Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[Conhoon]

Group of RNZAF Corsair pilots and ground crew gathered behind the Young Mens Christian Association (YMCA) truck MT2540 during a tea break.
Espiritu Santo. 1944.

The aircraft in the background is coded "50", so she could potentially be Corsair NZ5350 named "Struggle Buggy".

During World War II, the YMCA geared all of its efforts to helping New Zealand soldiers abroad, just has the organization did in the Great War.

YMCA theatres sprang up in the Pacific theatres. The National Council of YMCAs operated a total of 218 centers, again providing full recreation services, canteens, hostels, mobile units and cinemas.

Colour by Daniel Rarity Color
RNZAF Official photo

 

[Conhoon]

October 3, 1939. (Said to be) near the Franco-German border, British soldiers of the Royal Signals have a laugh at Adolf’s expense.

Allied troops deployed along the Western Front between September 1939 and May 1940 tried to cope the best they could with the long hours of boredom of a war that to the common soldier on the ground seemed almost fake. There were practically no major military operations on the western front during this period and only the occasional artillery duels and daily clashes between enemy patrols broke the monotony. Because of this apparent calm, among the British this period became known as the ‘Phoney War’.

Note: British Royal Corp of Signals’ personnel are easily identifiable by the cap badge featuring Mercury, the winged messenger of the Gods.

Original's source: unknown

Colour by: In Colore Veritas

 

[Conhoon]

Junkers 88A-1 3Z+BB (Wk Nº 4136) of Stab 1./KG 77 crashed landed at Eastend Green Farm near Hertingfordbury, Herts., 3 October 1940

During the peak of war, Hatfield Aerodrome saw itself under attack when on 3rd October 1940 the factory was bombed by an enemy Junkers 88A-1.

The attack centred on the 94 Shop and the Airspeed Design Office. It took the lives of 26 employees, many of them being young apprentices and factory boys. Anti-aircraft guns set the Junkers on fire and it crashed at Eastend Green Farm near Hertingfordbury shortly after the raid.
Ironically, Hatfield had not been their intended target (which was Reading) and the crew had become disorientated by low cloud and drizzle they could not believe their luck when a large industrial complex and runway appeared in a gap in the clouds.

Pilot Oblt. Siegward Fiebig and his crew survived and were made prisoners of war. Added: Remaining crew (POW, Canada released 1947): Fw Heinz Ruthof, Obs; Ofw Erich Goebel, R/O and Uffz Kurt Seifert, Gnr

(Colour by Doug)

 

[BravoZulu]

T-34/85 in Berlin 1945.

 

[Conhoon]

Troops of the 8th Battalion, the King's (Liverpool Regiment, Liverpool Irish, 57th Division) entering Lille, 18 October 1918.

(Photo source #1 - © IWM Q 9574, #2 IWM Q 9579)
McLellan, David (Second Lieutenant) (Photographer)

 

[morris]

U46 with a badly damaged wheelhouse guard and a folded periscope box. On April 3, 1940, during the invasion of Norway, U46 was seriously damaged by ships of the British Navy.

 

[morris]

 

[morris]

Beach Commandos loading ammunition aboard a Landing Craft Assault (LCA) of HMCS Prince David, near Taranto, Italy, 13 September 1944.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3201116)

 

[BravoZulu]

UK:
Three Durham Light Infantry soldiers pose in the garden of amateur photographer, Alfred Dupire, with a dog in 1916

 

[BravoZulu]

German infantry advances in the snow behind a Panzer III during the drive on Moscow as part of Operation Typhoon, Autumn/Winter 1941. Original colour image

 

[Conhoon]

Men from the US 1st Marine Division fire at Japanese targets in the distance, Peleliu, September 1944. Notice the spent cartridges flying mid-air from the Thompson M1928A1.

Peleliu Island, part of the Palau Archipelago, is mostly dead coral which made digging foxholes virtually impossible. Grinded to a fine white powder by weathering and battle, the coral got everywhere, further drying already parched mouths and causing the weapons to malfunction. With temperatures above 100F (38ºC), water in short supply (much of it tainted due to having been carried in poorly washed fuel drums), and a well dug enemy, the Marines found hell on Earth at Peleliu.
The battle dragged on for 2 months. Between October 15 and 20, the US Army’s 81st Infantry Division replaced the exhausted, half-bled 1st Marine Division. The island was finally declared secured on November 27, 1944, but the last Japanese soldiers only surrendered on April 27, 1947, when Lieutenant Tadamichi Yamaguchi led 26 survivors out of hiding and handed over his samurai sword. It is often stated that this was the last ‘formal’ capitulation of World War II.
The cost in human lives at Peleliu alone was staggering. The US suffered a total of 8,895 casualties (1641 KIA). The Japanese lost an estimated 10,900 personnel, including those lost at sea in reinforcement attempts. 202 prisoners were taken, of which 19 were Japanese, the rest being Korean or Okinawan labourers.
Eight Medal of Honor were awarded to men of the 1st Marine Division at Peleliu, five of them posthumously.
Original: USMC

 

[BravoZulu]

Austro-Hungarian lance corporal, 1918

 

[Conhoon]

A view of two Polish Navy Motor Gun Boats S.3 and S.2 at Fowey, September 1942.

