Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[Chazman]

Santana, great pics! Most I've never seen before.

 

[santana]

Santana, great pics! Most I've never seen before.

thank you very much, also I never saw many of them from D-Day

 

[santana]

Photo taken on June 6 (or 7), 1944, at Baudienville, a small hamlet 2.5 km NE from Sainte-Mère-Église, showing a smiling Monsieur Jacques Philippe standing at the door of his establishment with his little daughter and the customers he was waiting for for the last 4 years.

It is said that the soldiers were from the 4th US Infantry Division which had disembarked at Utah Beach early that morning, but author Winston G. Ramsey, having studied the negatives with the shoulder patches blacked out, states in his work “D-Day Then and Now Vol.2” that one of the shoulder patches is still partially visible and that these men were actually from the 90th US Infantry Division, possibly elements of the 359th IR that were kept in reserve near the village on D+1.

As for the ‘official’ caption, it was even further from the truth, stating that the photo was taken in Sainte-Mère-Eglise.

Original: US Army

 

[santana]

Members of the US 4th Infantry Division and some of the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne, crowd aboard an LCT on the way to Tare Green Sector, Utah Beach, Normandy.
D-Day +1 - June 7th, 1944.

In this photo can be seen a 101st shoulder sleeve badge of the 'Screaming Eagles' top left and to the lower right is a 4th Division badge of the 'Ivy Leaf' that the censor has tried to disguise.

In June 1944, the decision to drop both the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions simultaneously into Normandy reduced the number of available aircraft to tow the gliders for a glider assault. The 327th Glider Infantry Regiment was ordered to land across Utah Beach with the 4th Infantry Division on D-Day. Its mission was to move to Carentan to cut off the fleeing Germans. Although causalities were high, the mission was accomplished and the Regiment moved back to England to prepare for its next mission.

 

[santana]

A British Cromwell Mk.V Tank fitted with deep wading trunks heads an armoured column of the 4th County of London Yeomanry, 22nd Armoured Brigade, 7th Armoured Division inland from Gold Beach, June 7th 1944.

(Photo source - Sergeant Christie, No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit - B 5251 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums)

 

[santana]

7th of June 1944.
Near Saint-Gabriel-Brécy, Calvados, Lower Normandy, France.

Two young German POWs are searched after being captured by British troops during the Battle of Normandy. Both young soldiers wear the 'Schwedter Adler' badges on the front of their caps.

"These are members of Reiter-Regiment 6, whose staff, 2nd and 4th squadrons, and 3rd motorcycle battalion wore the badge. All members of the 3rd Cavalry Division were also entitled to wear it."

 

[santana]

Two Germans, a Stabsarzt or Sanitatsofficer (Medical Doctor/Officer- Battalion MO) and another medic assisting American Medical staff at an Hospice/Aid Station in Sainte-Mère-Église, Lower Normandy. 8 June 1944.
American and German medical personnel cared for casualties of both nations in the Hospice (505th Regimental Aid Station #2) situated in the center of Ste-Mère-Église.

On the night of 5 – 6 June 1944, 8 jumpers from the 307th Airborne Medical Company parachuted into France with Division Headquarters.
At 1855 hrs, the evening of 6 June, gliders towed by C-47s took off for Normandy carrying medical personnel pertaining to the 307th A/B Med Co under command of Major W. H. Houston. A total of 19 British Horsa and 1 American Waco CG4A gliders took off from England (part of Force “B”), flying over the Channel, and encountering only moderate enemy flak over the Cotentin peninsula. The main body of the Company landed together in swampy, half-flooded fields crisscrossed by small canals and ditches. The majority of the unit assembled at about 2400 hours, north of Blosville. By midnight a small Clearing Station was set up and casualties started coming in.
The next day, the Company began to treat casualties from the glider crashes as well as other airborne stragglers. There were isolated pockets of troops scattered over the area, all with wounded, and every effort was being made to consolidate these groups and collect the wounded. In the early phases of the operation, medical personnel set up and collected their patients on site treating them on the spot and although they suffered from the limited amount of supplies they could carry (recovery of bundles was rather low in proportion to the number dropped) and the lack of transportation means, they still did an astounding amount of work and undoubtedly saved many lives. On D + 1, it became possible to start evacuating casualties to the Clearing Station. The final glider lift arrived in the afternoon and inevitably many more injuries occurred which further affected operations of the medical unit.





