Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[Redav]

King Boris III of Bulgaria (left) with one of his army generals.

King Boris III of Bulgaria, who reigned from 1918 until his death in 1943, occupied a complex and often contradictory position during the Second World War. His rule was marked by a careful balancing act between the demands of Nazi Germany, the pressures of domestic politics, and his own determination to preserve Bulgarian sovereignty. By the late 1930s, Bulgaria sought to revise the territorial losses imposed after the First World War, and Boris viewed diplomatic alignment with Germany as a means of achieving these aims without plunging the country into open conflict.

In March 1941, Bulgaria formally joined the Axis, allowing German forces to pass through its territory for the invasions of Yugoslavia and Greece. In return, Bulgaria regained lands in Thrace and Macedonia, fulfilling long‑standing national aspirations. Yet Boris resisted German pressure to commit Bulgarian troops to the Eastern Front, arguing that the army was needed to administer the newly acquired territories. This refusal became one of the defining features of his wartime policy, reflecting both political caution and a desire to avoid entanglement in a catastrophic conflict with the Soviet Union.

Boris also resisted German demands to deport Bulgaria’s Jewish population. While Jews in the occupied territories were handed over to the Germans, the king—supported by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, politicians, and public opinion—refused to allow the deportation of Bulgarian citizens of Jewish origin. As a result, nearly 50,000 Bulgarian Jews survived the war, a rare outcome among Axis‑aligned states.

The king’s sudden death on 28 August 1943, shortly after a tense meeting with Hitler, has long been the subject of speculation. Officially attributed to heart failure, it removed the central figure holding together Bulgaria’s precarious wartime position. His passing left the country increasingly vulnerable to German pressure and, ultimately, to Soviet occupation in 1944. King Boris III remains a controversial yet pivotal figure in Bulgaria’s wartime history.

 

[Conhoon]

Winter early 1917
British troops coming out of a communication trench in the snow. Near Arras, Northern France.

(Photo source - IWM Q 4695)
Brooke, John Warwick (Lieutenant) (Photographer)
Colour added by Doug

 

[Redav]

German Soldiers admire their newly awarded Iron Crosses after the Fall of France, 1940.

 

[Conhoon]

January, 1918
An officer of the York and Lancaster Regiment, probably 2/4th Battalion part of 187th Brigade, feeds a puppy outside a reinforced dugout in a trench near Roclincourt, on the 62nd Division front between Oppy and Gavrelle.

(Photo source - © IWM Q 8439)
McLellan, David (Second Lieutenant) (Photographer)
Colourised by Doug

 

[Conhoon]

January, 1945. Photo of three 30th Infantry Division soldiers keeping warm around a small fire in Gérimont, Belgium.

Pictured from left to right: Sgt Albert L. Soli of Westwood, California, Pvt Jimmy Ferguson of Granby, Missouri, and T/Sgt Robert Kircher of Maplewood, New Jersey. All three survived the war.
Official caption: "ETO HQ 45 Master Caption.
Pictures 9308 thru 9311 show the usage of a new winter item...the 'booty.' Created by Col. Banner P. Purdue, Commanding Officer the 120th Infantry Regiment, 30th Division.
They have proven quite popular among the men of his unit. 'Booties' are made from salvaged captured blankets by the 216th and 540th Quartermaster Battalion, and between them have turned out all troops of the unit, and are issued to replacements as soon as they report in for duty. (F).
ETO HQ 45 9310 20 January. Credit: US Army Signal Corps Photog...Pfc. Murray Shub-165. Taking the well known 'ten mnute break' are, L-R: Sgt. Albert L. Soli, Westwood, Calif., Pvt. Jimmy Ferguson, Granby, MO., and T/Sgt. Robert Kircher Maplewood, N.J. Pvt. Ferguson is displaying his 'booties' which are used to replace shoes and socks when they get wet. These 'booties' or shoe-pacs as they are sometimes called, are a new winter innovation, and when not worn, are carried by the men inside their shirts for warmth.
ROCOlor

 

[Redav]

AH and Goering after the armistice in France
1940

 

[Conhoon]

9 January 1918
A Royal Artillery signal rocket rack in a trench in the Arleux sector, near Roclincourt, held by the 12th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment, 92nd Brigade, 31st Division

(Photo source - © IWM Q 10616)
Aitken, Thomas Keith (Second Lieutenant) (Photographer)
Colourised by Royston Leonard

 

[Redav]

Wolfram von Richthofen, younger cousin to The Red Baron, was Commander of the 4th Air Fleet tasked with the destruction of Stalingrad. He personally sent 70,000 sorties to turn Stalingrad into rubble.

 

[Redav]

The Spanish heavy cruiser Canarias participated in the Battle of Cape Spartel (September 27, 1936) during the Spanish Civil War, a key naval engagement where Nationalist forces, including the Canarias, broke the Republican blockade of the Strait of Gibraltar, allowing the Army of Africa to cross from Morocco, securing a crucial supply route and significantly impacting the war's early stages. The Canarias and its sister ship Baleares were instrumental in this victory, sinking the Republican destroyer Almirante Ferrándiz and damaging the cruiser Gravina, effectively turning the tide of naval control in the strait.

