Photos Colour and Colourised Photos of WW2 & earlier conflicts

The aircraft carrier HMS Furious at sea. April 1944.

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A Fairey Barracuda being pushed to the lift on board HMS Furious.
 
Battle of Albert. British infantrymen give a helping hand to wounded German prisoners near La Boisselle on 3 July 1916.

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They are both wearing their equipment in 'fighting order'. One has an additional bandolier of ammunition, and each has an anti-gas PH (phenate hexamine) helmet in a small bag hung at the front. A first day objective, La Boisselle fell on 4 July.
Photograph taken by Lieutenant Ernest Brooks
© IWM (Q 758)/artistic rendition 2020.
 
9 November 1944
A Sherman IIA tank of 'The Queen's Bays' (2nd Dragoon Guards), 2nd Armoured Brigade, 1st Armoured Division crossing the River Rabbi at San Martino in Strada, Italy.

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On the rear hull, behind the baggage and camouflage, the white '40' on a red square of the senior regiment. The system of Roman numerals and letters can also be seen on the tanks of the other regiments of this brigade.
In October 1944 'The Bays' were relieved by the 10th Hussars and withdrew to Montalbano for a short rest. An entry in the War Diary of 46th Division recorded: 'A satisfactory feature of the present battle had been the effectiveness of tank and infantry co-operation.' Another satisfactory feature from the Bays' point of view had been the comparative scarcity of casualties.
The Bays remained at Montalbano until 7 November, the whole regiment being under cover for the first time in Italy - even if the houses were dirty, leaking and overcrowded. By the time the Bays moved back into the line, again in support of 46th Division, the advance had moved some ten miles further forward and the fighting was now in the foothills between the Rabbi and Ronco rivers.
(Photo source - © IWM NA 20043)
Lambert (Sgt), No 2 Army Film & Photographic Unit
Colour by Allan White
 
The photograph of Joseph Stalin taken at 4:31 am on June 22, 1941 - he just told that Germany had attacked the USSR, starting a war against the Soviet Union.
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The photographer was asked to destroy the photo but he saved it.
 
July 1863. "Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Three captured Confederate soldiers, likely from Louisiana, pose for Mathew Brady (American Photographer) on Seminary Ridge following the Battle of Gettysburg.

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(Original photograph from Library of Congress)
 
Marshal Józef Piłsudski - from November 11, 1918 the commander-in-chief of the Polish Army, in the years 1918–1922 the head of state, the first marshal of Poland (1920); two-time Polish prime minister (1926–1928 and 1930); exerted a decisive influence on the shape of the internal and foreign policy of the Second Polish Republic.

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Ignacy Jan Paderewski - Polish pianist, composer, independence activist, statesman and politician. Under his direct influence, President Woodrow Wilson included in his ultimatum conditional on the signing of the Treaty of Versailles by the United States, point 13, demanding the consent of the parties to the treaty to the sovereignty of Poland - thanks to which the treaty included the creation of an independent Polish state.

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From 1919 he was the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland. Paderewski graduated from the Music Institute (later the Warsaw Conservatory). He received, among others Order of the White Eagle, French Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor and the title of Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire.
 
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American soldiers sit inside a hospital tent at Anzio Beach Head in Sicily after it was riddled with holes caused by German long range gun attacks which killed five and wounded eight patients. The Battle of Anzio during the Italian Campaign of World War II started on January 22, 1944
 
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An American corporal aims a Colt M1895 fixed to the top of an elephant in Sri Lanka in 1914. It is not clear why the serviceman was using the elephant in this way since the animals have never been adopted as a weapons platform by the US Army
 
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New Zealand soldiers are pictured using their rifles to fish for trout near the Syrian and Turkish border on July 9, 1942. The black and white photographs were painstakingly colourised by design engineer Paul Reynolds, 48, from Birmingham.
 
A German landser takes a Soviet soldier prisoner. Soviet Union, 1941/42

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Given that the German soldier doesn’t have a magazine on his MP-40 points to this being an after-action photo shot for propaganda purposes.
Despite the initial successes, the Wehrmacht suffered an unexpected high number of casualties during the first months of Operation Barbarossa. Although poorly trained and poorly led, the Soviet soldier was well armed and proved to be a tenacious adversary. The Soviet Army’s collapse Hitler and his minions expected never materialized despite some costly Soviet defeats such as the the Battle of Białystok–Minsk (22 June to 9 July 1941) which resulted in the destruction of the Soviet Western front and the loss of some 420,000 Soviet soldiers. Two months later an even greater Soviet defeat was suffered at the First Battle of Kiev which resulted in the loss of more than 600,000 soldiers of which more than 400,000 were captured.
This particular photo provides a good example of early/mid war German and Soviet individual equipment and armament. The Soviet soldier was armed with what seems to be a Mosin-Nagant rifle and a 7.62 mm Degtyarev machine-gun.
Original: Bundesarchiv (Bild 146-1974-099-39) 1941/42
 

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