Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

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The Saga of Black 'N'. B-24L, 44-49710.

Taken by group photographer and radio operator of the adjacent plane 'White Q (Queen)', 1st Lt. Leland Conrad would take one of most powerful and iconic images from the air war!

Flying with 461st BG, the 464th BG had literally just unloaded their bombs onto their target at Lugo, Italy. No sooner had bomb-bay doors started to close then the formation encountered extremely accurate flak! Initially three bursts went off within feet of the nose of the aircraft immediately behind and to the right 'Black N'.....'White A' (Able), and Black N's tail. The fourth hit home perfectly between the port engines of Black N, causing a fuel tank ignition, and the wing to immediately fold and sever in two.... the resultant lift from intact starboard wing to turning it onto it's back with a fireball.......sending it spiralling 15,000 ft endlessly downward into the ground.

 

[Fluff]

The Saga of Black 'N'. B-24L, 44-49710.

Taken by group photographer and radio operator of the adjacent plane 'White Q (Queen)', 1st Lt. Leland Conrad would take one of most powerful and iconic images from the air war!

Flying with 461st BG, the 464th BG had literally just unloaded their bombs onto their target at Lugo, Italy. No sooner had bomb-bay doors started to close then the formation encountered extremely accurate flak! Initially three bursts went off within feet of the nose of the aircraft immediately behind and to the right 'Black N'.....'White A' (Able), and Black N's tail. The fourth hit home perfectly between the port engines of Black N, causing a fuel tank ignition, and the wing to immediately fold and sever in two.... the resultant lift from intact starboard wing to turning it onto it's back with a fireball.......sending it spiralling 15,000 ft endlessly downward into the ground.

One member of the crew got out, and survived.

 

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Giulio Aristide Sartorio (1860 - 1932) was an Italian painter, sculptor, writer and film director. Voluntary in war in 1915, in 1917 he made twenty-seven illustrations of highly realistic war episodes on the front.

 

[BravoZulu]

Panzerkampfwagen IV (L/43) Ausf.G (Sd.Kfz.161/1) turret number 812 from Panzer-Regiment 25/7.Panzer-Division/1.Armee/Heeresgruppe D entering the French harbour of Toulon during Operation Lila.
The battleship in the background is "Strasbourg" (the second and last battleship of the Dunkerque-class battleship built for the French Navy before World War II), while the PzKfw.IV in the foreground have jerry cans in the turret roof.
On November 27, the Germans commenced "Unternehmen Lila" with the goal of occupying Toulon and seizing the fleet. Comprised of elements from the 7. Panzer-Division and SS-Panzergrenadier-Division "Das Reich", four combat teams entered the city around 4:00 AM

 

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The famous picture of General Dwight D. Eisenhower meeting with men from Co. E, 2nd Battalion, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment (Strike) 101st Airborne Division, just before they load up for the drop on Normandy, June 5, 1944. The majority of the men in this photo were killed or wounded in battle a few hours later.

They were designated in drop zone 'A' scheduled for jumping off at 00.48 hours 6/6/44. Although the 2nd Battalion 502nd PIR was dropped as a compact unit, it jumped on the wrong drop zone, while its commander, Lt Col. Steve A. Chappuis, came down virtually alone on the correct drop zone. Chappuis and this stick captured the coastal battery soon after assembling, and found that it had already been dismantled after an air raid.

The 502nd jumped into Normandy with 792 men. After six days of desperate fighting, only 129 were still standing and able to make the road march back to St. Come-du-Mount.
1st Lt. Wallace C. Strobel, centre, seen here talking to Eisenhower, wears a placard around his neck indicating he is the jumpmaster for chalk 23 of the 438 TCG (troop carrier group).
"The picture was taken at Greenham Common Airfield in England about 8:30 p.m. on June 5th 1944, my 22nd birthday. It was shortly before we were to leave the tented assembly area to which, for security reasons, we had been confined for about 5 days. We had darkened our faces and hands with burned cork, cocoa and cooking oil to be able to blend into the darkness and prevent reflection from the moon. We were all very well prepared emotionally for the operation ..........
...... within minutes of his visit we gathered our equipment and walked to our planes. I especially remember that as our plane took off at dusk and as I stood in the open doorway of the plane I could see a group of men watching and waving at the planes and I understood later that it was General Eisenhower and his staff. (Wallace C. Strobe 1922-1999).