June 7, 1944

A conversation between a US 505th PIR, (82ND US AB) Paratrooper Medic and a German Adjutant, surrounded by US and German Medics in front of the Hospice at 36, Rue Cap de Laine in Sainte-Mère-Église, Normandy.

(Photo source - LIFE Magazine
Photographer: Bob Landry

 

[BravoZulu]

This photograph shows the memorial of Robert Gould Shaw (1837-1863) and was taken in Boston in 1897. The artist who sculpted it was Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

Robert Gould Shaw was a Union army officer in the american civil war who in 1863 accepted the role of a commander of the first all African-American regiment in the union army.

The monument portrays Shaw and his men marching down Beacon Street past the State House on May 28, 1863 as they left Boston on their way to South Carolina, Shaw erect on his horse, the men marching alongside.

Shaw and his men were among the units chosen to lead the assault on the Confederate Fort Wagner, part of the Charleston defences. In the face of fierce Confederate fire, Shaw led his men into battle by shouting, “Forward, Fifty-Fourth, forward!”. In brutal hand-to-hand combat, Shaw was shot through the chest and died almost instantly; 281 members of his soldiers (almost half of the regiment) were killed, wounded or captured.

**NB, the monument was vandalised in the Boston protest last week **

 

[BravoZulu]

Clarence Ware applies war paint to Charles Plaudo in England on June 5, 1944. They were both members of the so called Filthy Thirteen section of the US 101st Airborne Division. The idea came from unit sergeant Jake McNiece, who was part Chocataw and was designed to energise the men for the danger ahead.

 

[santana]

U.S. Army troops of the 2nd Infantry Division march through the liberated village of Colleville-sur-Mer on D-Day+2, 8 June 1944.

The beach next to the coastal village was one of the principal beachheads during the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944, designated Omaha Beach. Colleville-sur-Mer, Calvados, Lower Normandy.

 

[santana]

Troops of the US 5th Engineer Special Brigade, wade through the surf to the northern coast of France, at Fox Green Sector of Omaha Beach, Normandy. 8 June 1944.

They were part of the ever-increasing number of men bolstering the forces which made the initial landings on the beachhead.

 

[santana]

General Sir Bernard Montgomery passes German POWs while being driven along a road in a jeep, shortly after arriving in Normandy, 8th of June 1944.

(Note, the British, HQ 21st Army Group badge on the left rear of the jeep)

 

[santana]

Omaha Beach sector, Hamel, hamlet of Surrain at the junction of the D208 from Colleville sur Mer June 1944.
A Norman farmer is helping this Lieutenant belonging to the Civil Affairs to find his way on the map.
The two men are sitting on the slope freshly leveled by a bulldozer, in the background of GI's including a MP and vehicles on the road.

The soldier is a Lt. of the Civil Affairs of the V US Corps. The civilian is Mr. Gustave Joret, 50 years old, father of seven children, agricultural worker in Surrain (Calvados).

The American officer was trying to locate the German battery Houtteville.

The sequel is dramatic, after this photo was taken a soldier of the 1st US ID fired on Mr. Joret as he ran to a shelter during a German attack. The soldier, devastated by his mistake, apologizes in tears to Mrs. Joret, while a US ambulance takes Mr. Joret seriously wounded to the Field Hospital of Saint Lawrence Sea where he will die on June 12, 1944.

Source: Article by Antonin Dehays in the No. 290 of 39-45 Magazine.

