Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[Conhoon]

In 1916, nine airships, including L20 'The Raider of Loughborough' left Germany and Denmark in order to attack the docks at Liverpool, which would have shocked the British public due to the long range of the attack.
The airships never reached Liverpool and, due to a miscalculation, instead dropped their bombs on several towns including Tipton, Wednesbury, Walsall, Burton upon Trent, Nottingham, Derby, and Loughborough.

L20 killed an estimated 10 people in Loughborough including Mary Anne Page and two of her children, whose names can be seen on a plaque in Loughborough Carillon Park.
On 2nd May 1916, L20 began its second bombing raid on Britain with the intention of attacking factories and railways in Middlesborough, Stockton-on-Tees and Hartlepool, and targeting enemy warships near Edinburgh.
However, engine problems and strong winds led the airship to veer off course. High winds blew her out into the North Sea and to neutral Norway where she crash landed into Hafrsfjord near Stavanger. The photo above is by Hans Henriksen / Stavanger City Archive.
Thank you to Ian Castle, author of ‘Zeppelin Onslaught’ for much of the above information
© Colourised by Tom Marshall (PhotograFix)

 

[Conhoon]

Tpr. C Davies of Uxbridge and Tpr. L Walden of Ilford, both with the 6th Airborne Armoured Recon. Regt., aboard a German half-track Sd.Kfz.10/5 mounting a 20mm gun, captured from the Heeres-Flak Abteilung 305 of 21. Pz.-Div in the Bavent Wood area, Normandy in early July, in which they later claimed to have shot down a Bf 109 on 4th July and a FW 190 on the 10th July '44.
Seen here on the road near Pont-Audemer, during the race to the Seine. 26 August 1944.

(Interesting note on the vehicle reg plate - WH 6042074, the 'W' appears to be missing).
Colour by Doug Colourising History
(Photo source - © IWM B 9737)
Wilkes (Sergeant)
No. 5 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit

 

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Cleveland-class light cruiser USS Birmingham (CL-62), escorted by tugboats, in Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne, Australia, 1945

 

[Conhoon]

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln with Allan Pinkerton and Maj. Gen. John A. McClernand at the Battle of Antietam - 1862

 

[Conhoon]

Bf-109G of the Croatian Air Force. The pilot, Vladimir Sandtner defected in this aircraft to Falconara, Italy in April 1945.

The aircraft was captured by the Americans, who sold it to 318 Sqn (Polish) of the RAF.

 

[Conhoon]

Stalingrad 1942

The gun section of the anti-tank gun of junior sergeant A. Zverev is fighting on the streets of Stalingrad.
Photo: Ryumkin
Colour: Olga Shirnina (Klimbim)

 

[Conhoon]

Today prof. Witold Kieżun (pseudonym "Wypad") is celebrating his 99th birthday.

Insurgent of the Warsaw Uprising️, soldier of the unit for special tasks, Officer of the Home Army, knight of the Order of Virtuti Militari. After the war, he was arrested by the NKVD, tortured and sent to Siberia.
He was 22 years old in the Uprising, and his smiling photo with captured German weapons is one of the icons of the Warsaw Uprising.
"You will not all understand it, they destroyed our youth !! Throughout the entire occupation, we dreamed of being able to pay back the Germans for all the humiliations. Out of 32 of my friends who passed their high school exams, 15 survived the occupation ... "

 

[Conhoon]

Royal Flying Corps Observers (possibly of No. 27 Squadron) "drawing" their Lewis machine guns and sights from the "gun-room" at Serny Aerodrome, Pas de Calais. 17 February 1918.

(Photo source - © IWM Q 11975)
Colourised by Doug - DBColour

 

[Conhoon]

Armored cruiser of the Russian Imperial Navy "Admiral Makarov", May 1908, Toulon.

The crew of the cruiser was actively involved in helping the population during the earthquake in Messina, Italy

 

[BravoZulu]

Sailors aboard the USS West Virginia, on watch for Japanese aircraft off the coast of Okinawa in late March, 1945.

