Many thanks go to Doug Banks and his team – the masters of colorization. The beauty of these colorized images is that color allows you to pick out and study the smallest detail. These are sights that our forefathers would have seen. Must have been strange for them to witness the war in color then to see it recorded in black and white.
Do not click on their page – you will become addicted to their work. It is the research that they do on each image that makes the captions themselves a history lesson. Facebook page here Colorized-Photos.
Flight Sergeant George “Grumpy” Unwin of No.19 Squadron RAF climbs out of his Supermarine Spitfire Mk I QV-H at Fowlmere, near Duxford in Cambridgeshire after a sortie, September 1940. (Colourised by Doug)
An unpainted Messerschmitt 262 (Wk.Nr 111711) ‘surrendered’ by Luftwaffe test pilot and flight instructor Hans Fay on the 30 March 1945 (pic taken later April 2, 1945). (Photo source – US Army Signals Corp #131687) Kindly supplied here by Johnny Sirlande) (Colourised by Richard James Molloy from the UK)
Lt. Malcolm ‘Doc’ Hughes in his Lockheed F-4C-1-LO #42-67114 “Maxine” from the 7th Photographic Reconnaissance Group “buzzing” the snow covered runway at Attlebridge in Norfolk, UK. February 1944. (Colourised by Doug)
Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel’s funeral ceremony held in his hometown of Ulm (Württemberg), Mid-day on Wednesday 18 October 1944. (Photo by Kriegsberichter – Hoffmann) (Colourised by Royston Leonard from the UK)
Lt. Col. Robert Lee Wolverton, CO 3rd Btn., 506 PIR, 101st Airborne (KIA 6/6/44 Normandy) and 1/Lt. Alex Bobuck jumpmaster of Stick#1 (POW June 6 until June 8, 1944). Col. Wolverton is checking the kit of 1/Lt. Bobuck as part of events staged on the afternoon of Sunday June 4, 1944 for filming by the Signal Corps at Exeter airfield. On D-Day 1/Lt Alex Bobuck was the first one to jump off Lt. Col. Wolverton’s plane but was captured when he landed on a German Command Post roof, he was liberated on June 8 by the advancing forces on St.Come-du-Mont. He went on to fight at Arnhem and Bastogne. He died December 1 1961 aged 44 (US Signal Corps photo from Michel De Trez Collection).(Colorised by Johnny Sirlande from Belgium)
M4A3 (76)’Sherman’ of the 771st Tank Battalion, US 84th “Rail -Splitter” Division after the fighting in ruins of the German town of Linnich. February 24 1945. On the right is an ‘HQ’ Dodge WC-52f (with what looks like 9th Armored Div markings on the fender) (Colourised by Richard James Molloy from the UK) www.tig.uk.net
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Hans-Georg Henke – 16 year old German Flakhelfer crying after being captured by the US 9th Army in Germany on April 3, 1945. He went on to live a full life and died in 1997. (Colourised by Doug)
F/O Bob Middlemiss and F/O George ‘Buzz’ Beurling DSO, DFC, DFM and Bar, RCAF 403 Squadron, RAF Kenley in Surrey, late 1943. George Beurling was killed in a flying accident 20 May 1948 Bob Middlemiss died 30 July 2013 (Colourised by Doug)
An M3A1 Halftrack named “Bitching Pals” of ‘B’ Company, 27th Armored Infantry Battalion, 9th Armored Division, 1st U.S. Army, moves through Engers, on the right banks of the river Rhine in Germany. The town was heavily mined and caution in approach with armor was necessary. 27 March 1945. Colourised by Richard James Molloy from the UK) www.tig.uk.net
General der Panzertruppe Maximilian von Edelsheim and other officers leave in their command VW Schwimmwagen for the far side of the River Elbe to convey the terms of surrender to their subordinate commanders. (Colourised by Richard James Molloy from the UK)
Members of a US Medical Corps lift wounded onto a Douglas C 47A (42-24195) Air Ambulance of the 313th Air Transport Squadron of the 31st Air Transport Group, 9th Air Force. Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) A-21 in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer. June 10 1944. (Photo source – Rodger Hamilton Collection – US Army Signals Corps). (Colourised by Richard James Molloy from the UK)
“An American paratrooper stops to chat with British airborne troops who are guarding this bridge over the Meuse River in Givet, France. 499th Paratroop Replacement Depot, Givet, France.” Our research – A US Paratrooper (possibly from 507 PIR) talks to men from the 2nd Battalion (52nd) airborne Ox and Bucks standing on the Quai de Meuse overlooking the river at Givet, Ardennes, France. Sometime soon after 25th December 1944. (Photo kindly supplied by Johnny Sirlande) (Colourised by Doug)
A Column of Soviet ISU-122 (Samokhodnaya Ustanovka 122) self-propelled guns during a brief lull in the fighting in a suburb of Berlin, May 1945. (Colourised by Benoit Vienne from France) World War Colorisation
A 25 Pounder gun of the 29th Battery of 6th New Zealand Field Regiment fires at night from its position in a vineyard near Sora, Italy, 1st June 1944. (Source – National Library of New Zealand,Photographer – George Frederick Kaye) (Colourised by Joshua Barrett from the UK) Painting-The-Past
Messerschmitt Me-262A-1a (W.Nr 112385) “Yellow 8”, 3. staffel Jagdgeschwader 7 captured at Stendal Airfield by the US 5th Armored Division, April 15 1945. (Photo source – US Army Signals Corps). Supplied here by Johnny Sirlande (Colourised by Richard James Molloy from the UK)
The crew of ‘Our Gang’, a B-17(# 42-5069) of the 324th Bomb Squadron, 91st Bomb Group, posing with their two mascots, Windy and Skippy, at Bassingbourn, England, 24 June 1943. The plane was lost over Germany on a mission to Schweinfurt only a few months later on 17 August 1943 with a different crew piloted by William Wheeler, though all ten bailed, survived and where taken prisoner. (The photo was taken by Pearson 8th AFHQ) (Colourised by Benjamin Thomas from Australia).
Vickers machine guns of the 2nd Battalion, Manchester Regiment (Machine Gun Battalion), 2nd Infantry Division, British Expeditionary Force during an exercise with French troops. (War Office official photographer Lt. L A Puttnam). (Colourised by Doug)
US Marines climbing down the nets into landing craft during the Battle of Peleliu, September-November 1944. Photographer: Griffin Image courtesy of the United States Marine Corps History Division, Peleliu 117058 (Colourised and researched by Benjamin Thomas from Australia).Colours of Yesterday
Two unidentified snipers, in “ghillie” suits, of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion during an inspection by King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and Princess Elizabeth, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire in England, 17 May 1944. (Colorized by David Stroodle from the USA)
US. Ensign Ardon Rector Ives #382583 of Rockford, Mich., appears to be calmly unbuckling his seat belt and readying to escape from his burning Grumman F6F-5 ‘Hellcat’ of VF-9 fighter carrier group. His fighter burst into flames when it hit a barrier and other planes while landing on the USS Lexington (CV-16) on February 25 1945. Ardon Ives was KIA in a dogfight with Japanese fighters just a few weeks later on March 18 1945, aged 23. (Photo source – US Navy) (Colorized by Paul Kerestes from Romania)
