Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

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RNZAF No. 14 Squadron pilot, Flying Officer WJ Polson, about to enter the cockpit of Kittyhawk NZ3072.
NZ3072 carried the nose art: 'Wairarapa Wildcat'.

 

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"Be Aware! /Low Flying (attacking) Aircraft."

German Kradmelder on a Zundapp ZS 750 in Normandy, France. 12 July 1944.

 

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French Potez 63.11 (serial 375) of GAO (Groupes Aèriens d'Observation) 503. Near Braine-le-Comte, Belgium 16 May 1940.

Quote from Peter D. Cornwell's book 'The Battle of France - Then and Now':

"Hit by flak and starboard engine set alight during reconnaissance sortie over enemy armoured columns. Crashed and burned out near a goods station, between Soignies and Braine-le-Comte at 3.20 p.m., May 16, 1940.
Sous-lieutenant A. Mann dropped from the aircraft at low level and was seriously injured. Was taken to a clinic in Halle where he died the next day.
Adjt Nourry baled out over Hennuyères but was shot at by Allied troops and badly wounded, admitted to hospital in Binche. The 3rd crew member, Adjt-chef Gourdon baled out and landed unhurt. Aircraft a write off."

For years the IWM archives wrongly identified this aircraft as a German Dornier Do17 but the French roundel is clearly visible. A second photo of the same aircraft shot from a different angle shows the serial number. IWM archives state that the events took place on May 14 but according to the publication mentioned above the records show that it was the 16.

The 3 British soldiers marching to battle will soon clash with units of the German Sixth Army who by the 16th were already near Wavre, a little more than 40 Km away.

 

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These are not colourised photographs but images, laying one on top of the other to make comparisons between scenes from then and now. Produced by Getty Images photographer Jim Dyson.


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[santana]

Pictured is Desmond Doss receiving the Medal of Honor from President Truman, Washington D.C, 12th October 1945.

Private First Class Desmond T. Doss, United States Army, Medical Detachment, 307th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division. He was a company aid man when the 1st Battalion assaulted a jagged escarpment 400 feet high. As our troops gained the summit, a heavy concentration of artillery, mortar and machine gun fire crashed into them, inflicting approximately 75 casualties and driving the others back. Private First Class Doss refused to seek cover and remained in the fire-swept area with the many stricken, carrying them one by one to the edge of the escarpment and there lowering them on a rope-supported litter down the face of a cliff to friendly hands.

On 2 May, he exposed himself to heavy rifle and mortar fire in rescuing a wounded man 200 yards forward of the lines on the same escarpment; and two days later he treated four men who had been cut down while assaulting a strongly defended cave, advancing through a shower of grenades to within eight yards of enemy forces in a cave's mouth, where he dressed his comrades' wounds before making four separate trips under fire to evacuate them to safety.

On 5 May, he unhesitatingly braved enemy shelling and small arms fire to assist an artillery officer. He applied bandages, moved his patient to a spot that offered protection from small-arms fire and, while artillery and mortar shells fell close by, painstakingly administered plasma. Later that day, when an American was severely wounded by fire from a cave, Private First Class Doss crawled to him where he had fallen 25 feet from the enemy position, rendered aid, and carried him 100 yards to safety while continually exposed to enemy fire.

On 21 May, in a night attack on high ground near Shuri, he remained in exposed territory while the rest of his company took cover, fearlessly risking the chance that he would be mistaken for an infiltrating Japanese and giving aid to the injured until he was himself seriously wounded in the legs by the explosion of a grenade. Rather than call another aid man from cover, he cared for his own injuries and waited five hours before litter bearers reached him and started carrying him to cover. The trio was caught in an enemy tank attack and Private First Class Doss, seeing a more critically wounded man nearby, crawled off the litter and directed the bearers to give their first attention to the other man. Awaiting the litter bearers' return, he was again struck, this time suffering a compound fracture of one arm. With magnificent fortitude he bound a rifle stock to his shattered arm as a splint and then crawled 300 yards over rough terrain to the aid station.

Through his outstanding bravery and unflinching determination in the face of desperately dangerous conditions Private First Class Doss saved the lives of many soldiers. His name became a symbol throughout the 77th Infantry Division for outstanding gallantry far above and beyond the call of duty.

 

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Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. (13 September 1887 - 12 July 1944)

Throughout World War II, Roosevelt suffered from health problems. He had arthritis, mostly from old World War I injuries, and walked with a cane. He also had heart trouble. On 12 July 1944, one month after the landing at Utah Beach, he died of a heart attack in France. He was fifty-six years of age.

Roosevelt's temporary grave in Normandy.

 

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Commanding Officer, Desmond J. Scott in the cockpit of a Spitfire with his wire haired fox terrier 'Kim', RAF Station Hawkinge, Kent, 1943.

