Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[BravoZulu]

Walt Disney as a Red Cross ambulance driver in WWI, 1918/1919.

Disney attempted to join the United States Army to fight against the Germans, but he was rejected for being too young(he was 16 going on 17). After forging the date of birth on his birth certificate(very common practice for young people to join the military), he joined the Red Cross in September 1918 as an ambulance driver. He was shipped to France but arrived in November, after the armistice

He drew cartoons on the side of his ambulance for decoration and had some of his work published in the army newspaper Stars and Stripes,Disney returned to Kansas City in October 1919,where he worked as an apprentice artist at the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio. There, he drew commercial illustrations for advertising, theatre programs and catalogues. He also befriended fellow artist Ub Iwerks (co-creator of Mickey Mouse)

while working as an ambulance driver, he became acquainted with 15 year old Ray Kroc (founder of McDonald's)

 

[morris]

A wounded British soldier showing the shrapnel damage to his steel helmet caused near Beaumont-Hamel, on the Somme Front in December 1916. (Colourised by Doug UK)

Battle of Flers-Courcelette. A stretcher borne wounded soldier waves his helmet (and leg) as he is carried in by German prisoners. Near Ginchy, 15th September 1916. Photographer – Lt. Ernest Brooks

 

[Chazman]

Somewhere in Normandy.

 

[morris]

A Mark IV (Male) tank H45 ‘Hyacinth’ of H Battalion ditched in a German trench while supporting the 1st Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment, one mile west of Ribecourt. Some men of the battalion are resting in the trench, 20 November 1917.
Commanded by 2nd Lt. Jackson, H Btn, 24 Coy, 10 Sec. During the attack it reached the first objective of the day, The Hindenburg Line, before falling in the ditch. Photographer – Lt. John Warwick Brooke. (Colourised by Doug)

 

[Conhoon]

The Second Boer war.( Anglo-Boer War)
(11 October 1899 - 31 May 1902)

1899 Natal.
Tired and weary from the arduous campaigning of the Boer War men return from a foot patrol.
It was common to wear the haversacks between the shoulders,rather than on the hip.
Rifle regiments had black Slade-wallace equipment, rather than the buff of the line regiments.
Canvas covers over white helmets without regimental flashes, Lee enfields muzzle downwards to prevent rain from rusting barrel.
letters on one of the water bottles indicates the regiment KRR (Kings Royal Rifle) corps.

date of photo unknown
photograher- unknown

Colourised by Tinus Le Roux

 

[Conhoon]

The Crimean war, 1854-1856.

Men of the 72nd Regiment ( Duke of Albany's own Highlanders)
William Noble,Alexander Davison and John Harper.

photosource © IWM (Q 71648)
Photographers- Cundall,Joseph,Howlett,Robert
Royal Archives, Windsor Collection.
July 1856.

Colourised by Royston Leonard

 

[Conhoon]

British Army fatigue party carrying duck boards over a support line trench at night.
Cambrai, 12 January 1917.

photosource-© IWM (Q 6420)
Photographer- Brooke, John Warwick
(Lieutenant)

 

[morris]

Mk.V tank 9038 of C Coy, 8th Battalion, loaded with wooden bridging material and a specially built contrivance for crossing trenches, stranded in a trench near Cologne Farm, in the Bellicourt section of the Hindenburg Defences, Aisne, Picardie on October 4th. 1918.
9038 was later retrieved and in 1919 was sent to Russia as part of the White Russian Army but captured by the Red Russians on January 1st 1921.
(Photo source – Australian War Memorial collection E03832)
(Colourised by Joshua Barrett from the UK)

 

[morris]

An officer being rescued from a dug-out which has been blown in by shell fire, Mouquet Farm, September 1916.
The fighting at Mouquet Farm was the site of nine separate attacks by three Australian divisions between 8 August and 3 September 1916. The farm stood in a dominating position on a ridge that extended north-west from the ruined, and much fought over, village of Pozieres. Although the farm buildings themselves were reduced to rubble, strong stone cellars remained below ground which were incorporated into the German defences. The attacks mounted against Mouquet Farm cost the 1st, 2nd and 4th Australian Divisions over 11,000 casualties, and not one succeeded in capturing and holding it. The British advance eventually bypassed Mouquet Farm leaving it an isolated outpost. It fell, inevitably, on 27 September 1916.
Photographer – Lt. Ernest Brooks
(Colorised by Gabriel Bîrsanu from Romania)

 

[santana]

General Dwight D. Eisenhower and his senior commanders at Supreme Allied Headquarters in London, February 1944.

Picture from left to right: Lieutenant General Omar N. Bradley, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, General Sir Bernard Montgomery, Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory and Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith.

 

[Unknowncommando]

Two crew members of a Sherman V tank of the Scinde Horse, part of the Indian Army's 31st Armoured Division in Iraq, November 1943

 

[morris]

A Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun position manned by the 2/9th Light Anti-Aircraft Battery, Royal Australian Artillery, on the main fighter runway at Gili Gili airfield (Turnbull Field, 1942–1944) Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea.
September 1943.
A P-40D Kittyhawk fighter can be seen coming in to land.

(Photo source & caption: AWM, 026629 (Thomas Fisher) (Color by Cassowary Colorizations)

 

[morris]

British submarine HMS A5. A5 - from the series of the first British A-class submarines used in the First World War to protect ports.
Colour by Alex

 

[BravoZulu]

USS Enterprise (CV-6) arrives in New York harbor from the Pacific, 17 October 1945

 

[Conhoon]

Soviet Army scout briefing, c.a. 1944

Colour by Olga Shirnina (Klimbim)

 

[Conhoon]

A Soviet POW photographed with his SN-42 Steel breastplate body armor which has taken 3 bullet impacts, Syskyjärvi area, 15 july 1944.

The Steel breastplate is a type of body armor similar to a cuirass developed by the Red Army in World War II. It consisted of two pressed steel plates that protected the front torso and groin. The plates were 2 mm (.08") and weighed 3.5 kg (7.7 lbs). This armor was supplied to Assault Engineering Brigades.
Photograph taken by Esko Töyri and was provided by Sa-kuva. Photo number: 158173

 

[BravoZulu]

RN:
Battleship HMS King George V in Chesapeake Bay conveying Lord Halifax to his appointment as Ambassador to the USA. January 1941

 

[morris]

On September 1, 1939, at 4:30 in the morning, the German battleship 'Schleswig-Holstein' slowly began to approach Westerplatte.

 

[BravoZulu]

View attachment 248669
On September 1, 1939, at 4:30 in the morning, the German battleship 'Schleswig-Holstein' slowly began to approach Westerplatte.

The opening shots of WW2

 

[morris]

THE BATTLE OF ARRAS, APRIL-MAY 1917
Forward scouts of the 9th Hodson's Horse (Bengal Lancers), Indian Army, pause to consult a map, near Vraignes-en-Vermandois, Somme, France, April 1917.

Hodson's Horse served in France from November 1914 until the Indian Cavalry left the Western Front in February 1918. They fought at Givenchy in 1914, on the Somme in 1916 and at Cambrai in 1917. On leaving France they went to Palestine.
During their period of duty in France the Sowars (Cavalrymen) of both the 1st and 2nd Indian Cavalry Divisions sometimes served in the trenches as infantry.
(Colourised today by Doug)