Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[Conhoon]

24 October 1944
An Achilles 17pdr tank destroyer of the 93rd Anti-Tank Regiment crossing the River Savio in Cesena, Italy on a Churchill ARK bridge which was driven into the river by the 7th Field Company RE.
(Note the ditched Pz.V Panther tank)

7th Field Company RE, report:
22 October: The work was held up by heavy shell fire causing nine casualties. Flood water swept the ‘7’s incomplete FBE bridge away into the ‘Ark causeway’ in which a gap was torn near the far bank. In the afternoon flooding of the river subsided. It was possible for the 7th to fill the gap in the ‘Ark causeway’ with sand bags, and then to build and operate an assault boat ferry, taking supplies across and evacuate the wounded.
The 17 pounder, Self-Propelled, Achilles was a British variant of the American M10 tank destroyer armed with the powerful British Ordnance QF 17 pounder anti-tank gun in place of the standard 3" (76.2 mm) Gun M7. With a total of 1,100 M10s converted, the 17 pdr SP Achilles was the second most numerous armoured fighting vehicle to see service armed with the 17 pounder gun, behind the Sherman Firefly.
The Churchill ARK (Armoured Ramp Carrier) was an expendable bridging tank produced by fitting folding ramps at both ends of a turretless Churchill tank. It was developed separately in Britain and Italy, originally for different tasks, but eventually the two designs became very similar.
(Photo source - © IWM NA 19727)
(Colour by Doug)

 

[Conhoon]

Norwegian Independent Company No. 1 (NORIC 1), training in Great Britain, date unknown.

 

[Conhoon]

Catterick, England 1942. Pilot Werner Christie from the Norwegian 332nd Squadron waits impatiently for the technicians to finish preparing the aircraft before departure. It is impossible to imagine that Sergeant Einar Thorsen in the cockpit is a bit stressed by the situation. The man in the back of the picture - we do not have the name.

 

[Conhoon]

25 October 1944
"Corps of Military Police motorcyclists demonstrate how a metal rod fitted to a motorcycle can prevent the rider from being killed by a wire stretched across the road." 25 October 1944 (IWM caption)

(Colourising this image revealed the 11th Armoured sleeve patch on the sergeant and the #43 on the bike, denotes the 11th Armored Divisional Provost Corps of Military Police, also the Bike is possibly a BSA M20)
nb. in the b&w original photo, the man on the right is not wearing a red cloth cap cover.

(Photo source - © IWM B 11247)
Norris (Sgt)
No. 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit
(Colourised by Doug)

 

[Conhoon]

'V' for Victory
The V sign is a hand gesture in which the index and middle fingers are raised and parted to make a V shape while the other fingers are clenched. It has various meanings, depending on the circumstances and how it is presented.

(Colours by Jecinci and Doug)

 

[BravoZulu]

The 1st two are the "V" for victory sign but I KNOW the last one is an "up yours" ?

 

[Conhoon]

27 October 1944
A Supermarine Spitfire Mark IXE (possibly VZ-H) of No. 412 Squadron RCAF, armed with a 250-lb GP bomb under each wing, and a 500-lb under the fuselage, taxies out for a sortie at B80/Volkel, Holland.
A member of the ground crew is seated on the starboard wing to help the pilot to negotiate potholes, flooding and other obstructions on the airfield.

Bombing Recce:
Though never designed for such a role, the Spitfire proved remarkably effective on interdiction sorties against enemy transport and communications.
The IFF Mark III antenna can be seen extending downward on the bottom of the wing of this Spitfire Mk IXE just to the left of the crewman sitting on top. The vertical orientation of the Mark III antenna made it omnidirectional, a great advance over previous versions that used horizontal antennas.
The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) at Volkel:
Half way through October more aircraft arrived at Volkel, this time the RCAF 126 Wing. The Canadian Wing was comprised of 401 Sqn, 411 Sqn, 412 Sqn, 442 Sqn and all were flying the Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX fighter. (412 arriving 14 October '44)
(Photo source - © IWM CL 1451)
Lea, T. (Flight Lieutenant)
Royal Air Force official photographer
(Colour by RJM)

 

[Conhoon]

A Royal Irish Fusilier attempts to draw the fire of a Turkish sniper to reveal the enemy position, Gallipoli, 1915.

The 1st Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers was involved in the initial landings at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 and throughout the hard-fought nine-month campaign, as part of 29th Division. The 10th (Irish) Division, which included the 5th & the 6th Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, the 5th & the 6th Battalion The Royal Irish Fusiliers, and the 6th Battalion The Royal Irish Rifles, landed at Suvla Bay and ANZAC Cove in August 1915 and were engaged there for two months before being redeployed to Salonika.

(Photo source - © IWM Q 13447)
(Photographer) - Lieutenant Ernest Brooks

 

[Conhoon]

A British 60 pounder Mk I battery in action on a cliff top at Cape Helles, Gallipoli, possibly in June 1915. The unit might be the 90th Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, located forward of Hill 114. The gun has the inscription "Annie" painted on the barrel.