 

[Redav]

A curiosity

 

[Redav]

Major General Erwin Rommel wearing a steel helmet and the Pour le Mérite medal at a victory parade following the Western Campaign of 1940.

 

[SirHiggins]

View attachment 550378
Major General Erwin Rommel wearing a steel helmet and the Pour le Mérite medal at a victory parade following the Western Campaign of 1940.

Colour red was banned?

 

[Redav]

Colour red was banned?

It was as i found

 

[Conhoon]

Winter 1944, Italy. New Zealand soldiers taking a break near rear of armored personnel carrier as transport trucks and ambulances push on towards the front lines through deep snows somewhere in the Ortona sector during the Allied push to oust German troops from Italy.

Photo George Rodger, Life.
The logistical and operational challenges faced by Allied forces fighting along the Gustav Line and the Adriatic Front in extreme winter conditions were particularly severe. Deep snow often required manual intervention by soldiers to clear roads and allow the movement of troops and supplies.

 

[BravoZulu]

Heinz Schweizer was born July 18th, 1908 in Berlin. He joined the Reichswehr and was trained as a a Feuerwerker (demolitions expert). In 1940 he became an officer and led a bomb clearing unit near Düsseldorf.
He developed disarming techniques for Allied bombs which are still used today and received the Kinight's cross with Oak Leaves for disarming hundreds of bombs. About 50 political prisoners and concentration camp inmates were assigned to his unit.
They were treated humanely (they could, for example, receive packages, have visitors had not to wear prisoners clothes all the time and on one occasion they were allowed to keep the beer they received from a grateful factory owner for helping to destroy a bomb in his production hall).
In April 1945 the prisoners had to be turned over for execution.
Heinz Schweizer did not only keep the prisoners by saying they were still needed, he demanded also another 50 prisoners whom he received. He then surrendered with his unit and the prisoners to the Americans.
After being early released from POW captivity, he returned to his hometown Biesenthal. There he was shot by Red Army soldiers on June 5th, 1946.

 

[BravoZulu]

Troops of a Light Infantry Pioneer Battalion during a halt for dinner. Maurepas, on the Somme front. December 1916.

 

[Redav]

The photograph showing Inge Ley, wife of Dr. Robert Ley, alongside Adolf Hitler aboard the KdF cruise ship Robert Ley during its maiden voyage captures a moment within the carefully staged public world of the Nazi leadership. The ship, operated by the organisation Kraft durch Freude (Strength Through Joy), served as a showcase for the regime’s claims of social progress and national unity. As the wife of the head of the German Labour Front, Inge Ley was expected to participate in such ceremonial events, representing the idealised image of the National Socialist woman.

Rumours circulated within party circles and later among post‑war commentators that Hitler showed a personal interest in Inge Ley and that her husband’s continued prominence owed something to this perceived favour. Such claims, while persistent, remain speculative and are not supported by firm documentary evidence. They reflect the broader atmosphere of gossip, rivalry, and personal intrigue that characterised the upper tiers of the Nazi hierarchy, where proximity to Hitler often generated myth as much as fact.

Inge Ley’s life ended tragically in 1942, when she died by suicide. Her death was one of several involving women connected to the Nazi elite, a pattern that has sometimes been interpreted as indicative of the psychological pressures and contradictions inherent in the regime’s expectations of female loyalty, domesticity, and public representation. Assertions that Inge acted as a moderating influence on Hitler, or that his subsequent decisions became more erratic after her death, belong to the realm of retrospective interpretation rather than demonstrable causation.

Contemporary accounts describe Inge Ley as poised, confident, and physically striking—qualities that made her a visible figure within the regime’s public ceremonies. The surviving photograph from the Robert Ley does not fully convey her presence, but it remains a valuable document of the social and political theatre surrounding the Nazi leadership during the early war years.

 

[Redav]

Auxiliary territorial service plotters at work at coastal artillery headquarters in Dover, December 1942.

 

[Conhoon]

An informal photo of a muddy German squad, possibly fresh out of the trenches. Date and location unknown.
Given the stahlhelme, an acceptable time frame would be 1916-18, probably closer to 1916 given that all the soldiers are still wearing the early -war M1907/1910 tunic.

Under close inspection, this photo provides some interesting details:
The man in the middle carries a large leather pouch hanging from his belt, possibly a map case. His shoulder boards seem to be too reflective and light-colored to be feldgrau cloth. They might be an officer’s shoulder boards made of aluminum thread braid which is quite reflective. If so, he was probably a Leutnant (plain braid, no pips). He seems to have made everything possible to blend in with the soldiers.
An interesting detail of the German gas mask containers is the keyhole-shaped object attached to two of the cans (3rd and 5th man from the left). Quoting Flickr member Thomas Wictor: “These are clips that allowed the container to be worn on the belt during trench raids. Often the metal containers were left behind because they were so noisy, but then the mask could easily be torn on barbed wire. The cloth containers were quiet, but they didn't protect the mask as well as the metal. The clip allowed the soldier to put the can on his belt in the small of his back, for example, out of the way and quiet.”
Also of interest are the two soldiers with rifle covers and the two men on the left with their shoulder boards' cipher/numeral covered with a piece of cloth.
Original property of Wooway1 Collection.
Color by: In Colore Veritas

 

[NebrHogger]

Soviet BA-10 1941