Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[uktabber]

Good god that's a behemoth!!

 

[Fluff]

Adolf Hitler (second from right) and Albert Speer (right) in front of the 800mm Gustav railway gun in the year 1943

In his last breath, he must have still wondered how he lost.

I mean, look at that thing, no-one else had one.

 

[Connaught Ranger]

In his last breath, he must have still wondered how he lost.

I mean, look at that thing, no-one else had one.

Total waste of resources, too big, too heavy, short barrel life, had to be transported in sections, a bomb magnet.

 

[Fluff]

Total waste of resources, too big, too heavy, short barrel life, had to be transported in sections, a bomb magnet.

I know, but in some minds, size is everything....

 

[Conhoon]

Women Airforce Service Pilots 'WASP' (from left) Frances Green, Margaret Kirchner, Ann Waldner and Blanche Osborn leave their B-17 bomber, called "Pistol Packin' Mama", during ferry training at Lockbourne Army Air Force base in Ohio. They're carrying their parachutes.

One thousand-one hundred U.S. women served as ferry pilots for the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II.
By 1942, the demand for male combat pilots and warplanes left the Air Transport Command (ATC) with a shortage of experienced pilots to ferry planes from factories to points of embarkation.
The WASP flew every type of plane in the Army’s arsenal and served as flight instructors, tow-target pilots for gunnery training, engineering flight test pilots, and flew radio-controlled planes.

WASP Facts and Stats;
WASP served as part of the Army Air Forces from September 1942 to December 1944
30 women invited to join the WAFS
28 WAFS assigned to operational duties
25,000 women applied for WFTD/WASP training
1,830 were accepted
1,074 graduated from the program and were assigned to operational duties
900 WASP and 16 WAFS remained in service at the time of deactivation, December 20, 1944
38 died while in the WASP program
60,000,000 miles were flown
WASP earned $150 per month while in training, and $250 per month after graduation
They paid for their own uniforms, lodging, and personal travel to and from home.
In 2010, the WASP were finally awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by the United States Congress. Over 250 surviving WASP were on hand in the US nation’s Capital to receive the honor.
(Colorized by Patty Allison from the USA)

 

[Conhoon]

Kharkov 1943

Colour by Olga Shirnina

 

[Conhoon]

Stalingrad front, 1942

Photo by S. Fridlyand
Colour by Olga Shirnina

 

[BravoZulu]

USS Enterprise and USS Washington pass through the Panama Canal en route to New York in October 1945.

 

[BravoZulu]

Eight U.S. Navy Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless dive bombers and six Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat fighters on the flight deck of the escort carrier USS Santee (ACV-29) during Operation Torch, the November 1942 invasion of North Africa. Note the yellow Operation Torch markings visible around the fuselage stars of some of these airplanes. Also note the distance and target information temporarily marked on the carrier's flight deck.

 

[BravoZulu]

Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless of VB-8 on the deck of the USS Hornet (CV-8) during the Battle of Midway

 

[Conhoon]

Grom at full speed, May 1937.

Destroyer served in the Polish Navy from 1937 to 1940, when was bombed during her operations in the Norwegian Campaign and sunk in the Rombaken fjord near Narvik.
It has happend on 4th of May 1940 - she was attacked by a German bomber Heinkel He 111. The ship sunk almost immediately with a loss of life of 59 sailors.

 

[Conhoon]

March 24, 1945, US Captain Willard V. Horne, Communications Officer hands the BC-603 receiver of the SCR-528 mobile radio to Lt. Stanley James.
They are an M4A3 Sherman B-17 from 'B' Company, 25th Tank Battalion, 14th Armored Division in the Alsace town of Ohlungen.

(Note the M-1 Carbine leaning against the Sherman turret)

(Willard V. Horne died in January 2015 aged 93)
(Photo source - US Army Signals Corps)
(Colourised by Royston Leonard from the UK)

 

[Conhoon]

Russian Marines Scouts under the command of junior lieutenant A. Petrov waiting for the enemy in ambush. Northern Fleet, 1942.

Photo: E. Khaldey, Colourised by Olga Shirnina

 

[Conhoon]

Troops and Panzerkampfwagen IVs in winter camouflage on the Eastern Front in 1943

The Panzer IVs (Ausf late G or H) are wearing Schürzen - spaced armour skirting protecting the hull and turret.

(Photo source - Bundesarchiv 101I-700-0272-13)
Taken by Wolfang Vennemann

 

[BravoZulu]

Argentina:
ARA Pueyrredón at anchor, before 1922. She'd be scrapped in 1957.

 

[BravoZulu]

USS Mississippi (BB-41) on 22 October 1940 in Dry Dock No. 4, Puget Sound Navy Yard. The Mississippi is the first ship to be docked in the newly completed facility.

 

[BravoZulu]

A Luftwaffe Messerschmitt BF 109 painted with desert camouflage flying over the Libyan desert

 

[BravoZulu]

Polish 1st Cavalry Regiment, 1936

 

[BravoZulu]

Boeing B-29-45-MO Superfortress called "Necessary Evil" and adorned with pin-up showing girl in swimsuit standing over destroyed Japanese city. "Necessary Evil" was to carry out a 3rd atomic bomb attack on Japan if needed.
Colonel Paul Tibbets(the guy who dropped the first bomb) had chosen Necessary Evil, commanded by Captain George Marquardt, to lead a third atomic bomb drop against Japan.Secretary of War Stimson stated following the bombing of Nagasaki, "These two heavy blows have fallen in quick succession upon the Japanese and there will be quite a little space before we intend to drop another". The primary target was the city of Koromo

 

[BravoZulu]

US paratroopers of 'Easy Company' 2nd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division together with soldiers (back row) from the Army’s 4th Infantry Division that came from Utah Beach, France, Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, 7 June 1944.