The profile of Mr. Gustave Joret on the website of the Memorial Civilian Victims of Lower Normandy modestly indicateted as cause of death: Bombing.

 

[santana]

The Aftermath of D-Day
June 1944 Omaha Beach (Normandy, France) U.S. Graves Registration Service Collection Point for dead American and also German soldiers laying next to each other in order for being processed and prepared for temporary burial.

In WWII the United States Army Quartermaster Graves Registration Service was responsible for the care of the dead in all the branches of military service. They worked with reverence and respect to preserve the dignity of those who sacrificed their lives.

The US military would officially declare a soldier dead after he was missing for a full year. So many soldiers who went missing on D-Day—some bodies, for example, were swept out to sea or destroyed in violent plane crashes—had a death date on their military records of June 7, 1945, a year and a day later.

While casualty figures are notoriously difficult to verify—not all wounded soldiers are counted, for example—the accepted estimate is that the Allies suffered 10,000 total casualties on D-Day itself. The highest casualties occurred on Omaha beach, where 2,000 U.S. troops were killed, wounded or went missing; at Sword Beach and Gold Beach, where 2,000 British troops were killed, wounded or went missing; and at Juno beach, where 340 Canadian soldiers were killed and another 574 wounded.

Among the stunning losses of those first-wave soldiers were 19 young men known as “the Bedford Boys.” The U.S. Congress chose Bedford, Virginia as the site of the National D-Day Memorial because it suffered the highest per capita D-Day losses of any community in the nation. The 19 Bedford Boys were mostly National Guardsman who were some of the first to land on Omaha beach.

 

[santana]

'Pegasus Bridge'
Vehicles including a Royal Signals jeep and trailer and RASC Leyland lorry on the Pont de Bénouville over the Caen Canal at Bénouville, Calvados, 9th of June 1944.
The signallers are fixing telephone lines across the bridge.

At 00:16 hrs on the 6th June, the British 6th Airborne Division consisting of 'D' Company of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry landed by parachutes and gliders east of the River Orne and the Caen Canal.
The small force of 181 men was commanded by Major John Howard and joined with a detachment of Royal Engineers who landed at Ranville-Benouville in six 28-men Horsa gliders. Having taken off from Dorset, the gliders were towed across the Channel by Halifax Bombers. With perfect navigation and piloting skill, the gliders landed on time and on target within few yards of each other. Major Howard’s glider landed within a few feet of the canal bridge. The bridge was captured after a fierce ten minute fire fight, the action all over by 0026, a full six hours before the beach landings.
So, just 90 minutes after taking off from RAF Tarrant Rushton in England, Major Howard was able to send the code words "Ham and Jam", indicating that both bridges had been captured. In this early action of D-Day, the first house on French soil was liberated.

 

[santana]

SS-Obersturmbannführer Max Wünsche (with the bandaged head), Rgt. Komm. of SS-PzRgt 12 visiting survivors of III.ZUG 15./25 SS PzG. Rgt. at Rots, Normandy on June 9, 1944.



SS-Sturmann Otto Funk also at Rots



#1 SS-Obersturmbannführer Max Wünsche (with the bandaged head), Rgt. Komm. of SS-PzRgt 12 visiting survivors of III.ZUG 15./25 SS PzG. Rgt. at Rots, Normandy on June 9, 1944.

