Photos WW2 British & Commonwealth Forces

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Canadian troops at the L'église Notre-Dame-de-la-Nativité in Bernières-sur-Mer, near Juno Beach, Normandy, France, 6 June 1944.

 

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Hawker Hurricane Of 310 Squadron Pilots RAF Duxford 1940 With the Squadron Mascot.

 

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The multiple pom-pom showing some of the huge stock of ammunition kept ready to fire. This 8 barrel gun consumes 729 shells a minute. HMS Rodney, September 1940.
Source: IWM

 

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A boy offers his toy plane to a RAF man after a national request for scrap metal for the making of aeroplanes, 1940s

 

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For the Rhine crossing near Rees, Major-General Rockingham 9th Brigade of three Canadian Highland battalions were under command of the 51st (Highland) Division. Before dawn following the initial assault, which began at 9 p.m. on 23 March, the Highland Light Infantry of Canada crossed the river in Buffaloes. Soon they were heavily engaged with enemy paratroopers in the village of Speldrop where parties of the 7th Black Watch had been cut off and surrounded. It took two days of house-to-house fighting before the HLI overcame resistance in the village and relieved the British. During the 24th of March 1945, the remainder of the 9th Brigade crossed the river and began expanding the bridgehead so that 3rd Division could move down the right bank toward Emmerich. Inland from Rees, the initial attack of the North Nova Scotia Highlanders of the 25th of March 1945 was stopped by intense shelling and automatic fire laid down by the 15th Panzer Grenadier Division defending the little town of Bienen. There the road along the Rhine passes through a bottleneck between swamp and open water.
Source: The Long Left Flank by Jeffery Williams

Picture: Sergeant F. Beal (fourth from left), Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit, talking with infantrymen of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (R.H.L.I.), Speldrop, Germany, 24 March 1945

 

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Sherman tanks and a Humber scout car of the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, 8th Armoured Brigade together with US infantry of the 84th US Infantry Division outside Geilenkirchen, November 1944.

 

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The multiple pom-pom showing some of the huge stock of ammunition kept ready to fire. This 8 barrel gun consumes 729 shells a minute. HMS Rodney, September 1940.
Source: IWM

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The ammo came in 14 round belts that had to be clipped together

 

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Sergeant Karen M. Hermeston, the first woman to be field photographer in the Canadian Film and Photo Unit during WWII.

 

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Battle for Caen.

 

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British Second Division near Pyingyaing, Burma. January 1945.

 

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Original wartime caption: Picture (issued 1944) shows - Part of the defensive armament carried by an H.S.L. [High Speed Launch]. These twin Vickers machine guns are only used if and when the launch is attacked by enemy aircraft.
Source: IWM

 

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Australia soldiers after being liberated from a Japanese concentration camp in Singapore, 1945.

 

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HMS Birmingham and HMS Dido in Copenhagen, May 9, 1945.

 

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South African Royal Naval Volunteers serving on board HMS NELSON. The group is sitting on one of the 16 inch gun barrels, 1942.

 

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British Commonwealth Troops with Captured Nazi Flag at Monte Cassino, Latin Valley, Southeast of Rome, Italy. 18 May 1944 / Photograph by Carl Mydans, using Kodachrome film.

 

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Canadian troops at the L'église Notre-Dame-de-la-Nativité in Bernières-sur-Mer, near Juno Beach, Normandy, France, 6 June 1944.

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Take a look at that cathedrals bell tower......those are some very neatly placed holes mate! I did not notice it at first but then thought they were part of the design.......no doubt put there but the previous residents as firing ports for snipers I'd guess?

 

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British Commonwealth Troops with Captured Nazi Flag at Monte Cassino, Latin Valley, Southeast of Rome, Italy. 18 May 1944 / Photograph by Carl Mydans, using Kodachrome film.

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And....if that's not enough, look closely at this one, great photo for sure of Casino AFTER the battle, but what the heck went on with the tank--armored vehicle in the ground upside down on the right-center area, good grief that thing is buried to its bottom tread plates!!! Wonder what the story is on that one?

 

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Thanks for posting, these are some great pictures of life beyond the front in WWII!!

 

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Royal Engineers embarking on a ship for Normandy, 9 June 1944.
Photograph by Bert Hardy of the Army Film and Photographic Unit for Picture Post Magazine