Photos WW2 British & Commonwealth Forces

[BravoZulu]

Infantrymen from the 6th Infantry Division of the Western Desert Force wearing gas masks take aim with their fixed bayoneted Short Magazine Lee-Enfield (SMLE) MkIII bolt action rifles from a sandbagged defensive trench during a training exercise in the desert on 3rd June 1940 near Mersa Matruh, Egypt.

 

[BravoZulu]

Sergeant V. R. Francis of 19th Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery with a captured German Panzerschreck reusable anti-tank rocket launcher and an 88mm round in France, June 16, 1944

 

[BravoZulu]

Soldiers inspect graves at the South African WW1 cemetery at Delville Wood / Bois d'Elville France - November 13, 1944

 

[BravoZulu]

Two soldiers of the 6th Durham Light Infantry chat with an US paratrooper in Avola Sicily on 11 July 1943

 

[BravoZulu]

Humber Light Reconnaissance Cars Mk II of 29th Independent Squadron of British Reconnaissance Corps at Shanklin, Isle of Wight, March, 1942.

 

[BravoZulu]

Churchill ARK bridgelaying tanks near Forli, Italy - November 9, 1944
These are "Italian pattern" ARKs, that were locally modified in Italy by taking a Churchill MkIII chassis and putting on US made ramps.
UK produced ARKs had ramps and trackway above the chassis, the Italian pattern didn't have the trackways above the chassis, so vehicles would drive directly on the tracks.

 

[BravoZulu]

No. 617 Squadron Avro Lancaster B.I EE146 at RAF Woodhall Spa with her crew the day after the successful raid on the German battleship Tirpitz in Tromso Fjord, Norway, on November 13, 1944.

 

[BravoZulu]

Māori recruits in New Zealand are instructed on the operation of the Enfield SMLE Mk III* Rifle - 1942
The condition of the rifles indicates they are probably new production from the Lithgow Small Arms Factory in Australia, Lithgow produced the SMLE Mk III* until 1953

 

[BravoZulu]

Staghound armoured cars of New Zealand's Divisional Cavalry Regiment on the move in Italy. 19 November 1943

 

[BravoZulu]

BOUGAINVILLE. 1945-05-22. MATILDA TANKS OF B SQUADRON, 2/4 ARMOURED REGIMENT, MOVING ALONG THE BUIN ROAD SOUTH OF THE HONGORAI RIVER TO C COMPANY, 24 INFANTRY BATTALION POSITION ON EGAN'S RIDGE WHICH HAD BEEN VACATED BY THE JAPANESE AFTER BOMBARDMENT BY ROYAL NEW ZEALAND AIR FORCE CORSAIRS. IDENTIFIED PERSONNEL ARE:- SERGEANT J.A. KNIGHT (1); TROOPER W. CHITTLEBOROUGH (2); TROOPER W.V. CODY (3); TROOPER J.H. GIBSON (4); TROOPER G.A. VAN ROMPAEY (5).

 

[BravoZulu]

An RAF Regiment Humber light reconnaissance car near the Stations Bridge in Middelburg, Holland, November 1944.

 

[BravoZulu]

Armourers of No. (NZ) 486 Squadron perform maintenance on a 20mm Mark V Hispano cannon. The squadrons Hawker Tempest Mk Vs can be seen in the background. Taken at RAF Station Volkel, Holland. 1945

 

[BravoZulu]

11 December 1942. De Havilland Mosquito MkIV's of 105 Squadron at RAF Marham, Norfolk.

 

[NebrHogger]

Flight line tractor at a British airstrip in India - 1944.

 

[BravoZulu]

Short Sunderland Mark I based at RAF Mount Batten - 1940

The RAF Short Sunderland had a feature not many warplanes in WW2 had; a galley with an eating area, this area was even heated for those cold North Atlantic anti-submarine patrols

 

[BravoZulu]

Men of the Royal Irish Fusiliers trudge down a road near the French town of Arras in October 1939

 

[BravoZulu]

German workers pose with downed British Spitfire P9374 near Calais, France in 1940. It was brought down over the coast, and its pilot, Flying Officer Peter Cazenove, carried out a perfect belly landing on the beach near Calais, radioing back "Tell mother I’ll be home for tea!. Cazenove participated in holding off German forces around Calais before he was captured as a POW. He was kept at Stalag Luft III, participating in the historic events of "Great Escape", although he was unable to escape himself. His Spitfire remained in the same location until the 1980s. It was recovered, and eventually restored to flying condition in 2011.

 

[BravoZulu]

New Zealand gunners manning a QF 25-Pounder in the snow in Italy - Nov/Dec 1943

 

[BravoZulu]

A Cromwell tank in Trie-Chateau, near Gisors, in August 1944.

 

[BravoZulu]

Royal Marines from aircraft carrier HMS Indefatigable carrying out landing craft exercises possibly in the Queen Charlotte Sound - dated December 1945