Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[Conhoon]

A Lance Naik (Lance Corporal) of the Indian 112th Infantry, 34th Brigade (17th Division), kneeling in a trench during the Battle of Sharqat, Mesopotamia 28-30 October 1918. Two days later the Turks surrendered and an armistice was declared.

(Photo source - © IWM Q 24746)
Color by Frédéric Duriez

 

[Conhoon]

The submarine of the Soviet Navy Щ-115 on parade on May 1, 1943, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Avacha Bay.

 

[BravoZulu]

Battleship Conte Di Cavour, WWI colorized by Irootoko Jr.

 

[BravoZulu]

USS Buck, battleship USS Wisconsin, and heavy cruiser USS Saint Paul off Korea, 22 Feb 1952

 

[BravoZulu]

Battleship Richelieu in the harbour of Toulon, France in April 1946.

 

[BravoZulu]

Task Group 38.3 Washington (BB-56), North Carolina (BB-55), South Dakota (BB-57), & Santa Fe (CL-60). Biloxi (CL-80), Mobile (CL-63), & Oakland (CL-95)] entering Ulithi anchorage in a column following strikes in Philippine Islands, 24 December 1944.

 

[Conhoon]

Two Soviet Bryansk partisans, one of them a child, pictured in 1943.

The forests of Bryansk were home to some of the largest Soviet Partisan formations during the war. Like the other great forests of the western Soviet Union, it provided relative safety against incursions by the Germans and their local auxiliary police, who were loath to pursue partisans into the dense dark primeval forests and mosquito-infested swamps.
From their forest bases partisans would set out on raids against strategic targets such as railroads. The southern Bryansk forest also acted as a base for partisan incursions into the Ukrainian steppe. In some areas, the partisans even held control over villages due to the Germans' inability to effectively police their rear. Partisans also denied the Germans access to much of the grain, livestock and lumber in areas under their influence.
The presence of children in partisan detachments was not a rarity, as they were relied on as agents and scouts who would draw less attention from enemy forces than a military-age man would.
A report from the German 4th Army regarding partisans from March of 1942 reads: "They also possess an excellent intelligence service for which they prefer to use women and children in order to avoid suspicion." A report of the 339th Security Division from the same period stated: "Small children and very old men who seem to be completely harmless persons are the best scouts. In this way they are always informed about impending operations and can best evade them."
Children could end up in partisan detachments through circumstances such as being orphaned or being driven out of their homes by German retribution operations or join them voluntarily. A former Pskov partisan, Anatoly Yunkov, described how as an 11 year-old he along with several others, including his older brother, left their village to join a nearby partisan unit. Zhorzh Yemelin, born in 1931, described his father's decision to bring his wife and son with him to the partisans instead of sending them to be evacuated.

 

[Conhoon]

2 November 1918
New Zealanders at Pont-a-Pierres, Beaudignies in France, moving wounded German soldiers onto stretchers. The Germans had been brought down on a farm cart from the front line.

On the 24th October, Beaudignies' position was secured and the NZ regiments of Otago and Canterbury were relieved by battalions of the Rifle Brigade. Beaudignies became the base camp for the New Zealanders. The various headquarters of the regiments were installed in the farms of the village; The hospital for first aid was at Pont-à-Pierres, where also was concentrated the many German prisoners. The village also saw a bivouac of the regiment of Maoris who have just rebuilt a bridge over the St. George.
For more than a week, until November 4th preparations were made to bring the New Zealand field artillery in the utmost secrecy to the outskirts of Quesnoy. Normal activity was maintained (many raids) but ammunition was routed by nightfall. The village on the front line was bombed several times by the enemy.
On the morning of November 4 1918, the battalions engaged in the Battle of Quesnoy and left Beaudignies. The 1st and 3rd Battalion (in support) of the Rifle Brigade left by the road at the exit of the village to bypass southeast Le Quesnoy. The New Zealand field artillery was first installed in the fields at the exit of Beaudignies.
(Photo source - National Library of New Zealand)
Ref: 1/2-013697-G
Photographer - Henry Armytage Sanders
Colour by Doug

 

[Conhoon]

Royal Dutch Navy Crew members of submarine Hr.Ms. O-21 get in some fresh air while surfaced.

