Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[Conhoon]

Polish Navy destroyer ORP Błyskawica at Narvik, Norwegian campaign 1940.

 

[BravoZulu]

Austro-Hungarian artillerymen assembling a Škoda 305 mm mortar during WWI

 

[berkut76]

The pride of VVS and a scourge of Luftwaffe on the Eastern Front. Soviet aces from the famed 16th Guards Fighter Regiment

Photo was taken in the Summer of 1944

From left to right:

Captain Aleksandr Klubov 31 confirmed kills. Captain Klubov was killed on November 1st, 1944 in a training accident piloting La-7 fighter.

Captain Grigory Rechkalov 56 confirmed kills.

Leutenant Andrei Trud 25 confirmed kills.

Major Boris Glinka 27 confirmed kills. His younger brother, Dmitriy has been credited with 50 confirmed kills.

P-39Q in the background was a mount of Grigory Rechkalov

 

[NebrHogger]

Looks like 3 are Heroes of the Soviet Union - can't tell about the 4th.

 

[berkut76]

Looks like 3 are Heroes of the Soviet Union - can't tell about the 4th.

All four are Heroes of the Soviet Union. Andrei Trud got his in April of 1944.

 

[berkut76]

 

[Conhoon]

1942, Stalingrad area

Colour by Olga Shirnina (Klimbim)

 

[Conhoon]

U.S. Marines aim their rifles at the entrance to a cave after hurling an explosive charge to force out Japanese troops hiding on Okinawa, main island in the Ryuku chain, 375 miles from Japan. U.S. forces landed on Okinawa on March 31, 1945.

Colourised by Royston Leonard from the UK)

 

[Conhoon]

On March 31, 1892, General Stanisław Maczek was born. He was the commander of the 1st Armored Division of the Polish Army (fighting alongside the British army), which took part in the Battle of Falaise. He died in 1994.

 

[Conhoon]

Royal Engineers Sgt. Major with one wound stripe on his lower left sleeve. ca. January 1917

Taken by Louis and Antoinette Thuillier in Vignacourt , France.

(Colour by Doug)

 

[Conhoon]

(...because today is April 1st )

 

[Chazman]

 

[Fluff]

Kind of the whole story of the war. The germans had the biggest and best, the Allies had the most.

 

[Conhoon]

USS Wichita (CA-45) heavy cruiser April 3-4, 1942 in the North Atlantic, photo from the light cruiser HMS Edinburgh.

Black and white photo from the IWM collection

 

[Conhoon]

3 April 1940

Men of the 1st Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment, 4th Infantry Division enjoy a tot of rum in a section of trench named 'Pudding Lane', near Roubaix, a commune in the Nord department in northern France.

The 1st Battalion was part of the 10th Infantry Brigade, 4th Infantry Division of the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1940, returning to Britain via Dunkirk. After returning to the United Kingdom, the 1st Queen's Own was transferred to the 12th Infantry Brigade, still part of the 4th Division. It remained in Britain until 1943, leaving to take part in the Tunisian Campaign, the Italian Campaign and the Greek Civil War that broke out after the German withdrawal in 1944.

War Office official photographer - Lt. L A Puttnam
(© IWM F 3551)
(Colourised by Doug)

 

[BravoZulu]

Erwin Rommel as a Lieutenant, wearing a Pour le Mérite after the Battle of Caporetto on Italian front, WW1 late 1917

 

[Conhoon]

Polish sailors on board the destroyer ORP Błyskawica at anchor in a British port, enjoy a game of chess while others watch from their hammocks, 1939.

Colour by: Mateusz Prociak

 

[Conhoon]

Schooner "La Recouvrance", copy. The Schooner was designed by the French naval engineer Hubert in 1817.

 

[BravoZulu]

USN destroyers in San Diego, 1941

 

[Chazman]

USN destroyers in San Diego, 1941

They all appear to be the same class, why is the one in front longer?