Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

The M2 Browning 50 Caliber machine guns on a P-40E Kittyhawk are tested fired on the Curtiss Wright firing range at Buffalo, New York. March 1942.

Photo by Curtiss-Wright Corporation

The surprise US Army 14th Air Force attack on the Kowloon Docks in Hung Hom Bay, Kowloon, on October 16, 1944.

A Japanese fighter plane can be seen rising to meet the bombers. Hong Kong Island is at the bottom left.

American Marines speed away from USS Sheridan on a landing barge approaching the Japanese-held island of Tarawa, Gilbert Islands, in the Pacific; one Marine shows a picture of a pin-up girl to others as Tarawa burns in the background.

Some pictures in full Color of the Japanese Atack on Pearl Harbour December 7 1941

General Montgomery stops his staff car (Humber Super Snipe M239459) to offer cigarettes to troops digging out a bogged Sherman tank, while visiting the Sangro front, 21 November 1943.

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US Marines advance behind the fire support of an M4A2 Sherman tank of the Tank Company, 4th Marines, on Guam, July 1944.

The First Battle of Guam commenced on 8 December 1941, immediately in response to the previous day's attack on Pearl Harbour by the Japanese.

The island, part of the group making up the Mariana Islands, had been a US territory since 1898 following its capture from Spain. Nonetheless, the US had a relatively small force on the island comprised of approximately 500 Marines and several hundred Navy personnel; significantly smaller than neighbouring Saipan.

So unexpected had the attack on Pearl Harbour been, that the US forces were unprepared for hostilities and the resistance was only sustained for a few days before the US surrendered to the invading Japanese forces on 10 December. Thirteen Americans were killed during the battle.
The retaking of the Mariana Islands was a key strategic target for Allied forces in the Pacific, putting heavy B-29 bombers within range of the Japanese main islands.

The second battle of Guam began July 21, 1944, and lasted through the first week of August, 1944. The US lost over 1,500 killed during the Battle for Guam, with the Japanese having over 18,000 killed in action.

Dominic Salvatore "Don" Gentile (December 6, 1920 – January 28, 1951), also known as "Ace of Aces", was a World War II USAAF pilot who surpassed Eddie Rickenbacker's World War I record of 26 downed aircraft. He later served in the post-war U.S. Air Force.

Here, Gentile poses in front of his P-47 (336th Fighter Squadron, 4th Fighter Group).

Two victories on the scoreboard indicate this photo was taken before the January 5th, 1944 mission when he shot down a single FW 190.
The nose art on the cowling was applied first to 42-7884 but when he switched to 42-8659, he had the painted cowling swapped to his new plane.

German Paratroopers most probably from Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 8 taken as POWs by the 415th Infantry Regt.,104th Infantry Division (Timberwolves), US 3rd Army standing at the entrance to the coal processing plant (The Factory) just west of Lucherberg, Germany. 3rd to 4th December 1944.

A reference to a FJR8 Trooper, Funker Güngerich
"By the end of October again he was transferred to another unit, this time to the "Stab" of the Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 8, where he stayed only a few days, there on the 27th of October he was sent to the 15th company (Pionier/Engineer), of the FJR8.
Just in time because the 3rd Fallschirmjäger was again sent to the front, this time towards Aachen, where the 3rd Fallschirmjäger Division was sent to the northern tip of the Hürtgenwald to repel the American attacks launched there by the US 1st Infantry Division "Big Red One". With success they kept the Americans at distance but with heavy losses on their side. By the end of November 1944 the Americans succeeded in reaching the forest edge near the town of Merode and Düren.

Here Güngerich's regiment and company fought several "close-combat" days, all to repel the American's from breaking through into the "Cologne plane". By the beginning of December 1944 his unit was sent towards the towns of Luchem and Lucherberg, where the battle against the US 104th Infantry Division "Timberwolves" was very severe. As the towns were finally captured by the Americans, Funker was one of the 400 prisoners who were captured around the 3rd and 4th of December 1944."

