Photos WW2 British & Commonwealth Forces

[Bombardier]

Original wartime caption: Lancaster Aircraft "G for GEORGE" of No.460 SQUADRON R.A.A.F. Binbrook 1944.
© IWM CH 20519

 

[Bombardier]

The Home Guard: The machine gun section of Amersham Company, 5th Buckinghamshire Battalion Home Guard pictured with their Vickers gun mounted in an army lorry.
© IWM (H 5745)

 

[Bombardier]

An armourer loading the film magazine into the G45 camera gun fitted in a naval aircraft.
HMS DIPPER, Hendtridge. August 1944.
The G45 gun camera was used throughout WWII by British fighter units and armament schools from 1939 onwards (including by the RNZAF). It was designed and manufactured by the Williamson company of London and Reading and was developed from the G42B. It used 16 mm orthochromatic film supplied in 25 ft lengths with a frame speed of 16, 18 or 20 per second, these corresponding to the rates of fire of the Lewis, Vickers K and Browning machine guns. The G45 was fitted as standard on Fighter Command aircraft (Spitfire and Hurricanes). It was controlled by an electrical switch operated by the gun-firing pneumatic system. Post-war, the type continued to be used on RAF fighter aircraft
© IWM (A 25343)

 

[Bombardier]

HMS SALAMANDER (shoreside berth), HMS HALCYON (centre) and HMS GLEANER, minesweeping sloops, at the base at Londonderry. August 1943.
© IWM (A 18558)

 

[Bombardier]

Royal Marines of the 45th Royal Marine Commandos cook up a meal at Drevenack, 28th March 1945, after storming Wesel during Operation Plunder.
© IWM (A 27934)

 

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HMS Vanity underway.
© IWM (FL 20887)

 

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A Leading Seaman, with beard and smoking a pipe, is one of three sailors washing their clothes. They are sitting on deck of HMS VANITY, by the motor boat storage area washing their clothes in metal buckets.
© IWM (A 1244)

 

[Bombardier]

A member of the PAN (Partisan Action Netherlands) guides British troops to German positions near Valkenswaard, 25 September 1944.
© IWM (B 10309)

 

[BravoZulu]

Sherman of British 4th County of London Yeomanry, 22nd Armoured Brigade (Italy 1943)

 

[Bombardier]

Nursing sisters of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps (R.C.A.M.C.) examining the wreckage of a German tank in the Normandy bridgehead, France, 17 July 1944.
(L-R): Lieutenant M. Green, Captain H.M. Boutilier, Major Moya MacDonald.
https://amzn.to/2Lvsx28

 

[Bombardier]

Officers of The Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa (M.G.) with a Vickers Heavy Machine Gun, Lingfield, England, 8 April 1942.
https://amzn.to/3bLbaW5

 

[Bombardier]

A Morris-Commercial 15 cwt R-Type 4x2 truck in service with the Royal Tank Regiment, in October 1939.
Numbers of these vehicles accompanied the BEF to France beginning in September 1939 where most were subsequently lost.
As it was an already ageing design it was soon supplanted by the more modern MCC PU series.
(LIFE / Vandivert)

 

[Bombardier]

Between the wars the British Army led the way in military mechanization and the deployment of armoured forces.
Here we see a Medium Tank (A6E1) being loaded onto an early incarnation of the Scammell Pioneer transporter which went on to serve the British Army so well in WW2.
The Medium Tank (A6E1) was a Vickers-Armstrong design dating from 1930. Only three were built.
(IWM)

 

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The HMS Hood battlecruiser of the Royal Navy on the way

 

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Curious Londoners gather to watch a dump-truck deposit a load of sand in Central London, May 1940.
This sand is being used by the soldiers to fill sand-bags to protect public buildings and to create blast shelters for civilians.
Note the sign on the lamp-post directing people to the "trenches" in St James Park.
(LIFE / Vandivert)

 

[Bombardier]

Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks speaks to the crew of a Cromwell tank of XXX Corps, which he commanded during the ill-fated advance towards Arnhem in September 1944.
He is seen here during "Operation Veritable"...the fighting around Nijmegen in February 1945.
Horrocks had an easy manner and was popular with the men under his command. However, he was not really a well man having been seriously wounded by a strafing attack in Libya barely a year before he took command of XXX Corps.
He wears an airborne Denison smock with a red-trimmed, staff officers' service cap.
The men wear winter-issue "pixie suits", issued to British / Commonwealth tankies during the NW European winter of 1944-45...a very well-designed, warm and practical garment for wearing inside a cold steel box!
(LIFE / Silk)

 

[Bombardier]

During the 19th century many canals and related locks were excavated across Great Britain linking the major industrial cities to facilitate the transportation of goods and materials between them, and as a supplement to the railways.
The vessels which plied their trade along them were variously known as canal barges or narrow-boats, for obvious reasons.
By the middle of the 20th century their hey-day was over. However, as these images illustrate they were still put to good use during WW2.
Newly manufactured munitions direct from the factory are being carefully stacked aboard a canal barge for transportation to their destination.
Today, many of the old canals still exist but are now used exclusively for leisure purposes by owners of gaily-painted narrow-boats.
(LIFE / Vandivert)

 

[Bombardier]

HM Submarine Thunderbolt on 1st April 1942 at Blyth harbour just after returning from operations in the Mediterranean. Originally named HM Submarine Thetis she sank on tests on 1st of June when a supposedly clear torpedo tube was opened leading to an inrush of sea water. Despite valiant attempts to save the crew 99 crew & shipyard workers lost their lives. There was 4 survivors. The submarine was eventually raised and renamed HMS Thunderbolt & put back into service. Thunderbolt was sunk on 14th March 1943 off Sicily by the Italian corvette which had detected her and attacked with depth charges. All hands were lost.

 

[Bombardier]

Officers and men of the motor torpedo boat M.T.B. 459 of the Canadian-manned 29th Flotilla, Royal Navy, Ramsgate, England, May 1944.
https://amzn.to/3icNHxU

 

[Bombardier]

Mass drop from Douglas 'Dakota' aircraft of personnel of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion. Salisbury Plain, England. 6 Feb. 1944
https://amzn.to/39CdFqO¨¨