Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts
- Thread starter BravoZulu
- Start date
- Featured
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2017
- Messages
- 11,333
- Points
- 388
An American Sherman tank is covered by a machine gun nest while crossing a snow-covered field near Bastogne. January 3, 1945 Belgian Ardennes.
The tide has turned in the Battle of the Bulge.
The initiative has been taken out of Adolf Hitler's hands after his surprise offensive. The Battle of Bastogne, which raged from 20 to 27 December 1944, is to blame for this.
The Germans did not succeed in capturing the important
road junction in the Ardennes. Desperate, Hitler went on the offensive on 16 December, against the advice of his
military staff. He wanted to breach the Allied lines, to disrupt the advance of the Americans and to be able to slip into Antwerp himself.
By capturing the port there, he could paralyze the supply of the Americans, British and Canadians. Hitler himself leads the dance in the Ardennes and on 20 December the Germans begin the encirclement of Bastogne. A large American army has gathered there, because Dwight Eisenhower also considers the
strategically located town of crucial importance.
The Allied Commander-in-Chief orders General Anthony McAuliffe of the 101st Airborne Division to defend Bastogne with all his might. And McAuliffe does so, despite the heavy pressure from the Germans, who also bombard the Americans from the air.
The battle is fierce, the casualties are numerous, but Bastogne remains in the hands of the general. When the Germans
demand in writing on 22 December that the Americans surrender, McAuliffe crumples up the letter of coercion, allegedly shouting ‘Nuts’
His officers put that on the letter that is returned
with the German delegation: ‘To the German commander: Nuts!’
Sender:
‘The American commander’. The Germans do not understand it and ask for a verbal explanation, to which the interpreter says: ‘Du kannst zum Teufel gehen.’ ('You can go to Hell')
McAuliffe holds his ground and on Boxing Day General George
Patton comes to his aid with the 3rd American Army. The German encirclement is broken, the 101st Airborne Division is relieved and in the Ardennes the Allies have struck a decisive blow. The battle in the snowy forests, on rolling terrain and in bitter cold will continue until mid-January, with all kinds of gruesome
orgies of violence, but the German offensive has been brought to a halt in Bastogne.
Nevertheless, the German officers, driven to the defensive,
refuse to surrender and Hitler's order 'kill all Americans' remains
undiminished. In the largely destroyed Bastogne, the steadfast
General McAuliffe is adored. The centrally located market square will be named after him and his bust will appear on the Place McAuliffe next to a tank monument.
Colourised Piece of Jake
Photo: Signal Corps Archive
The tide has turned in the Battle of the Bulge.
The initiative has been taken out of Adolf Hitler's hands after his surprise offensive. The Battle of Bastogne, which raged from 20 to 27 December 1944, is to blame for this.
The Germans did not succeed in capturing the important
road junction in the Ardennes. Desperate, Hitler went on the offensive on 16 December, against the advice of his
military staff. He wanted to breach the Allied lines, to disrupt the advance of the Americans and to be able to slip into Antwerp himself.
By capturing the port there, he could paralyze the supply of the Americans, British and Canadians. Hitler himself leads the dance in the Ardennes and on 20 December the Germans begin the encirclement of Bastogne. A large American army has gathered there, because Dwight Eisenhower also considers the
strategically located town of crucial importance.
The Allied Commander-in-Chief orders General Anthony McAuliffe of the 101st Airborne Division to defend Bastogne with all his might. And McAuliffe does so, despite the heavy pressure from the Germans, who also bombard the Americans from the air.
The battle is fierce, the casualties are numerous, but Bastogne remains in the hands of the general. When the Germans
demand in writing on 22 December that the Americans surrender, McAuliffe crumples up the letter of coercion, allegedly shouting ‘Nuts’
His officers put that on the letter that is returned
with the German delegation: ‘To the German commander: Nuts!’
Sender:
‘The American commander’. The Germans do not understand it and ask for a verbal explanation, to which the interpreter says: ‘Du kannst zum Teufel gehen.’ ('You can go to Hell')
McAuliffe holds his ground and on Boxing Day General George
Patton comes to his aid with the 3rd American Army. The German encirclement is broken, the 101st Airborne Division is relieved and in the Ardennes the Allies have struck a decisive blow. The battle in the snowy forests, on rolling terrain and in bitter cold will continue until mid-January, with all kinds of gruesome
orgies of violence, but the German offensive has been brought to a halt in Bastogne.
Nevertheless, the German officers, driven to the defensive,
refuse to surrender and Hitler's order 'kill all Americans' remains
undiminished. In the largely destroyed Bastogne, the steadfast
General McAuliffe is adored. The centrally located market square will be named after him and his bust will appear on the Place McAuliffe next to a tank monument.
Colourised Piece of Jake
Photo: Signal Corps Archive
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2017
- Messages
- 11,333
- Points
- 388
January 1, 1945
Force-landed 308 Squadron Spitfire Mk IX, ZF-T, MK346 flown by F/O Tadeusz Szlenkier (second left). The aircraft was slightly damaged probably by the fire of Fw. Hofmann flying a Focke-Wulf 190 A-8 of 3/JG 1, and run out of fuel, before force-landing in Sint-Denijs-Westrem, Ghent, Belgium.
Szlenkier himself shot down another FW190 belonging to 8 Staffel of that unit.
Colourised by Doug
Force-landed 308 Squadron Spitfire Mk IX, ZF-T, MK346 flown by F/O Tadeusz Szlenkier (second left). The aircraft was slightly damaged probably by the fire of Fw. Hofmann flying a Focke-Wulf 190 A-8 of 3/JG 1, and run out of fuel, before force-landing in Sint-Denijs-Westrem, Ghent, Belgium.