O 21, laid down K XXI, was an O 21-class submarine of the Royal Netherlands Navy that saw service during World War II. During the war she sank several ships, among them the German submarine U-95.
The O 21 class was a class of seven submarines, built for the Royal Netherlands Navy.
The boats were still incomplete at the start of the German invasion of the Netherlands O 21, O 22, O 23 and O 24 were hastily launched and escaped to the United Kingdom. O 25, O 26 and O 27 were not able to escape and were captured by the German forces. The Kriegsmarine ordered the completion of the boats and they entered German service as UD-3, UD-4 and UD-5.
Colourised PIECE of JAKE
This photo was taken by captain J.F. van Dulm himself.
He was a keen photographer/filmer

 

[Conhoon]

Uffz. Herbert Maxis' IV./ JG 53 Bf 109 G-14

On 1 January 1945, during operation Bodenplatte JG 53 had orders to attack the airfield at Frescaty near Metz. Before reaching the target Uffz. Herbert Maxis took hits from an American anti-aircraft position (the 455th AAA Bn., 'A' Battery) stationed at Oberfelsberg. Maxis force landed only 200 yards from the American positions and was shot and killed climbing down from the cockpit.
this image shows the 109 after the souvenir hunters had removed many pieces.

 

[Conhoon]

Aircewmen slip into their flight gear in the ready-room aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) for an air strike on Manila. November 5 1944

The carrier sortied from Ulithi with TF 38 on 2 November 1944. She joined the other carriers as they resumed their extended air cover for the ground forces supporting the Battle of Leyte. She launched her first air strike on the morning of 5 November. The aircraft of her air group spent the next two days pummeling enemy shipping near Luzon and air installations on that island. Her aircraft bombed and strafed the airfields at Zablan, Mandaluyong, and Pasig. They also joined those of other carriers in sinking the heavy cruiser Nachi. In addition, Ticonderoga pilots claimed six Japanese aircraft shot down and one destroyed on the ground, as well as 23 others damaged.
Around 16:00 on 5 November, the enemy attacked with a group of kamikaze aircraft. Two of the suicide aircraft penetrated the American combat air patrol and antiaircraft fire to crash into the aircraft carrier Lexington. Ticonderoga emerged from that attack unscathed and claimed a tally of two splashes. On 6 November, the warship launched two fighter sweeps and two bombing strikes against the Luzon airfields and enemy shipping in the vicinity. Her airmen returned later that day claiming the destruction of 35 Japanese aircraft and attacks on six enemy ships in Manila Bay. After recovering her aircraft, the carrier retired to the east to resupply. (Wiki)
(Photo source - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)
Taken by military photojournalist - Wayne Miller
(Colourised by Lamont Cranston from Ireland)

 

[Conhoon]

5 November 1943
US Navy pilots, (in front) Lieutenant (jg) Henry H. Dearing of Cleveland, Ohio, Ensign Charles W. Miller of Houston, Texas and Lieutenant (jg) Bus Alder of San Mateo, California walking toward their Grumman F6F-3 'Hellcats' aboard the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3).
These men provided fighter coverage for Avenger torpedo bombers and Dauntless dive bombers.

On November 5th 1943, in response to reports of Japanese cruisers concentrating at Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, the Saratoga aircraft penetrated the heavily defended port and disabled most of the Japanese cruisers, ending the surface threat to Bougainville. Saratoga herself escaped unscathed.
(Photo by Lt. Wayne Miller of the U.S. Navy Combat Photo Unit)
(Colourised by Doug)

 

[Conhoon]

Street battles for the regional center Pogoreloe Gorodishche, 1942

Photo by Chernov
Colour by Olga Shirnina

 

[Chazman]

Warsaw insurgents from the legendary "Zośka" Battalion in the liberated "Gęsiówka" concentration camp.