 

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Troops from the 101st Airborne with full packs and a bazooka, in a C-47 just before take-off from RAF Upottery Airfield to Normandy, France for "Operation Chicago. 5th June 1944.

Additional ID: (F-Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne Division underway to Normandy aboard their C-47 #12. At 01.20 hours they jumped over DZ "C" (Hiesville). L to R: William G. Olanie, Frank D. Griffin, Robert J. "Bob" Noody, Lester T. Hegland. This photo took on a life of its own after publishment. In the picture Bob remembers he must have weighed at least 250 lbs, encumbered with his M-1 rifle, a bazooka, three rockets, land mines, and other assorted "necessities".)

The division, as part of the VII Corps assault, jumped in the dark morning before H-Hour to seize positions west of Utah Beach. As the assault force approached the French coast, it encountered fog and antiaircraft fire, which forced some of the planes to break formation. Paratroopers from both the 82d and 101st Airborne Divisions missed their landing zones and were scattered over wide areas.
From 00.15 in the darkness of June 6, 1944, when Capt. Frank L. Lillyman, Skaneateles, N.Y., leader of the Pathfinder group, became the first American soldier to touch French soil, and for 33 successive days the 101st Airborne carried the attack to the enemy.

 

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23.30hrs 5th June 1944
The Final Embarkation: Four 'stick' commanders of 22nd Independent Parachute Company, British 6th Airborne Division, synchronising their watches in front of an Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle of 295 Squadron, No 38 Group, Royal Air Force, at about 23.30 on the 5th of June, just prior to take off from RAF Harwell, Oxfordshire.

This pathfinder unit parachuted into Normandy in advance of the rest of the division in order to mark out the landing zones, and these officers, (left to right, - Lieutenants, Bobby de Lautour, Don Wells, John Vischer and Bob Midwood), were among the first Allied troops to land in France.

The stick parachuted onto the DZ shortly after midnight, and came under heavy fire almost immediately on landing.
They were tasked with 'marking' the drop zone for the 1st Canadian and 9th Parachute Battalions at DZ "V", but all the radar and visual beacons were either lost or damaged. Nevertheless, they were successfully able to join up with Lieutenant-Colonel Terence Otway’s 9th Battalion, prior to the assault on the Merville Battery.

Bob Midwood sustained injuries while jumping onto the DZ but continued to take part in operations including commanding a patrol to protect a REME recovery section working on an LZ and marking drop zones for supply drops.
He was evacuated to 86 General Hospital on 19 June to have his injuries treated.

Bob Midwood returned to active service and was wounded for a second time, in January 1945, during the Ardennes campaign.
Acting Captain de Lautour died on 20 June 1944 aged 27 years old, from wounds sustained earlier in the Normandy conflict. He was awarded a posthumous Mention in Despatches on 22 March 1945, for actions in Normandy. He is now buried at Ranville War Cemetery, Normandy.

 

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June 5 1944
American troops of the 1st Infantry Division leaving the port of Weymouth, Dorset in Southern England en route to Omaha Beach in Normandy.

Photo by Robert Capa

 

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US soldiers and their LSTs (Landing Ship Tanks) #284, 380, 382 & 499 at Brixham harbour in Devon UK, loading men, vehicles and supplies for the upcoming Normandy invasion, 1 June 1944.

 

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Sgt. Joseph F. Gorenc from Sheboygen, Wisconsin, the assistant S3 of HQ/3, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne Division climbing aboard the lead transport aircraft C-47 Dakota 8Y-S "Stoy Hora" of the 440th Troop Carrier Squadron at Upottery Airfield, Exeter, UK on the night of 5/6th June 1944.

Sgt. Gorenc was taken prisoner on June 8th at St. Côme-du-Mont and reported as MIA. He apparently later escaped from a Prison train and he was in action again at 'Operation Market Garden'.

He returned home after the war, married and had two daughters and at the age of 34 was an officer in a new startup manufacturing firm. While he, the owner and another man were working late in the shop one night, an oil tank exploded. The young man; Joe and the owner were all injured but Joe's injuries were life threatening and he died two weeks later. (Taken from an account given by his sister Pat)

Joseph F. Gorenc, born April 24 1923 - died October 30 1957

 

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June 5, 1940. Having just crossed the river Somme near Condé-Folie, under fire from French artillery, the panzers of the 7. Panzer Division were crossing a small bridge over a road that ran alongside the train line connecting Paris to Calais when, at 7:30 a.m., PzKpfw IV ‘321’ shed its right track, blocking the entire passage.

