Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[Conhoon]

MPs of the Provost Company, British 3rd Division on a BSA M20, meet those of the US 2nd (Indianhead) Division on the N24, at the liberation of Tinchebray-Bocage, in Normandy on August 15, 1944.

 

[Conhoon]

1944- Polish submarine ORP Dzik have returned to Britain after successful patrols in the Mediterranean.

 

[Conhoon]

2./Fallschirmjäger Division troopers sharing a ride on Pz. VI 'Tiger' Ausf E. Turmnummer 'S33' in a road march with Kampfgruppe Lammerding, 8.Kompanie, 2nd SS Panzerregiment, 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich." In the region of Berdychiv, near Zhytomyr, Ukraine. October-December 1943.

Colour by Doug

 

[Conhoon]

An inventive U.S. Army BAR gunner tries to keep his feet warm in the extreme cold during the winter of 1944, Ardennes, Belgium.

For Bernard Whittington, an enduring memory of his service as a U.S. Army corporal during the Battle of the Bulge was enduring bone-chilling cold.
Seventy-five years after the Kanawha County man took part in the bloody, but ultimately successful, effort to counter Nazi Germany’s last major offensive campaign of World War II, he is still plagued by symptoms from the frostbite that damaged tissue in both feet.
“It caused an infection in my left foot that caused problems I’ve never been able to shake,” the 99-year-old said.
Whittington arrived at the vicinity of Bastogne, Belgium, in early January 1945 as part of a relief column made up of elements of Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army.
“We arrived from the south and were attempting to push the Germans north,” Whittington recalled. “The Army planners didn’t see the German attack coming, and when it came, we didn’t have the proper clothes and equipment for fighting in the extreme cold.”
“When the wind died down, we could hear them talking to each other,” he said. Whittington assumed that the Germans could hear their American voices at similar times. But the two groups of enemies decided the night was too cold for any combat other than fighting to keep from freezing to death.
“They were just trying to get warm, too,” Whittington said. “I guess you could say we had a nonaggression pact in effect that night.”

 

[Conhoon]

1 Btn. KSOB, 52 Mountain Div. Sherman Firefly dug-in near Gangelt, on the Dutch/German border, 1 January 1945.

 

[Conhoon]

French soldiers with pack horses carrying disassembled machine guns. 1914

Bain News Service Publisher.
Colorisation by Sébastien de Oliveira
https://www.instagram.com/sebcolorisation/

 

[Conhoon]

Happy New Year for tomorrow everybody!
Soldiers of the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) 15th Scottish Division in the hutments at Henencourt on New Year's Day. 1917

Photo taken by Brooke, John Warwick (Lieutenant)
(Photo Source - IWM Q 4636)
Colourised by DBColour

 

[Conhoon]

Force-landed 308 (Polish) Squadron Spitfire Mk IX, ZF-T, MK346 flown by F/O Tadeusz Szlenkier (second left). The aircraft was slightly damaged probably by the fire of Fw. Hofmann flying a Focke-Wulf 190 A-8 of 3/JG 1, and run out of fuel, before force-landing in Sint-Denijs-Westrem, Ghent, Belgium. January 1, 1945

Szlenkier himself shot down another FW190 belonging to 8 Staffel of that unit.
Colourised by Doug

 

[Conhoon]

Austro-Hungarian officer showing his basic equipment (revolver, gas mask, grenades etc....), Galicia-Eastern front, 1915

 

[Conhoon]

Australian soldiers washing their gum boots outside the gum boot store at Houplines, near Armentieres. January 1917

Infantry and working parties were issued with dry boots from this store before going into the line, and on returning handed them back, after washing off the mud in the tubs provided for the purpose.
Unknown Australian Official Photographer
(Australian War Memorial - E00120)
Colourised by Doug

 

[Conhoon]

Battleship USS Idaho during fleet maneuvers, 3 July 1937.

 

[BravoZulu]

USS Maryland (BB-46) is shown front, USS Colorado (BB-45) next and USS Washington (BB-56). This photo taken by an aircraft from squadron ZP-33 off the Pacific Coast on May 1, 1944. Colourised

 

[Conhoon]

Major Jack K Holman MC from Truro, Cornwall, in the turret of his Sherman tank with the crew of C Squadron, Nottinghamshire Yeomanry (Sherwood Rangers), 8th Armoured Brigade, photographed the day of the investiture of his Military Cross by Lt.Gen.Montgomery ... and after recently accounting for three Tiger tanks in one day, 30 November 1944.