Group Captain Desmond James Scott, DSO, OBE, DFC & Bar was a New Zealand fighter pilot and flying ace of the Second World War. He gained his licence as a private pilot in 1939 and was automatically enlisted in the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) in September of that year. Arriving in Britain in September 1940, Scott was attached to the Royal Air Force and flew in operations over Europe, rising through the ranks to become the RNZAF's youngest group captain of the war.

 

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Troops of the 101st Airborne parade for a medal ceremony on June 20, 1944.

 

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A photographer caught a good shot just minutes before the more famous image was taken on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima, 1945.

 

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Two US Marines look over Iwo Jima from atop Mt. Suribachi, where just two days before, the US flag was famously risen. February 25, 1945.

 

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807 Squadron was formed at RNAS Worthy Down in September 1940, and equipped with Fairey Fulmar I's.

Three were embarked on HMS Pegasus (pictured here), where they remained until February 1941, when the entire squadron embarked on HMS Furious for convoy duties. These initial three aircraft were N1952 (nearest), N1958 (which has a Pegasus on its nose), and N1959 (outer).

Re-equipped with Fulmar IIs in April 1941, 807 Squadron joined HMS Ark Royal and saw action defending the Malta convoys between July and September. Many of the squadron's aircraft were lost in the sinking of Ark Royal in November 1941. Four surviving machines were flown off to North Front, Gibraltar. The squadron was gradually re-equipped with replacement Fulmars, which were joined by Sea Hurricanes, after which the squadron joined HMS Argus. In June 1942 the squadron flew off the carriers HMS Argus and HMS Eagle to cover Operation Harpoon.

 

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Cpl. F.R. Smith of Queensland Australia, squats in the high 'Kunai' grass with his Tommy Gun. November/December 1942 Gona Area, Papua New Guinea.

Smith has just come a 100 yards back from the frontline for food and a smoke during a lull in the fighting. He was part of a company which had been within grenade distance of the Japanese for 2 days and nights.

The Japanese retreated to the cover of the bush so that they could make use of sniping. The Aussies are in 5 ft. high 'Kunai' grass within grenade distance of the fringe of bush surrounding Gona.

The allied victory at Gona cost the Japanese defenders over 800 dead; however, the Australian cost was also excessively high. Total Australian casualties numbered 893, with the 21st Brigade and 39th Battalion suffering the heaviest losses.
Photo: G. Silk

 

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A close-up of a British heavily armed patrol of L Detachment SAS in their jeeps, just back from a three month patrol, 18 Jan 1943; note twin-mounted Vickers K machine guns and F-S dagger;

 

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Princess Louise of Prussia in hussar uniform. Victoria Louise was an honorary Colonel of the Life Hussars.

Victoria Louise in 1909, as Honorary Colonel of the II. Prussian Life Hussars Regiment

 

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Technical Sergeant William E. Thomas and Private First Class Joseph Jackson of the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion. 1945 Germany

 

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French soldiers with a Guidetti trench mortar, in front of La Ville-aux-Bois-les-Pontavert,

 

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A Panzer IV Ausf. F of the 6th Army and it's crew rest near a church in the outskirts of Stalingrad, September 1942

 

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A US soldier being taught how to use a bayonet at Camp Dick in Texas in 1917

 

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Filmmaker Horst Grund operates his camera while a soldier aims his MG 13, Constanta, Romania, circa 1941

Untersturmführer Gerhard Mahn, commander of 11th company, 9th regiment “Germania” of the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking directs the actions of the division of armored personnel carriers Sd.Kfz.251. They are about to mount an attack against the Red Army during the battles east of Warsaw in the summer of 1944

 

[BravoZulu]

U.S. president Abraham Lincoln meets with Union general George B. McClellan at McClellan's headquarters near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on October 4, 1862. At the Battle of Antietam on September 17, McClellan and the Army of the Potomac had fought Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, forcing the Confederates to retreat south to Virginia. Lincoln's visit, on the one hand, was a public gesture of congratulations. On the other hand, it provided the president an opportunity to confront his general face to face. Lincoln had long been displeased with the pace at which McClellan prosecuted the war. In particular, he wanted a more aggressive pursuit of Lee, and McClellan's mere presence in Maryland weeks after the battle seemed to confirm his worries. Although "Little Mac" was wildly popular with his men, Lincoln replaced him with Ambrose E. Burnside on November 5, just after the midterm elections.

Officers of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry at Army of the Potomac headquarters. Left to right: Unknown; Capt. Edward A. Flint, Capt. Charles Francis Adams, Jr., Lt. George H. Teague.

Charles Francis Adams Jr**.** (May 27, 1835 – March 20, 1915) was an American author and historian. He was a member of the prominent Adams family, and son of Charles Francis Adams Sr. He served as a colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War. After the war, he was a railroad regulator and executive, an author of historical works, and a member of the Massachusetts Park Commission.