Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[BravoZulu]

German troops, accepting a drink from a French villager somewhere in Normandy. Mid. June 1944, after the commencement of the allied invasion. The soldier on the left is carrying a Sturmgewehr (STG.44) and in the centre is a Panzerschreck (RPzB.54 – anti-tank rocket launcher) and front right are the Gr.4322 heat rockets used with the launcher.

 

[BravoZulu]

From Left to Right, B-25 crew members: Sgt. John C. Bellendir (Gnr.), Chicago; Sgt. Raymond J. Swingholm (Eng/Gnr.), Lebanon, PA; Sgt. Harris B. Pate (Rd/Gnr.), Hamlet, NC; Red Cross Clubmobile Worker, Peggy Steers from White Plains, NY. and T/Sgt. Aubrey Chatters (Rd/Gnr.), Milington MI. All from the 321st Bombardment Group, 447th Bombardment Squadron,12th Air Force. Alesani Airfield, Corsica, 2nd of July 1944. They had just returned from a bombing mission over targets in Ravenna, Italy and now enjoy Coffee and Doughnuts

 

[BravoZulu]

Lt. Col. Robert Wolverton, C/O 3 Btn, 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, checking his gear before boarding the C-47 “Dakota”, 8Y-S, “Stoy Hora” of the 440th Troop Carrier Squadron at an airfield in Exeter, England. The evening of the 5th of June 1944.

Lt Col Robert L Wolverton (aged 30), was killed by ground fire and left suspended by his parachute from an apple tree in an orchard just north of the hamlet of St Côme du Mont in Normandy.

(Nb. of the 15 men in his ‘stick’, 5 were KIA on D/Day, 8 taken as POWs and 2 unaccounted for)

 

[BravoZulu]

‘Stalag 13-C’

US troops from Combat Command B of the U.S. 14th Armored Division entering the Hammelburg Prison in Germany by opening the main gate with bursts of their M3 “Grease Guns”. Hammelburg, Germany. April 6, 1945. Hammelburg was a large German Army training camp, set up in 1893. Part of this camp had been used as a POW camp for Allied army personnel in World War I. After 1935 it was a training camp and military training area for the newly reconstituted German Army. In May 1940 the camp was established in wooden huts at the south end of the training ground. The first prisoners included Belgian, Dutch and French soldiers taken during the Battle of France. In May–June 1941 Yugoslavian, predominantly Serbian prisoners arrived from the Balkans Campaign, and soon after in June–July 1941 Australian and other British Commonwealth soldiers arrived, captured during the Battle of Crete.

American soldiers that had been captured during the Battle of Normandy arrived in June–July 1944, and more from the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945. In March 1945 a large group of prisoners arrived in deplorable condition after marching the 500 miles from Stalag 13-D in severe winter conditions.

“It seems the opening of the gates with machine gun fire is most likely symbolic and a show for the camera’s.
There are other photos of this POW liberation that show Sherman tanks rolling easily through the fences – which is far safer IMO than the method used in photo.”

 

[BravoZulu]

A British Paratrooper taking aim with an American M1 carbine from the first floor balcony of the Hartenstein Hotel in Oosterbeek, near Arnhem in The Netherlands. September 1944.

(The photograph was taken by Sergeant D M Smith, Army Film and Photographic Unit on Saturday the 23rd of September 1944.) Sergeant Dennis Smith, the photographer, wrote: “We have had a very heavy shelling this morning, September 23rd and now the situation is serious. the shelling is hellish. We have been holding out for a week now. The men are tired, weary and food is becoming scarce, and to make matters worse, we are having heavy rain. If we are not relieved soon, then the men will just drop from sheer exhaustion”.

The British 1st Airborne Division headquarters had been established in the Hotel during ‘Operation Market Garden’ and it is now the Airborne Museum ‘Hartenstein’.

 

[BravoZulu]

T/Sgt. Benedict “Benny” Borostowski, ball turret gunner of Capt. Oscar D. O’Neil’s B-17 Flying Fortress “Invasion 2nd” (serial 42-5070) of the 401st Bomb Sq, 91st BG.

The B-17 and crew were on a bombing run destined for the Focke-Wulf factory in Bremen on the 17th of April 1943 when it was hit by flak and crashed in the region of Nikolausdorf, near Oldenburg in Germany.

“Invasion 2nd” formed the lead plane of the first element of six aircraft making up the lowest squadron. Taking flak hits and attacks by German fighters over the target, the number two engine was completely shot away. The left wing caught on fire and spread to the fuselage. Captain Oscar D. O’Neill called for the crew to bail out but Waist Gunners T/Sgts. Lapp and King were prevented from leaving by a stuck escape hatch. The ball turret gunner, Technical Sergeant Benedict B. Borostowski, came up into the fuselage from the ball turret and went to the partly open waist door. He found Lapp and King unable to force the door and used his foot to push both of them through. All of the crew members were able to leave the aircraft and survived the jump. They all spent the remainder of the war as POWs.

