Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

[santana]

A Soviet propaganda photograph shows the body of a fallen defender in Berlin, with several Soviet soldiers rushing to take up positions in the street fighting taking place in the city. The fallen soldier is wearing a "RAD" patch. There is another version of this photograph showing the same fallen soldier in a different position with his helmet turned inside out and the Brandenburg Gate in the background. Berlin, 1945, Germany.

On the 27th, Gatow Airfield fell, as did all sectors east of the Charlottenburg district. The grand Unter der Linden boulevard was very close, and even after managing to cross the Landwehr Canal at some points, some of Chuikov's tanks recklessly approached the Reichstag, though they did not survive to tell the tale. Given the determined defense and the alarming number of casualties, Chuikov decided on a more cautious approach, despite the pressure from Zhukov, who wanted the Reichstag to fall before May 1st. He began using heavy artillery in direct fire against the defenders, and, once identified positions had been reduced to rubble, he began a cautious advance with tanks escorted by small units of the already scarce infantry, to avoid the ubiquitous Panzerfausts. Even rocket launchers and heavy 120mm and 160mm mortars were used, almost at point-blank range. The numerous 45.57mm and 76.2mm anti-tank guns were also used in direct fire against the strongpoints. Unable to counter this firepower, the defenders gradually withdrew, but at a heavy price, especially in tanks. These were particularly vulnerable to the ubiquitous Panzerfaust and Panzerschreck, more than capable of disabling even an IS-II or an ISU-152 from 100 or 150 meters. The average advance rate did not exceed 50 meters per hour, and this came at the cost of suffering casualties unbearable for most armies. Although Zhukov had ordered the attacks to continue through the night, in practice, given the inherent difficulties of night combat and the harshness of fighting among ruins, most Russian soldiers used the hours of darkness to rest, loot, get drunk, and rape, leaving the artillery to harass the defenders.

Throughout the day, furious and desperate fighting took place in the enormous Tiergarten, defended by the few survivors of the 18th Panzergrenadier Division and the Nordland Division.

 

[Redav]

Wehrmacht troops reach the Swiss-French border, 1940

 

[SirHiggins]

Fallschirmjäger of the 2. Fallschirmjäger Division and Italian troops monitor the Rome-Vatican City border, 1943View attachment 561964

The two italians from the PAI, the Polizia dell Africa Italiana.
They were stationed in Rome, after the withdrawal from N-Africa

 

[Redav]

PUAZO SL-8 on the battleship Bismarck. The SL-8 was part of the anti-aircraft fire control system. It was designed to calculate firing angles and timing for the secondary 10.5 cm anti-aircraft guns. Besides targeting, these directors managed fuse settings for the shells. These settings were applied via a fuse-setting apparatus mounted externally on the gun shields. By the time of its final mission in May 1941, Bismarck had two forward SL-8 directors equipped with conical domes that housed the standard rangefinder, while the other two still featured their temporary equipment in an open position. While the 10.5 cm guns were controlled by these directors, smaller anti-aircraft weaponry, such as the 3.7 cm and 2 cm guns, did not have centralized fire direction control.

The SL-8 (Stabilisiertes Leitgerät 8) on the German battleship Bismarck was an early analog fire-control computer designed to solve a very difficult problem in real time: how to hit fast-moving aircraft with shells that take several seconds to arrive.
Here’s how it worked, step by step:
1. Gathering target data
Operators used optical rangefinders and directors (since radar was still limited) to measure:
Range (distance to the aircraft)
Bearing (direction)
Altitude
Target speed and course (estimated from tracking over time)
These inputs were continuously updated as the aircraft moved.
2. Stabilization (key feature)
The SL-8 was stabilized, meaning it compensated for the ship’s motion:
Roll
Pitch
Yaw
Gyroscopes and mechanical stabilizers kept the calculations referenced to a steady “horizontal plane,” so the guns wouldn’t aim wrong just because the ship was rocking in the sea.
3. Predicting where the aircraft will be
This is the core of the system.
The SL-8 didn’t aim at where the aircraft was — it calculated where it would be when the shell arrived.
To do that, it solved a form of relative motion problem:
Shell flight time depends on range and muzzle velocity
Aircraft position changes during that time
So the computer continuously computed a lead angle (how far ahead to aim).
Conceptually, it’s similar to solving:
�
But in reality, the SL-8 handled this mechanically using gears, cams, and rotating shafts.
4. Ballistic corrections
The system also applied corrections for:
Gravity (shell drop)
Air resistance
Muzzle velocity variations
Wind (if known)
These were built into the machine via cams shaped to represent ballistic curves.
5. Fuse timing (critical for AA fire)
The 10.5 cm AA guns used time-fused shells.
The SL-8 calculated:
When the shell should explode in the air
It then automatically set the fuse timing just before the shell was loaded/fired.
6. Output to the guns
The final outputs were:
Gun elevation (vertical angle)
Gun bearing (horizontal direction)
Fuse setting
These were transmitted electrically or mechanically to the gun mounts, allowing coordinated, centralized fire control.
7. Continuous tracking loop
Everything above happened continuously:
As the aircraft maneuvered
As the ship moved
As conditions changed
Operators kept tracking, and the SL-8 kept updating firing solutions in real time.
Big picture
The SL-8 was essentially:
A mechanical analog computer
Solving relative motion + ballistics + stabilization
In real time, under combat conditions
For its time (late 1930s–early 1940s), it was extremely advanced—comparable in concept to Allied systems like the British HACS or the American Mk 37 director.