IWM caption : A 60-pounder battery in action on a cliff top. Right to left: Ron Hilyard (sitting down), Fred Garland (sitting down), Horrie Veivers (standing), Bill Lamprill (standing with shell), Alf Easther (standing next to gun), Tom Gaston (sitting with shell), Frank Lynch (on knee behind gun), Charles Geard (standing), Angus Suthers (standing), Joe Beckworth (standing) ,Herb Silcock(?)

(Photo source - © IWM Q 13340)

 

[Conhoon]

Italian Major Benvenuto Fracassi and his men of the 7° Reggimento Bersaglieri on a disabled British Vickers Mk. VIB light tank, Tobruk front, Lybia 1941.

 

[Conhoon]

Captured Italian Armato M13/40 (rear) and M11/39 (middle and front) tanks being used by the Australian 6th Division Cavalry Regiment during the capture of Tobruk. 23rd january 1941

 

[Conhoon]

Italian gunners man their light field piece in a field of Tunisian cactus, on March 31, 1943.

 

[Conhoon]

Soviet aircraft engineers dismantle the MG.17 machine guns from the German fighter Messerschmitt Bf.109.
in the area of Stalingrad after the end of the battle on the Volga River. It was taken from the album of Y. Shafer, who was a political worker of the 16th Air Army during the war, then of the 8th Guards Army.

 

[Conhoon]

Two Luftwaffe Officers and other German prisoners or war being marched through the Northern Norwegian town of Harstad, by Norwegian soldiers while British and troops of the Polish Independent Podhale Rifles Brigade look on. May 1940.

Most of the prisoners were taken to a camp on the island of Skorpa in Troms, it was the main PoW camp in Northern Norway.
Prisoners kept arriving at the camp until early June 1940; Germans that had been captured at the front-line near Narvik, shot-down pilots, and prisoners taken by the remaining pockets of Norwegian resistance on the coast of southern Helgeland and smuggled past German lines to Skorpa.
It held around 500 civilian and military prisoners when it was shut down at the end of the Norwegian Campaign on June 8 1940, when these and other prisoners would have been returned to their units.

(Photo source - © IWM N 231)
Photographer - Bishop H Marshall

 

[BravoZulu]

A Royal Irish Fusilier attempts to draw the fire of a Turkish sniper to reveal the enemy position, Gallipoli, 1915.

View attachment 193328

The 1st Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers was involved in the initial landings at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 and throughout the hard-fought nine-month campaign, as part of 29th Division. The 10th (Irish) Division, which included the 5th & the 6th Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, the 5th & the 6th Battalion The Royal Irish Fusiliers, and the 6th Battalion The Royal Irish Rifles, landed at Suvla Bay and ANZAC Cove in August 1915 and were engaged there for two months before being redeployed to Salonika.

(Photo source - © IWM Q 13447)
(Photographer) - Lieutenant Ernest Brooks

My paternal grandfather William was 2nd Battalion "The Skins", served on the Western Front from the Battle of Mons all the way through to the end along with my paternal grand uncle Daniel, both of them quiet, unassuming but wonderful men

 

[uktabber]

Man, love these old war photos guys.....keep'em coming!!

 

[Conhoon]

1945- Group of U.S. Army nurses sunbathe beside a 40mm anti-aircraft gun and its crew aboard a Coast Guard-manned troop transport returning to the states.

 

[Conhoon]

British troops moving an 8-inch Mk V howitzer into position, Bécordel-Bécourt, in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France. 26 May 1917.
(Bécordel-Bécourt is a village about 2.5 kilometres south-east of Albert.)

Dartmoor Cemetery was begun (as Becordel-Becourt Military Cemetery) in August 1915 and was used by the battalions holding that part of the line; its name was changed in May 1916 at the request of the 8th and 9th Battalions of the Devonshire Regiment. In September 1916, the XV Corps Main Dressing Station was established in the neighbourhood, but throughout 1917, the cemetery was scarcely used. It passed into German hands on 26 March 1918, but was retaken on 24 August by the 12th Division.

(Photo source - © IWM Q 2233)
Photographer - Lt Ernest Brooks

 

[Conhoon]

New Zealand soldiers gather around the grave at the funeral of Sergeant Henry James Nicholas, VC, MM, (inset) probably in Vertigneul churchyard near Romeries, France. 9 November 1918

Sergeant Nicholas was killed on 23 October 1918 near Beaudignies, France. His body was exhumed on 29 October and reinterred with military honours in Vertigneul churchyard.

Photographer - Henry Armytage Sanders.

(Photo source - National Library of New Zealand - Ref: 1/2-013667-G)

 

[Conhoon]

The 130th was one of three Field Ambulance units raised to support Lloyd George’s Welsh Army. The majority of the men in the unit were experienced St John First Aiders and stretcher-bearers working in the South Wales coalfields. The unit was formed by Herbert Lewis, Deputy Commissioner for St John Ambulance District X1 (South Wales). It was the only WW1 unit allowed to call itself “St John” and to wear the St John insignia as part of the uniform.

(Photo and caption source - http://www.walesremembers.org/)