 

[Conhoon]

US Air Force pilot 2nd Lieutenant Robert Wade Biesecker with his crew of the 569th Bombardment Squadron, 390th Bomb Group, US Eighth Air Force, standing by 'Honey Chile', their B-17 Flying Fortress bomber (serial 42-31027), at RAF Framlingham, a US Eighth Air Force Bomber Command station in Suffolk, England, 18 October 1943.

Posing with the group are mascots 'Scrappy' and Joe', a dog and a monkey. 'Scrappy" was presented to the crew while training in the US and accompanied the crew on their transatlantic flight to England. 'Joe' was picked up from another station, and the two animals become quite inseparable, 'Joe' regularly being carted around the base on 'Scrappy's back.
Robert 'Bob' Bisecker, a 24-year-old from North Carolina, had enlisted on 31 Mar 1942. Despite his young age, has was already married to 21 year-old Dorothy Rankin from Vancouver, and working as a sales agent.
On 18 May 1944, eight months to the day from when this photo was taken, Biesecker - now flying 'Rick-O-Shay III', another B-17 (serial 42-37925), of the 571st Bomber Squadron - was attacked by six ME 109 fighters while on a bombing run to Augsburg, Germany.
The aircraft exploded and crashed just south of Lahr near the Black Forest, Germany, after three of the crew had managed to bale out. Biesecker was killed in the engagement.
He is buried at the Lorraine American Cemetery, at St. Avold, France: grave 19, plot G row 5.
Dorothy remarried after his death and only passed away in May 2000, survived by one daughter, three grandchildren, a sister, a brother, an several nieces and nephews. I hope this post might find its way to some of them!
Photographer: M. McNeil, for Fox Photos
Images courtesy of the Hulton Archive/ Getty Images
Colour and researched by Benjamin Thomas

 

[Conhoon]

The scouts carry their slain commander. Bryansk Front 1943

 

[Conhoon]

#1 Corporal S. Potter, commander of a A30 Cruiser 'Challenger' tank of 15/19th Hussars, 11th Armoured Division, Holland, 17 October 1944.

#2 The three of the five crew members seen here are (top left) Corporal S Potter, Loader/Radio Op. Trooper G Lyon from Liverpool (top right) and Driver S Coombes from Cardiff.

In October 1944, having fought it's way through Normandy and Belgium, the 11th Armoured Division was pushing froward into German-occupied Holland, with the 15/19th Hussars acting as the Division's reconnaissance regiment. Enemy resistance was fierce.
On the 17th October a number of the Division's forward units were advancing from Deurne towards the German-occupied town of Venraij, west of the Maas canal in the province of Limberg.
Between the Deurne and Venraij lay the village of Ijsselstein, also German held.
It had to be taken and the task fell to 'B' Squadron of the Hussars and two companies of the 1st Battalion of the Hereford Regiment.
There is an A30 with the same registration number (T 271940) and with the 15/19th Hussars markings, on display at the Liberty Park Oorlogsmuseum, Overloon, The Netherlands.
(Photo source - © IWM ( B11045/7)
Colors by #1 Nikos Hatzitsirou & #2 Joshua Barrett

 

[Conhoon]

Christmas Eve, 1944. A US paratrooper from the 82nd Airborne Division keeps an eye on enemy movement as he runs across open ground. In his right hand he carries two extra clips for his Thompson sub-mg. In the background a buddy covers him with a .30 cal mg.

On that day, the men of the 82nd Airborne faced the attack of 3 SS Panzer Divisions (the 1st, 2nd and 9th). Although undefeated, for the first time in its history, the 82nd was forced to retreat to avoid encirclement.
Original: US Signal Corps (SC197861)

 

[BravoZulu]

A French trench raider in 1916

 

[BravoZulu]

Framed by fire and smoke, an unidentified soldier dressed in camoflage and face-paint holds a flamthrower during a training exercise, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, 1942. (Photo by The Frank S. Errigo Archive

U.S. soldiers in combat with German forces near the cathedral in Cologne, April 1945. (original color photo)

 

[BravoZulu]

Dutch soldiers on skates during an exercise with weapons in the vicinity of Leusden, at the Vijfde Kom on the Valleikanaal, 11 January 1940. The area was inundated, allowing them to move easily and quickly over the ice during winter.