 

[Redav]

Crowds gather after an Heinkel He 111 carrying Belgian Rexist leader and Waffen-SS officer Léon Degrelle crash-landed on La Concha Beach, San Sebastián, Spain, 8 May 1945.

 

[Redav]

Swiss border guards and Liechtenstein auxiliary police closely monitor the Liechtenstein–Austrian/German frontier as Nazi Germany collapses nearby, May 1945

 

[Conhoon]

The iconic image Spitfire Vb, serial EN821, 'SN-M' of 243 Squadron RAF, taken in July 1942.

This image was later the inspiration for Barrie A.F. Clarks beautiful oil painting.
Photo: World War Photos.
Photographer: Charles E. Brown.
Image Repair & Colourisation - Nathan Howland

 

[santana]

Clemens Graf von Schönborn-Wiesentheid was a German Air Force officer who commanded the Arad Air Command and Sturzkampfgeschwader 77 (StG 77, 77th Dive Bomber Wing) during the Axis-led invasion of Poland and Yugoslavia in World War II. He died in an air crash in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1944. He was scheduled to attend a staff meeting when his aircraft went down.

 

[santana]

Tiger 131 captured by the British in North Africa. May 6 of 1943.

Now in Bovington Tank Museum, UK and was used in the movie "Fury". It is the only known working Tiger I.

 

[santana]

5 May 1944
75mm HE (high explosive ) shells being loaded into a Sherman tank of the Royal Tank Regiment, in use in the indirect artillery role in the Anzio bridgehead.

(Possibly the 46th (Liverpool Welsh) Royal Tank Regiment)

(each round weighed approx 6.7kgs (14.8lbs)

 

[santana]

May 4, 1945
German General Max von Edelsheim is escorted by American Army officers in his command VW Schwimmwagen across the River Elbe during the negotiations of the surrender of XXXXVIII Panzerkrops to the US Army.
The bulk of the retreating German forces, along with several thousand civilians fleeing the final Soviet advance, reached and crossed the Elbe using the partially destroyed bridge at Tangermünde between 4 May and 7 May 1945, surrendering to elements of the US 102nd Infantry Division, US 9th Army.
(Nb. the vehicle isn't a standard Type 166 VW Schwimmwagen, but the very rare limited production Type 128.
Notice the high the body sides and the exhaust venting under the rear mudguard.
The small badge on the side of the vehicle is the 48th Pz Korps badge)

 

[santana]

May 4, 1945
German General Max von Edelsheim is escorted by American Army officers in his command VW Schwimmwagen across the River Elbe during the negotiations of the surrender of XXXXVIII Panzerkrops to the US Army.
The bulk of the retreating German forces, along with several thousand civilians fleeing the final Soviet advance, reached and crossed the Elbe using the partially destroyed bridge at Tangermünde between 4 May and 7 May 1945, surrendering to elements of the US 102nd Infantry Division, US 9th Army.
(Nb. the vehicle isn't a standard Type 166 VW Schwimmwagen, but the very rare limited production Type 128.

 

[santana]

3 May 1945
Soviet Sherman tank in the German town of Grabow, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

In November 1942 M4 "Sherman" tanks began to be supplied to the USSR via lend-lease. On the Eastern front in the units of the red army tanks M4 "Sherman" participated in practically all operations in the second half of the great Patriotic war and finished it, before reaching Berlin. They generally earned positive reviews.

