Photos WW2 British & Commonwealth Forces

[BravoZulu]

Bougainville Campaign. Battle of Slater's Knoll. 30 March 1945. Australian 2/4th Armoured Regiment Matilda tanks advance along Buin Road over Slater's Knoll, towards the Hongorai River. They are supported by 25 Infantry Battalion troops and a bulldozer

 

[BravoZulu]

A Bren gunner of the British 36th Infantry Division guards a jungle path in an area recently cleared by artillery fire near Pinwe, Burma; November 1944.

 

[BravoZulu]

29 September 1942 Three Avro Lancaster B Mark Is of No 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron, Royal Air Force based at Waddington, Lincolnshire, flying above the clouds. Left to right: W4125,`KM-W', being flown by Sergeant Colin Watt, Royal Australian Air Force; W4162,`KM-Y', flown by Pilot Officer T G Hackney (later killed while serving with No 83 Squadron); and W4187,`KM-S', flown by Pilot Officer J D V S Stephens DFM, who was killed with his crew two nights later during a raid on Wismar.

Over his long career, Colin accumulated almost 29,000 flying hours on 21 aircraft types. He is a member of the RAAF Association, was a long-term member of the Civil Aviation Historical Society SA, and travelled every year to the UK for 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron reunions right up until 2010. He was elected Honorary Vice President of 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron Association and in 2014 he was made an Honorary Member of the South Australian Aviation Museum in recognition of his contribution to aviation.

Colin has had a lifetime commitment to the child retardation sector, supporting the Mentally Retarded Children’s Society, the Australian Association for the Mentally Retarded and Minda as a lifetime board member. In 1979 he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for community service.

Colin Watt OAM DFM, passed away in 2019

 

[BravoZulu]

Maori troops at the port of Alexandria in Egypt following their evacuation from Crete. From 28 May to 1 June 1941, 18,000 Australian, New Zealand and British troops were rescued by the RN after they were forced to withdraw from the island following their defeat by German paratroopers.

 

[BravoZulu]

Australian soldiers in a trench at Tobruk; August 1941. Privates William Goodgame, Gordon Watkins and Charles Stening from the 2/10 Battalion, in the salient, August 1941. Goodgame and Watkins were both killed at Buna, Papua, on Christmas Eve 1942.

 

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South African engineers laying mines in Egypt, 2 July 1942.

 

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Borneo Campaign. 5 July 1945. Australian soldiers of 2/32nd Battalion, 9th Division, at Beaufort railway station.

 

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Bevin Boys - after Minister of Labour Ernest Bevin - were conscripted to serve in British coal mines from December 1943.

 

[BravoZulu]

Exhausted but alive, Bomber Command aircrew from No. 9 Squadron RAF stand beside their Avro Lancaster after raiding Stettin, Germany on 9 January 1944.

FLYING OFFICER ALBERT MANNING and his crew with Avro Lancaster B Mark I ‘WS-J’/W4964 ‘Johnnie Walker’ of No. 9 Squadron RAF on 6 January 1944 after attacking Stettin, Germany. Image Copyright © IWM. IWM catalogue reference CH 11972. Original source: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205210406

Avro Lancaster B Mark I ‘WS-J’/W4964’Johnnie Walker‘ – named after a well-known brand of whisky – was ultimately a lucky aircraft, surviving over 100 trips to Occupied Europe and then becoming an instructional airframe in December 1944.

Albert Manning and his crew were not so fortunate.

They failed to return while flying another of the Squadron Lancaster – LM430 – on an operation to Frankfurt on the night of 22 March 1944. Flying Officer Manning had 20 operations to his credit by this time.

Albert was 28 years old.

Today the crew – which on the night in question included Group Captain N C Pleasance the Commanding Officer of RAF Station Bardney in Lincolnshire, where No. 9 Squadron RAF were based – rest in Brussels Town Cemetery.

They were some of the ninety-nine airforce deaths that occurred that day.

 

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Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery inspects a coastal defence gun at Benghazi, Libya, on December 7, 1942.

 

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Rare colour photo of three Fleet Air Arm pilots standing next to a Supermarine Seafire onboard HMS Indomitable, 1943. The one on the left is a member of the Royal Naval Reserve and the one in the right is a member of the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve

 

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Supermarine Seafire Mk. XV of 801 Squadron loses its undercarriage and auxiliary tank to the wire while attempting to land on HMS Implacable

 

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OTD in 1942, Rottingdean. 11th Armoured Division, passing through. Corporal Stephenson speaking to five year old Pat Brooker

 

[Connaught Ranger]

Maori troops at the port of Alexandria in Egypt following their evacuation from Crete. From 28 May to 1 June 1941, 18,000 Australian, New Zealand and British troops were rescued by the RN after they were forced to withdraw from the island following their defeat by German paratroopers.
View attachment 316137

At least one nazi para is down his machine pistol lol!!

 

[BravoZulu]

2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment man the "Gort Line" at Rumegies, France on the Belgian border; January 1940. This was a defensive line forming a northern extension of the Maginot Line. Both lines proved ineffective when the British and French were flanked by the Germans in the Ardennes.

The line was constructed by British troops and named after Lord John Vereker, the 6th Viscount Gort. He is best known for being the CO of the British Expeditionary Force that was sent to France in 1939-40. Gort later served as Governor of Gibraltar and Malta, and High Commissioner for Palestine and Transjordan.

He was also a recipient of the Victoria Cross and the father-in-law of another recipient, William Sidney

 

[BravoZulu]

Soldier of the 2 Canadian Infantry Division looks at a portrait of Hitler hanging on the wall of a house with a knife. Calcar, Germany. 28 Feb. 1945.

Credit: Ken Bell/Canada. Dept. of National Defence/Library and Archives Canada/PA-140881

 

[BravoZulu]

Led by their piper, men of the 7th Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders, 46th (Highland) Brigade, advance during the First Battle of the Odon; 26-June-1944. The Odon river is in Normandy, France and the battle was part of the British offensive to take the city of Caen, which was captured on 9-July-1944.

 

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RAF ground crew load up a Bomber Command Mosquito of No. 128 Squadron with a 4,000 lb ‘Cookie’ bomb marked ‘Happy Xmas Adolf’, Wyton, England, 1945.

 

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Troops try to find cover during an air raid on the Dunkirk beaches, 4th June 1940

 

[BravoZulu]

Sherman Firefly tank; Namur, Belgium 1944