#2 SS-Sturmann Otto Funk also at Rots

Partly seen on the right side of image #1 is SS-Hauptsturmführer Rudolf von Ribbentrop, 3. Kompanie, I./SS-PzRgt 12, son of German foreign minister von Ribbentrop.
On the left is thought to be Unterscharführer Peter Koslowski on the far right is Hauptscharführer Wilhelm Boigk, that is SS-Sturmmann Otto Funk at the back but #2 and #4 are unknown.
At around 0900 hours on the morning of 9 June, the 3rd Company of SS-Panzer-Regiment 12 rumbled through Rots towards la Villeneuve on the Caen-Bayeux highway. They were ordered to assault Norrey with the support of a small number of infantry from SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 25.
The attack was to be in conjunction with infantry attack from the I Battalion of SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 26 south of the village.
Just after noon on 9 June, Twelve Panthers fanned out in a single line at a right angle to the rail embankment. Approaching the village the company swung left keeping in a solid line with their fronts towards the village in anticipation of confronting the Canadian anti-tank guns.
Nine Sherman tanks from the 1st Hussars including several "Fireflys" equipped with 17 pdrs, were moving towards the front to reinforce the Reginas' position in Norrey. The majority of the Sherman tanks were navigating through the village, but one Firefly, commanded by Lt G. K. Henry, had worked his way around the village to the front where he spotted the advancing Panthers. Catastrophically for the 3rd Panzerkompanie, their swing to the left, though protecting them from the 6-pounders in Norrey, exposed their flanks to Lt Henry at not more than 1000 metres distance. The Canadian tank opened fire hitting the tank nearest the rail-line first. Lt Henry fired five shots and knocked out five Panthers. A sixth was accounted for by another “C” squadron tank.
The crews from the burning Panthers along with their supporting infantry retreated back to an underpass where Canadian artillery began to pound the area inflicting even more casualties.
Max Wünsche died 1995 aged 80
Rudolf von Ribbentrop born 1921 - still alive aged 94
Wilhelm Boigk KIA July 4 1944
Otto Funk died 2011 aged 85

 

[Conhoon]

Members of the 12th Parachute Battalion - 5th Para Brigade - 6th Airborne Division enjoying a brew after fighting their way back to allied lines after three days behind enemy lines, 10th June 1944.

Colourised and Researched by Paul Reynolds.

 

[Conhoon]

10th June 1945.
Matilda MK.II tank of the 2/9th Armoured Regiment with Australian soldiers in landing on Green beach (now Muara Beach) the island of Labuan, Borneo.

"....Matilda tanks of 2/9 Armoured Regiment being driven ashore through the surf from the Landing Ship Mechanised 237, at the north end of Green Beach during the 'Oboe Six Operation'.
Identified personnel are: (left to right, on tank) Trooper (Tpr) A Kenny; unidentified; Corporal (Cpl) J A Murphy; unidentified; Tpr S L Cockram; unidentified. Cpl D C Hardy, official photographer, Military History Section Land Headquarters, is in foreground, in the water, carrying his camera...".

Some 20,000 Australian personnel were involved in the Brunei landings.
(Source - Australian War Memorial Image Nº.108957)
(Colourised by Joshua Barrett from the UK)

 

[santana]

M4A2, Sherman Mk III "Cameo" (T146946) tank crew of 2nd Troop, 'C' Squadron, 13th-18th Royal Hussars, 27th Armoured Brigade rest and write letters home by the side of their vehicle, Normandy, 10 June 1944.

The 27th Brigade landed at Sword Beach as part of XXX Corps and fought in the Caen area until disbanded on 30 July 1944. They supported the British Commandos’ breakout from the Normandy Landings. Later supported the British Paratroopers at Breville.

On 11 June a squadron of 13/18th Hussars supported 6th Airborne Division's attacks along the river, and later in the month the regiment supported 51st (Highland) Infantry Division in further attacks along the river. On 8 & 9 July, 27th Armoured Bde supported I Corps' final successful attack on Caen.

13th/18th Hussars (Transferred to 8 Armoured Brigade 30 July) (Initially Sherman II DD, later Sherman III & Firefly VC)

 

[santana]

Victory Ceremony in Viipuri, 31 August 1941.
Finnish forces retook Viipuri at the end of August 1941 and the very same flag that had been lowered in 1940 after the end of the Winter War, was again raised to the top of the castle tower. In the summer of 1944 the Soviet Union captured Viipuri.