 

[santana]

Soviet IS-2 heavy tanks near the Brandenburg Gate after the fall of Berlin. May 1945

While the Battle of Berlin encompassed the attack by three Soviet Army Groups to capture not only Berlin but the territory of Germany east of the River Elbe still under German control, the battle in Berlin details the fighting and German capitulation that took place within the city.

The outcome of the battle to capture the capital of Nazi Germany was decided during the initial phases of the Battle of Berlin that took place outside the city. As the Soviets invested Berlin and the German forces placed to stop them were destroyed or forced back, the city's fate was sealed. Nevertheless, there was heavy fighting within the city as the Red Army fought its way, street by street, into the centre.

On 23 April 1945, the first Soviet ground forces started to penetrate the outer suburbs of Berlin. By 27 April, Berlin was completely cut off from the outside world. The battle in the city continued until 2 May 1945. On that date, the commander of the Berlin Defence Area, General Helmuth Weidling, surrendered to the commander of the Soviet 8th Guards Army, Lieutenant-General Vasily Chuikov. Chuikov was a constituent of Marshal Georgiy Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front.

 

[santana]

April 25, 1945
U.S. soldiers with Edouard Manet's "In the Conservatory"

The painting was discovered in the Merkers salt mine in Germany. It was among 400 paintings from Berlin museums stored by Nazis during World War 2. The cave also stored Reichsbank gold, and personal belongings from Nazi concentration camp victims.

 

[SirHiggins]

View attachment 559603
A rare 1941 photograph showing Prince Adalbert of Prussia (left) with his son Prince Wilhelm Victor of Prussia (right).

Adalbert (1884–1948), the third son of Wilhelm II, is seen wearing a naval uniform likely dating back decades to the Imperial German Navy. A former naval commander, he later lived in exile in Switzerland, where he died in 1948.

His son, Wilhelm Victor, appears in a uniform combining Wehrmacht insignia with traditional Hohenzollern dynastic decorations—symbolizing the overlap between imperial legacy and the realities of World War II Germany.

Despite the fall of the German Empire in 1918, members of the Hohenzollern family, like Wilhelm Victor, continued to retain their royal titles in a ceremonial sense well into the 20th century.

Source: German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv)

A complete mess with the young prince.
He was only 22yrs on this photo and being in a 'generals uniform'.
According to his bio, he never was general, also can not be found in the general's list.
If you check the original image, the paroli is an officers one, not generals, also the red stripe on his trousers missing.

 

[Redav]

Luftwaffe personnel manning a 2 cm Flakvierling 38 anti-aircraft gun atop Flakturm II G, Friedrichshain Berlin, 1942.

 

[Redav]

On May 8, 1945, top German military leaders signed the unconditional surrender in Berlin-Karlshorst, officially ending WWII in Europe.
The delegation, including Luftwaffe General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, and Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, signed the document at the Soviet headquarters in the presence of Marshal Georgy Zhukov.
Left: Generaloberst Hans-Jürgen Stumpff (representing the Luftwaffe).
Middle: Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel (Chief of the German High Command).
Right: Generaladmiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg (representing the Kriegsmarine)
This event in Berlin-Karlshorst (now the German-Russian Museum Berlin-Karlshorst) ratified the surrender signed previously in Reims, ensuring high-ranking military command participation, specifically to satisfy Soviet requirements.
The signing was completed just before midnight on May 8, with the war effectively ending on May 9, 1945, in Moscow time, marking 9 May as Victory Day in Russia.

 

[santana]

7 May 1945
A for female personnel of the Polish Army, located north of Haren, Germany.

The Royal Canadian Army Service Corps (RCASC) was an administrative and transport corps of the Canadian Army and was established in 1901.

The RCASC, along with the rest of the Army, underwent a rapid expansion as Canada mobilized for the Second World War.
In addition to maintaining transport for the army on land, the RCASC also commanded and maintained a ship-borne freight and patrol company, the Pacific Command Water Transport Company, during World War II.

The RCASC provided support to Canadian Soldiers wherever they went; training in Canada and Great Britain, the campaign in north-west Europe, and in the campaign in Italy. They moved supplies from the rear areas to the front-lines. It delivered all rations, ammunition, petroleum products, and all other essentials. They did so with a variety of vehicles ranging from three to ten ton trucks, and forty ton tank transporters.

 

[santana]

German soldiers in peadot camouflage