View attachment 243196

From the left are: Wojciech Omyła "Wojtek", Juliusz Bogdan Deczkowski "Laudański" and Tadeusz Milewski "Ćwik".
The photo was taken on the day the camp was liberated on August 5, 1944.
A few minutes after the photo was taken, a German artillery shell hit the wall above their heads. Ćwik was killed on the same day on August 5 by an artillery shell. Wojtek died on August 8. Juliusz Deczkowski survived the war and died in 1998.

I've noticed that camo'd SS smocks were very common, if not universally used by the Warsaw fighters. Where did they get them? I'm imagining from captured SS stocks?

 

[Conhoon]

Battle of the Ancre. An Army Chaplain helping along a wounded German prisoner taken on 13 November 1916. Near Aveluy Wood.

(Photo source- © IWM Q 4505)
Colourised by Doug

 

[Conhoon]

I've noticed that camo'd SS smocks were very common, if not universally used by the Warsaw fighters. Where did they get them? I'm imagining from captured SS stocks?

The camouflage uniforms of the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS, popularly referred to by Poles as "panthers", became a symbol of the Warsaw Uprising. On the first day of the Warsaw Uprising, one of the tasks of the Polish Home Army soldiers was to capture German warehouses at Stawki street. They did not know what was in those magazines, they counted on weapons and ammunition, but there were only two things: food and a lot of German camouflage uniforms, the so-called "panther". "Panthers" turned the insurgents into a kind of uniformed army. In the course of the fighting, the German command issued a ban on wearing uniforms with camouflage prints in order to avoid mistakes when recognizing the units.

 

[Conhoon]

Men of the 36th Infantry Division advance through a banana grove in Burma, 6 November 1944.

Colour by Doug @colourisinghistory
(photo source -© IWM SE 2551)

 

[Conhoon]

November 7th, 1944, Major John Knox, with General Daser as a prisoner of war, leaves the German headquarters in Middelburg. Province of Zeeland, the Netherlands

Germans surrender to a 'fake' Colonel
The defeated commander of the German army in Middelburg has officially surrendered on 7 November. This required a trick: the status-sensitive General Daser did not want to surrender to anyone lower in rank than a colonel, but the liberators did not have a colonel under him.
Major Johnston "borrowed" the missing insignia from another officer for the occasion and introduced himself to Daser as Colonel. With protocol fulfilled, the general agreed to surrender and surrendered his pistol. And eleven bottles of champagne, Veuve Clicquot from a good year, which the general still had in his bedroom.
The Allies took the city on November 6 without firing a shot. The 2,000 Germans in the city rushed to surrender to the 200 British soldiers who arrived.
General Daser, however, still resisted. He lay in bed all night with a headache. With aspirins and a down blanket over his head, says an English soldier who kept watch on his doorstep.
His men had to spend the long cold night at De Markt. Congregated and disarmed, they were guarded under the starry sky with machine guns and then transferred to the prisoner of war camp in Antwerp. They are taken away by boat.
The captured soldiers of the 70th Division are also referred to as the 'Stomach ache' Division, because they all had stomach problems. By placing the soldiers all together, they could be treated more easily and all received a special ration, for example with white bread.
Like his soldiers, Daser goes to a POW camp in Antwerp. When he boarded a sailboat that would take him across, he tried to hide his face, which betrayed a bad mood.
But the captain of the sailboat turned the boat so that the photographers could still see Daser's face. Daser turned his back on them again. That game went on for a while, the German pow's standing on the quay had a good laugh about it.

 

[BravoZulu]

Battleship USS Alabama (BB-60) on shakedown off Maine in early February 1943. Two months later after this photo was taken, Alabama would head east to join the British Home Fleet at Scapa Flow

 

[BravoZulu]

Battleship USS North Carolina (BB-55) seen from off her starboard quarter on 24 September 1944. She had just completed a refit at Puget Sound Navy Yard following the Marianas Campaign.