 

[BravoZulu]

SMS Emden armed with ten main 4.1 inch calibre guns

 

[Conhoon]

Vickers Wellington B Mark IIIs of No. 150 Squadron RAF are being prepared for a night raid on Bizerte, at Blida, Algeria. In the foreground, armourers, stripped to the waist, wheel a trolley-load of 500-lb GP bombs towards an aircraft 'JN-L', which also undergoing a final engine inspection.

In the background, HF676, 'JN-R' appears to be ready for action. Interesting to note is that it's designation 'R' letter has been repainted, the dust, dirt and debris from numerous take-off and landings in the appear to have stripped to paintwork away with the prop-wash.
RAF 150 moved to RAF Snaith in July 1941 becoming operational with Vickers Wellington 1Cs. It moved to the Mediterranean Theatre in December 1942, flying its Wellingtons from Blida in Algeria against targets in Tunisia and Sardinia. It moved to Tunisia in May 1943, and to bases in Italy in December, disbanding in October 1944.
Photographer: F/O F. J. Brock.
Photo: WikiCommons Ref: CNA3974.
Image Repair & Colourisation - Nathan Howland @Howdicolour

 

[Conhoon]

British battleship HMS Resolution (09) ('Revenge' class) after summer 1941 repairs and refit at the US naval dockyard in Philadelphia., seen here at sea during operations off Madagascar, 1942.
(nb. Due to the heavy bombing at Portsmouth UK, no work could be carried out and the decision was taken to send her to the United States for full repair and refitting.

March 1942; 11th - Sailed from Cape Town for Durban.
13th - Arrived at Durban, refueled and sailed for Kilindini.
18th - Arrived at Kilindini.
25th - Arrived at Colombo.
The intention had been that she would proceed to Singapore. However the news from Singapore was bad, as the Japanese troops had landed on Singapore Island on the night of 8 - 9 February and the end appeared near. The British forces in Singapore surrendered at 20.30 15/2/42)
(Color by Alex Wolf)
IWM (A 9058) Part of ADMIRALTY OFFICIAL COLLECTION
Oulds, D C (Lt)
Royal Navy official photographer

 

[Conhoon]

Greek resistance fighter during WWII.

 

[BravoZulu]

U.S. soldiers of Maryland's 117th Trench Mortar Battery, 67th Artillery Brigade, 42nd Infantry Division loads in a shell on a 58mm French trench mortar in order to keep up fire against German positions in Badonviller, France (March 4, 1918)

 

[AudieM249]

USS Franklin (CV-13) approaches NYC to dock at Brooklyn Navy Yard, April 28, 1945. The deck shows damage from a March 19, 1945, Japanese dive bomber attack. Over 800 crewmembers lost their lives in the explosion and fires that resulted.

A Marine squad leader points out a Japanese firing position as his men slowly crawl inland on Betio. Of the 5,000 Marines who crossed the island's reef on 20 November 1943, 3,500 remained in the fight at day's end.
NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Team of the German anti-tank gun Pak35-36 from the 1st Panzer Group in battle against the Soviet light armored vehicles in Ukraine

 

[BravoZulu]

Colour photo (not colourised B&W) 4.5 inch guns of 214 Battery, 69 Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery firing during the six hour barrage laid down by the British section of the 5th Army during the crossing of the Garigliano River, Italy 17 - 18 Jan 1944.

 

[BravoZulu]

Soviet and American airmen pose with the bombs on which they had written messages for the Nazis at a Russian airbase on June 2, 1944.

 

[BravoZulu]

U.S. Air Force B-24 bombers fly over Ploiești, Romania, May 1944. Of the 16 cameramen accompanying this mission, the one who took this photo was the only one to survive

 

[Conhoon]

Soviet and American airmen pose with the bombs on which they had written messages for the Nazis at a Russian airbase on June 2, 1944.

... and, of course, the bomb is held by the smallest of them ...