He was awarded the Military Cross for his actions at Berjou in Normandy and also the US Silver Star at Geilenkirchen making him one of the Regiments most decorated officers.
Colour by Doug @colourisinghistory
(The cap badges have been censored in this wartime photograph.) © IWM B 12253
Sgt Carpenter
No. 5 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit

 

[BravoZulu]

Three heavily armed members of No 2 SAS Regiment, draped with ammunition belts and each carrying components of a Vickers heavy machine gun, climb a mountain path as they go out on an operation to assist Italian partisans behind enemy lines in the Castino area of northern Italy. Apr-May 1945

 

[BravoZulu]

Fallschirmjägers landing near the Norwegian town of Narvik - April, 1940

 

[BravoZulu]

Boeing B-29 Superfortress X-55 “Limber Richard” (factory number 44-70072) of the 99th Bombardment Squadron / 9th Bombardment Group flying toward Japan with other squadron bombers, 1945

 

[Fluff]

Austro-Hungarian officer showing his basic equipment (revolver, gas mask, grenades etc....), Galicia-Eastern front, 1915

View attachment 363118

After you sir, we’ll be right behind you….

 

[Conhoon]

Jan Eugeniusz Ludwig Zumbach was a Polish fighter pilot who became an ace and Squadron Commander during WWII.
Zumbach did not fly during the German invasion of Poland due to a broken leg from a flying accident during the summer of 1939. He returned to his unit only to be evacuated to France via Romania. While in France, Zumbach flew the Morane 406 and Curtiss Hawk 75 with GCII/55. On 10 June, he was one of several pilots shot down by Bf 109s, but escaped unscathed. On 18 June 1940, he travelled to England by boat and on 2 August was posted as one of the founding members of the newly formed No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron.

During the Battle of Britain, Zumbach scored eight victories and one probable, mostly against Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters. Zumbach was shot down by a JG 3 Bf 109 over Dover on 9 May 1941 when returning from a mission, but he was again able to bail out unharmed.
Zumbach became one of the first Allied pilots to engage in combat with a German Focke-Wulf Fw 190, which he damaged; in return, his aircraft was damaged by a "single radial-engined fighter" on 13 October 1941. In December 1941, Zumbach was posted to 58 OTU, and in March 1942 returned to 303 Squadron as a flight commander. In May, he was promoted to squadron leader and took command of the squadron, a post Zumbach held from 19 May 1942 until 30 November 1943.
During this period, Zumbach flew three Supermarine Spitfire VBs, serial numbers BM144, EP594 and EN951. All these aircraft carried the same code, RF-D, "RF" being the squadron code for 303 Squadron and "D" the individual aircraft code. All three aircraft carried a cartoon of Donald Duck on the port side of the fuselage, slightly forward of the cockpit. Zumbach's victory tally was marked with German crosses under the cockpit on the port side; confirmed kills were outlined in white, probable kills in red, and damaged aircraft with no outline., can be seen.
After handing over command of 303 Squadron to Squadron Leader Bieńkowski, Zumbach spent a year in staff appointments, including the Polish Air Force Staff College. He returned to flying duties as the commander of the 2nd Polish Air Wing, No 133 Wing. On 25 September 1944, he scored his final victory of the war, a probable kill over a JG 26 Fw 190 over Arnhem.
On 30 January 1945, Zumbach was posted to HQ, No. 84 Group. While flying an Auster that was used to visit units under the Group's command, he made a navigational error and ran out of fuel. He force-landed in enemy territory and spent the final month of the war as a prisoner of war.
Zumbach's final victory tally was 12 (and two shared) confirmed kills, five probables and one damaged.
Colour by Mikołaj Kaczmarek - Kolor Historii

 

[Conhoon]

United States battleships Indiana (BB-58), Massachusetts (BB-59) and Alabama (BB-60) in combat formation underway seen from USS South Dakota, 1945.

Colour by Alex Colors Studio

 

[Conhoon]

U-929 was a Type VIIC/41 U-boat and was ordered on 2 April 1942, and was laid down on 20 March 1943, at Neptun Werft AG, Rostock, as yard number 516. She was commissioned under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Werner Schulz on 6 September 1944.

Service history
U-929 was scuttled north of Warnemünde on 1 May 1945, before she could participate in any war patrols.
She originally laid at position 54°15′N 12°04′ECoordinates: 54°15′N 12°04′E, before being raised in 1956, and broken up.