 

[BravoZulu]

Flying Officer Philip Ingleby 137140, the navigator of an Avro Lancaster B Mark III of No. 619 Squadron RAF based at Coningsby, Lincolnshire, seated at his table in the aircraft. February 1944.

Taking off at 10.50 hrs on the 7th August 1944, the de Havilland Mosquito VI (s/n NT202) AJ-N of No. 617 Squadron, was on a training exercise from R.A.F. Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire. It had completed three runs over the Wainfleet Sands bombing range and at 11.12 hrs. whilst pulling up in a climbing turn to port the starboard engine failed, followed immediately by structural failure of the starboard wing. Out of control, the Mosquito plunged into shallow water by the foreshore. The Pilot F/O. Warren Duffy (aged 21) and Navigator P. Ingleby (Aged 23) were both killed.

 

[BravoZulu]

Sherman tanks and 6-pdr anti-tank guns of the 11th Armoured Division, advancing through the village of St Charles-de-Percy in Calvados, Normandy, on the N 177 road to Vire. 2nd of August 1944,

 

[BravoZulu]

M4 Sherman (US Army 3099276) of ‘A’ Company 763rd Tank Battalion and troops from the 96th Infantry Division in battle at Okinawa, April 1945.

 

[BravoZulu]

A German paratrooper (Fallschirmjäger) with an MG 42 (Maschinengewehr 42) machine gun positions himself to fire on Allied forces. Near Sainte-Mère-Église, Manche, Normandy, France.

 

[BravoZulu]

USAAF Capt. Dewey E. Newhart
“Mud N’ Mules” Republic P-47D-15-RE Thunderbolt LH-D s/n 42-76141 350th Fighter Squadron, 353rd Fighter Group, 8th Air Force

Capt. Newhart was killed in action on the 12th of June 1944 during a mission over Northern France.
He was leading the squadron down to strafe an enemy truck convoy near Saint-Saëns, Normandy when he was jumped by 8-10 Bf.109s whilst flying a P-47D LH-U(s/n 42-26402) named “Soubrette”, he was hit and radioed that he was attempting to make landfall. Before he could escape, he was attacked by two more fighters, and was shot down and killed.

The pictured aircraft was re-assigned to Capt. Lonnie M. Davis who renamed it “Arkansas Traveler” but retained the mule artwork out of respect for Newhart.

 

[BravoZulu]

MG.34 team of the motorized brigade SS “Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler” at Mariupol, Ukraine. October 1941

 

[NebrHogger]

Excellent pics this morning, BZ - thanks!

 

[Conhoon]

A Finnish Universal Carrier tows a cannon (and a few Finnish soldiers), Nuijamaa August 7th, 1941

 

[Redav]

U-462 commanded by Lt. Bruno Vove supplies U-755. North Atlantic

 

[Redav]

Stug iii and Ferdinand Photo

 

[Conhoon]

Troops of the 8th Battalion, the King's (Liverpool Regiment, Liverpool Irish, 57th Division) entering Lille, 18 October 1918.

(Photo source #1 - © IWM Q 9574, #2 IWM Q 9579)
McLellan, David (Second Lieutenant) (Photographer)
Colourised by Doug

 

[Redav]

"Bismarck proceeding on her westerly course from Gotenhafen, passed to the north-west of the Danish island of Bornholm at 0930/19th May. She was here sighted by the Swedish cruiser "Gotland," who ran for two hours on a parallel course. It was strongly suspected by a surviving officer that "Bismarck's" presence was, at this stage, reported by British agents in Sweden. At 1130 "Bismarck" entered Kiel Bay, having previously reduced speed to 10 knots. At noon Admiral Lütjens summoned the ship's company and delivered the following address: "The day that we have longed for so eagerly has at last arrived; the moment when we can lead our proud ship towards the enemy. Our objective is commerce raiding (Handelskrieg) in the Atlantic, imperiling England's existence. Let us hope we are mightily successful. I know it is, has been and will remain the crew's sincerest with to participate successfully in Germany's final victory. I give you the hunter's toast, 'good hunting and a good bag!'" This speech was relayed by loud speakers throughout the ship, to enable those forced to remain on watch to participate."

 

[Connaught Ranger]

Stug iii and Ferdinand PhotoView attachment 503026

I dont think its a Ferdinand too small, Stug III and The Hummel ("bumblebee") or Nashorn ("rhinoceros")

This is a Ferdinand -

 

[Newtonk]

Stug iii and Ferdinand PhotoView attachment 503026

Stug iii and Hummel, Ferdinands are in your latest image over on the WW2 German thread... Thanks for sharing, too.