The Division’s Commander, Major General Erwin Rommel, watched the incident from the top of the hill we see in the background, and after snapping a few shots, came down the embankment and took charge of 321’s removal. After a few failed attempts to tow it, the tank was finally pulled down the small bank to the lower road where this candid photo of Rommel was shot.

Rommel was himself an avid photographer and used to carry with him a Leica III camera (gifted to him, I believe, by Goebbels). His personal collection of photos from the French campaign is impressive, to say the least.

 

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Soldiers of the US 359th Infantry Regiment, 90th Infantry "T+O" (Texas and Oklahoma) Division gather for a picture below deck in LCI(L) 326 (Landing Craft Infantry) the night before the big invasion. Soon they would be storming Utah beach.

On the 5th of June, 76 years ago, this particular group of US soldiers embarked on a sea crossing to Normandy; that could have been their last ..... their identities are unknown.

On the evening of June 5th, 1944, just hours prior to the D-day landings in Normandy, copies of the letter seen below - Eisenhower's Order of the Day - were distributed to members of the allied forces. The meticulously crafted, highly encouraging call-to-arms was drafted by Eisenhower himself over a period of four months, and remains one of the most important documents in military history.

Transcript follows.

SUPREME HEADQUARTERS
ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE

"Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!

I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!

Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking."

(Signed, 'Dwight D. Eisenhower')

 

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Ground Crew applying "Invasion Stripes" to a Martin Marauder B-26 of 553rd Bomb. Squadron, 386 Bomb. Group at Great Dunmow air base in Essex, England sometime between the 3rd and the 5th of June 1944.
In the background is the Marauder 131577 AN-Y "Elmer" (which crash landed in France 31st July 1944).

(Source: 'Life Magazine')

The stripes were added for the purpose of increased recognition by friendly forces during and after the Normandy Landings.

Orders were given to apply the "invasion stripes" as of the evening of June 3rd 1944. The invasion was originally scheduled for the 5th.

The specification for the stripes was laid down by SHAEF in 'Operational Memorandum 23' as early as April 18th 1944.

"Upper and lower wing surfaces of the aircraft will be painted from the engine nacelles outward with five white and black stripes, each twenty-four inches wide, arranged in order from centre outward: white, black, white, black, white.
Fuselages will be painted with five parallel white and black stripes, each twenty-four inches wide, completely around the fuselage, with the outside edge of the rearmost band eighteen inches from the leading edge of the tailplane."

There is plenty of evidence of the somewhat haphazard application of the stripes on aircraft in the field.

 

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Filthy Thirteen member Pvt. Clarence C. Ware, 438 W. 15th St., San Pedro, Calif., gives a last second touch to Pvt. Charles R. Plaudo, 210 N. James, Minneapolis, Minn., make-up patterned after the American Indians. Somewhere in England, June 5th 1944.

The Filthy Thirteen was the name given to the 1st Demolition Section of the Regimental Headquarters Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, of the United States Army, which fought in the European campaign in World War II.

The Demolition Section was assigned and trained to demolish enemy targets behind the lines. They were ordered to secure or destroy the bridges over the Douve River during the Normandy Invasion of Europe in June 1944. Half were either killed, wounded or captured, but they accomplished their mission. They also participated in the capture of Carentan. The group was airdropped for the mission by aircraft of the 440th Troop Carrier Group of the United States Army Air Forces. This unit was best known for the famous photo which appeared in Stars and Stripes, showing two members wearing Indian-style "mohawks" and applying war paint to one another. The inspiration for this came from unit sergeant Jake McNiece, who was part Choctaw.