(historicalwarmilitariaforum)
Company 'E' 415th Infantry, 104th ID and the attack at Lutzeber Château;
The platoon approached the Château without encountering resistance. The Château was surrounded by a moat, which the platoon crossed without difficulty, encountering only one soldier at a gateway, who was killed. During a search of the chateau nine Germans were found in the basement and taken prisoner. Evidently the building had been the CP of the 3rd Fallschirmjäger Division's reconnaisance company, which were in the process of being relieved by the Tenth Kompanie, Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 8

1st Bn., 333rd Regt., 84th Inf. Div., 9th US Army Infantrymen (L) Pvt. Lee Stuhl of Miami, FL., and Pvt. Olen Shaw, of Russell Springs, KY with an M1919A4 30 Cal. Browning HMG, take cover in a crop of turnips while moving up on a pillbox during maneuvers held near the front lines in Prummern, Germany. December 10, 1944.

A sniper demonstrates his camouflage (note: German Waffen-S S Camo Pattern: named unofficially “Early Plane Tree”) at a sniper school in a French village, July 27, 1944.

The lesson here was probably “Know Your Enemy” to demonstrate how German Snipers were clothed

US 32nd Infantry Division soldier in Buna, New Guinea with a captured Japanese Lewis Type 92 light machine gun. ca. November-December 1942

The Japanese manufactured the Lewis M/G for their Special Naval Landing Forces as the type 92 in 7.7X57SR and were used in the Pacific theatre.

The Battle of Buna, 19 November 1942 - 2 January 1943, was one part of the Allied attack on the Japanese beach-head on the northern coast of Papua (along with the battles of Gona and Sanananda). This beach-head had been established to allow the Japanese to launch an overland assault over the Kokoda Trail to Port Moresby, the Capital of Papua New Guinea.
This attack came within thirty miles of Port Moresby, before an Australian counterattack forced the Japanese back along the trail.

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Central Women’s School of Sniper Training, Veshnyaki, Moscow 1943

GREAT bunch of pictures Santana, love the Pearl Harbor pics several of those I've not seen before, thanks for posting!!

uktabber said:

GREAT bunch of pictures Santana, love the Pearl Harbor pics several of those I've not seen before, thanks for posting!!

Click to expand...

Any time my friend !!!

A Martin PBM-5 Mariner patrol bomber, of Fleet Air Wing One refuels from a fuel bowser boat in Tanapag Harbor, Saipan, May 1945.

Note the plane's radar antenna atop the fuselage and loaded .50 cal machineguns in her bow turret.

The crew of the Polish Navy destroyer ORP Piorun watches as a tanker refuels their ship, 1941

Gunners of a Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery (R.C.A.) manning a 40mm Bofors gun on guard against "tip-and-run" raids by Fw-190s, positioned opposite the Grand Hotel on the Kings Road promenade in Brighton, Sussex. March 1943. Library and Archives Canada

Battle Of Buna-Gona.
A weary American soldier takes a rest during a lull in the fighting, Buna area, Papua New Guinea, 1942 / 1943.


The Battle of Buna–Gona was part of the New Guinea campaign in the Pacific Theatre during WWII.
It followed the conclusion of the Kokoda Track campaign and lasted from 16 November 1942 until 22 January 1943.
Operations in Papua and New Guinea were severely hampered by terrain, vegetation, climate, disease and the lack of infrastructure; these imposed significant logistical limitations. During the Kokoda Track campaign, these factors applied more-or-less equally to both belligerents but favoured the defender in attacks against well-fortified positions.
George Strock
War photographer George Strock was assigned by Life to the Southwest Pacific Area and covered the Battle of Buna-Gona from November 1942 to January 1943. Strock was nearly killed at least twice during his assignment on New Guinea in late 1942 and early 1943.
“When I took pictures, I wanted to bring the viewer into the scene,” Mr. Strock told an interviewer. In one instance, he took a timed exposure of an apparently dead Japanese soldier in a coconut log bunker.
After taking a second picture, a shot rang out from behind him.
I turned around. "What are you shooting at?" I asked one of the officers. "The bastard sat up and was blinking his eyes," he said. "And it was this very guy that I had photographed. He had concealed a hand-grenade in his left hand. I didn’t notice, but the picture showed that he had it. He sat up and was going to clobber me, and the officer shot him."

Photo: LIFE / Photographer: George Strock

HMS Howe, a British King George V-class battleship passes through the Suez Canal on her way to join the British Pacific Fleet (Task Force 113), 14 July 1944.

HMS Howe was sent to the Pacific, where she provided naval bombardments for the landings at Okinawa on 1 April 1945.

Imperial War Museum

Posted by @BravoZulu

USS Intrepid (CV-11) between August-December 1944 seen in original colour