Szlenkier himself shot down another FW190 belonging to 8 Staffel of that unit.
Colourised by Doug
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2017
- Messages
- 11,333
- Points
- 388
4 FEBRUARY 1945 | COLMAR | FRANCE
German prisoners of war support wounded American soldiers near Colmar, where Adolf Hitler has launched his last offensive, because the surprise effect of his counterattack in the Ardennes, called Operation Herbstnebel, has worn off.
The Germans are making no further progress on Belgian territory, but Hitler tries to break out one more time. He directs the 1st and
9th German Armies to Colmar in an attempt to recapture the Alsace and Lorraine area's. There, only units of the 1st French Army had remained, the Americans mostly disappeared and had moved to the Ardennes.
Hitler sees an opportunity to advance from the Vosges to Belgium and decides to launch Operation Nordwind. On New Year's Eve 1944, he starts his attack on unsuspecting French and Americans, and Dwight Eisenhower had to give up ground for the first time since he had set foot on European soil.
The commander-in-chief ordered the army units in northeastern France to withdraw and wanted to announce the evacuation of Strasbourg. But the French army leader Charles de Gaulle put a stop to that. 'Over my dead body', he is believed to have said, after which Eisenhower was told that the French would defend Strasbourg no matter what.
Things got so heated between the generals that a split in the Allied front was not unthinkable. Winston Churchill saw the danger and intervened. In the compromise that followed, Strasbourg, the city that had great symbolic value for both the French and the Germans, was not evacuated, but defended, much to Eisenhower's irritation. There are historians who believe that the collision between the future presidents of the United States and France caused lasting damage to the relations between the two countries, up to the Vietnam War.
However, a German attack on Strasbourg does not occur. Operation Nordwind does cause great damage to the Allies (way too much, according to Eisenhower), but it does not provide Hitler with the desired breakthrough here either.
The undertaking takes too long and on 25 January 1945, the Führer issues a Haltbefehl. Withdrawl of German troops is urgently necessary because of the great advances of the Red Army on the Eastern Front.
The Americans are finally able to shift their line of attack in the direction of the Rhine, but four months of fighting in the forests between Aachen and Colmar has taken a heavy toll. More than thirty thousand dead in the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest, almost twenty thousand in the forty-day Battle of the Bulge and another fifteen thousand dead, wounded and missing in Hitler's final attack in the Vosges.
But despite the dramatic losses in the forests of the border area between Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and France, the Americans have made great progress. The striking power of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS has been minimized and the German reserves are almost exhausted. With his fierce offensives in the Ardennes and the Vosges, Hitler has dealt himself the final blow.
German prisoners of war support wounded American soldiers near Colmar, where Adolf Hitler has launched his last offensive, because the surprise effect of his counterattack in the Ardennes, called Operation Herbstnebel, has worn off.
The Germans are making no further progress on Belgian territory, but Hitler tries to break out one more time. He directs the 1st and
9th German Armies to Colmar in an attempt to recapture the Alsace and Lorraine area's. There, only units of the 1st French Army had remained, the Americans mostly disappeared and had moved to the Ardennes.
Hitler sees an opportunity to advance from the Vosges to Belgium and decides to launch Operation Nordwind. On New Year's Eve 1944, he starts his attack on unsuspecting French and Americans, and Dwight Eisenhower had to give up ground for the first time since he had set foot on European soil.
The commander-in-chief ordered the army units in northeastern France to withdraw and wanted to announce the evacuation of Strasbourg. But the French army leader Charles de Gaulle put a stop to that. 'Over my dead body', he is believed to have said, after which Eisenhower was told that the French would defend Strasbourg no matter what.
Things got so heated between the generals that a split in the Allied front was not unthinkable. Winston Churchill saw the danger and intervened. In the compromise that followed, Strasbourg, the city that had great symbolic value for both the French and the Germans, was not evacuated, but defended, much to Eisenhower's irritation. There are historians who believe that the collision between the future presidents of the United States and France caused lasting damage to the relations between the two countries, up to the Vietnam War.
However, a German attack on Strasbourg does not occur. Operation Nordwind does cause great damage to the Allies (way too much, according to Eisenhower), but it does not provide Hitler with the desired breakthrough here either.
The undertaking takes too long and on 25 January 1945, the Führer issues a Haltbefehl. Withdrawl of German troops is urgently necessary because of the great advances of the Red Army on the Eastern Front.
The Americans are finally able to shift their line of attack in the direction of the Rhine, but four months of fighting in the forests between Aachen and Colmar has taken a heavy toll. More than thirty thousand dead in the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest, almost twenty thousand in the forty-day Battle of the Bulge and another fifteen thousand dead, wounded and missing in Hitler's final attack in the Vosges.
But despite the dramatic losses in the forests of the border area between Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and France, the Americans have made great progress. The striking power of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS has been minimized and the German reserves are almost exhausted. With his fierce offensives in the Ardennes and the Vosges, Hitler has dealt himself the final blow.
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2017
- Messages
- 11,333
- Points
- 388
An unnamed British Royal Artillery soldier with his kitten, c1917.
Animals were often brought into the trenches, sometimes as a mascot for the regiment, or in this case the kitten may likely be from a local farm or destroyed village.
© Colourised by Tom Marshall (PhotograFix)
Animals were often brought into the trenches, sometimes as a mascot for the regiment, or in this case the kitten may likely be from a local farm or destroyed village.
© Colourised by Tom Marshall (PhotograFix)
Similar threads