During Operation Market Garden, the Demolition Platoon was assigned to defend the three bridges over the Dommel River in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. German bombing of the city killed or wounded half the demolitions men in the platoon, and McNiece was promoted to platoon sergeant. Jack Womer took his place as section sergeant. For the rest of the campaign, the demolitions men secured the regimental command post or protected wire-laying details. On one occasion, the survivors of the Demolitions Platoon were assigned as a rifle squad to an understrength company. After coming back from AWOL to Paris after the Netherlands, McNiece joined the Pathfinders. These were paratroopers sent in ahead of the main force to guide them in or guide in resupply drops. Half the surviving members of the original Filthy Thirteen followed him into the Pathfinders thinking they would sit out the rest of the war training in England. Expecting casualties as high as 80–90%, the pathfinders were dropped into the encircled town of Bastogne at the height of the Battle of the Bulge, losing only one man. Their CRN-4 beacon enabled them to guide in subsequent airdrops of supplies crucial to the continued resistance of the trapped 101st Airborne Division.

McNiece considered that any activities not directly concerned with his mission were irrelevant, an attitude that got him in constant trouble with the military authorities. Nevertheless, McNiece finished the war as the acting first sergeant and with four combat jumps, a very rare feat for an American paratrooper. His jumps were made in Normandy, the Netherlands as part of Operation Market Garden, the pathfinder jump in to Bastogne, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge, then his last jump as an observer with the 17th Airborne Division during Operation Varsity.

Of the activities of the Filthy Thirteen, Jack Agnew once said, "We weren’t murderers or anything, we just didn’t do everything we were supposed to do in some ways and did a whole lot more than they wanted us to do in other ways. We were always in trouble."

The name "Filthy 13" referred to the fact that, while training in England, they washed and shaved once a week and never cleaned their uniforms because they used their water ration to cook illegally poached deer, rabbits and fish. The number 13 referred to the 13 enlisted men of a demolitions section, two six-man squads and the section sergeant.

 

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Not forgetting the US Airborne Troops that left the UK on the night of the 5th/6th June 1944.

'Mission Albany'
Taking off just after midnight 6th June 1944 over 2000 airborne troops would spearhead the D-Day landings by dropping behind enemy lines 5hrs before the first troops got their boots wet on the Normandy beaches. (read more below).

As the sun sets over Upottery Airfield, Exeter on the 5th June, Lt-Col Robert L. Wolverton, CO 3rd Battalion/506th PIR, 101st Airborne Division "Screaming Eagles" and the headquarters staff are checking their gear before boarding transport aircraft C-47 'Dakota' 8Y-S "Stora Hora" of the 440th Troop Carrier Squadron.

The 'stick' of the CO 3 / 506 Lt Col Robert Wolverton which can be seen at the centre of the image. L to R: Dr. Morgan Stanley, 1st Lt. Alex Bobuck (Battalion Adjutant), Pvt Jesse Cross, T / 5 Bill Atlee, Pfc Harry Howard, Sgt Tom Newell and T/4 Joseph F. Gorenc.

Most of these men will be KIA or POW a few hours later. Wolverton was killed in his harness in a tree on the northern edge of St Côme du Mont.

Here's what happened to the other men of this stick who boarded the plane # 292717, the "Stoy Hora":

Sgt. John A. Taormina (POW until April 1945)

T/5 William H. Atlee (KIA D-Day)

Cpt. Stanley E. Morgan (3rd BN Surgeon; POW until June 8, 1944)

1Lt. Alex Bobuck (POW until June 8, 1944)
Ltc. Robert Lee Wolverton (3rd BN CO; KIA D-Day)

Pfc. Donald C. Ross (POW April 1945)
T/4 Joseph F. Gorenc (POW D -Day, escapes from a train of prisoners- he appears on the Market-Garden roster for 3/506 in September, 1944.)

Charles D. Harry H. Riley
Howard (POW until June 8, 1944)
Ssg. William Pauli (Communications; POW 8 June 1944)

Wincenciak PVT Anthony M., Jr. (KIA Normandy)

Sgt. Thomas E. Newell (Medic; POW 8 June 1944)

SGT Alexander Nagy

Pvt. Jesse R. Cross

Cpl. Ray Calandrella (POW, escaped in August 44)
Pvt. John A. Rinehart (KIA D-Day)

T/5 Jack W. Harrison (Communications, KIA D-Day)

 

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"Kiss of joy in Rome"
US Fifth Army Private Elmer Sittion, gets a kiss from an Italian lady on his arrival in the eternal city. 4th/5th June 1944.

Allied soldiers said that seeing the joy on people's faces made them feel proud.

