft School in Watertown Connecticut, a private college preparatory academy. After graduation he would attend Harvard University to study English until he enlisted with the US Army and volunteered to become a paratrooper in 1942.

Webster was sent to Camp Toccoa, Georgia, and placed initially in Fox Company, 506th PIR, but made his first combat jump on D-Day with HQ Company of the regiment's 2nd battalion. He was wounded a few days later and evacuated to England. Webster applied for a transfer to Easy Company and would remain with the men until the end the war.

Private First Class Webster jumped into Holland on 17 September 1944, as part of Operation Market Garden. He was shot in the leg while taking part in the crossroads fighting on "The Island" near Randwijk on 5 October. David was evacuated to England and rejoined Easy Company in February 1945. Original Toccoa man, Private First Class Webster, was discharged from service as the recipient of the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart Medal with OLC. Webster was also depicted in the WW2-series BandofBrothers.

After the war, David got a job as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Daily News and The Saturday Evening Post. He married Barbara Jean Stoessell on 01 February 1952 in Los Angeles California. The couple had three children.
David was also interested in sharks, which led him to write a book on the subject, entitled "Myth and Maneater: The Story of the Shark."

 

[Conhoon]

Kradschützen sitting in their motorcylces wearing early Plane tree 1/2 and 3/4 camouflage smocks, Holland 1940

 

[Conhoon]

Finnish military motorcycle during WWII

 

[Conhoon]

Polish light tanks Vickers, 1934

 

[Kadir93]

Members of the 6.SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade Langemarck on a captured T-34-76 tank, Estonia 1944.

 

[Conhoon]

Soldiers of the 2nd Polish Corps repairing the Willys Jeep off-road vehicle during the battle for Monte Cassino, Italy, 1944.

 

[BravoZulu]

Troops evacuated from Dunkirk, one clad only in a blanket and pyjamas, at Dover, in May 1940

 

[Redav]

Soldiers of the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking with a Panzerkampfwagen III Ausf. J, Russia 1942.