"As the Germans defences south of Rome crumbled and rapidly retreated Rome was declared and open city.
Joyous celebrations commenced when it became clear that the Germans were gone. Despite the fact that Fascist Italy had been one of the key Axis powers, the Allies, especially the Americans, were treated as liberators when they entered Rome. This was in part because of the German occupation. It was also because of the notable affection of the Italian people toward the Americans. Many Italians had either lived in America or had American relatives. The American combat units paused only briefly before continuing north to resume the campaign against the Germans."

 

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German and Swiss soldiers in conversation at the border in Pontarlier, France, June/July 1940.

At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Switzerland immediately began to mobilize for a possible invasion. The transition into wartime was smooth and caused less controversy than in 1914; the country was fully mobilized in only three days. Parliament quickly selected the 61-year-old career soldier Henri Guisan to be General and by 3 September 430,000 combat troops and 210,000 in support services had been mobilized, though most of these were sent home during the “Phoney War”. At its highest point, 850,000 soldiers were mobilized

 

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Glider pilots of 6th Airborne Division and RAF crews are briefed at RAF Harwell in Berkshire, UK for the D Day invasion, 5 June 1944.

"....the Airborne troops made their final preparations, and for the first time their RAF crews were briefed."

D-Day was scheduled to take place at dawn on the 5th June, with the paratroopers taking to the air on the previous evening, however bad weather resulted in the invasion being postponed for twenty-four hours. The weather had been perfect in May, but now that the Allies were at last ready, the worst storm for years broke out over the English Channel. Good weather was essential for a successful attack, not just for the troops at sea, but also for those in the air. High winds would account for many casualties amongst the paratroopers before a shot was fired, whilst the gliders would be at a greater risk of their tow ropes breaking before they reached the landing zone.

The invasion had to take place some time between the 5th and 7th June, because it was a period that favoured the airborne troops with a late-rising full Moon and also gave the correct tide conditions for a sea-borne assault. The tide at the time was high enough for the troops to be landed as close to the German defences as possible, but also low enough to reveal many of the underwater mines and obstructions that had been laid. The next period when this same tide would be available was the 19th June, but to attack then would mean the paratroopers jumping in total darkness. To further complicate matters, the invasion fleet was already at sea and it did not have enough fuel to wait until the 7th June. If the attack was not launched on the 6th June, it would mean the postponement of Operation Overlord until July. General Eisenhower, out of regard for the morale of the men under his command and also keeping the invasion of Normandy a secret, regarded such a delay as "too bitter to contemplate."

In the closing hours for the 4th June, however, Eisenhower was informed by his meteorological staff that there would be a gradual improvement of conditions during the day which would continue through the morning of the 6th June, after which the weather would again deteriorate. The Allies had only previously launched an invasion in ideal weather, but the conditions available for Normandy were far below what was the accepted minimum requirement. Eisenhower, after consultation with his Generals, thought silently for several minutes before declaring, "I am quite positive we must give the order. I don't like it, but there it is. I don't see how we can do anything else." Operation Overlord was on.

The order to proceed was circulated. To many of the soldiers waiting with the invasion fleet in the English Channel, having struggled with terrible sea sickness for three days, the order, to go anywhere but stay on a boat for another moment, came as something of a relief. Back in England, the Airborne troops made their final preparations, and for the first time their RAF crews were briefed.

 

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RNZAF Ground crew refuel No. 31 Servicing Unit Corsairs, Espiritu Santo.

 

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Col. Robert "Bull" Wolverton, commander of the 3rd Bn., 506th PIR, 101st Airborne Division is preparing to jump on Saint-Come-du-Mont, Normandy.

Part of the same regiment to which belonged the legendary "Band of Brothers," Wolverton's men fought in the epic Operation Overlord, Operation Market Garden and Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne.

Despite being killed before landing on French soil (Order of battle for the American airborne landings in Normandy), Wolverton's legacy endured, particularly on the strength of a prayer spoken to the 750 men in his battalion hours before the D-Day parachute drop behind enemy lines.

Wolverton's words were cited by President Ronald Reagan in a 1984 speech from Normandy on the 40th anniversary of the invasion and recounted in numerous books and in Newsweek and Associated Press stories on a battalion reunion held in Kansas City on the first D-Day anniversary after the war