La Segunda Guerra Mundial en Color

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Royal Marines from 45 (RM) Commando, 1st Commando Brigade on the look-out for snipers among the ruins in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony, Germany. 4th of April 1945.

l-r Commando F. Manders of Radway, Warwickshire (with the Bren Gun) and Corporal R.J.Angus of Bristol (with the Thompson MG).

War Diary HQ No 1 Cdo Bde 4th/5th April 1945;

4 April 1945
Hasbergen,
0300 - The Bde moved off in single file and approached Osnabrück from the NW. 3 Cdo led with Tac HQ and 45 RM Cdo following. 6 and 46 RM Cdo were in the rear. By dawn the Bde had infested the NW part of the town and by 1000 hrs Osnabruck was in our hands, only a few snipers remaining. Whilst the casualties of the Bde were low and those of Tac HQ nil, the enemy lost some 50 killed and wounded and 450 PW.

5 April 1945
Osnabrück - Weather cool and heavy showers. The Eastern suburbs were cleared by 46 RM Cdo.

 

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Three troopers of the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division taking a break after 5 days frontline fighting.
From left to right : Pvt William H. Sandy (ASN 13032007) from Charlottesville, VA, Sgt Dehaven Nowlin (ASN 15046241) from Goshen, KY and Pvt Howard Fredericks (ASN 39241668) from Los Angeles, CA., near Essen (Germany) 10th of April 1945

'Operation Varsity' (24th March 1945) was a successful joint American, British and Canadian airborne operation that took place toward the end of World War II. Involving more than 16,000 paratroopers and several thousand aircraft, it was the largest airborne operation in history to be conducted on a single day and in one location.

The XVIII Airborne Corps was selected to assist in the Rhine River crossing in the vicinity of Wesel, just north of the Ruhr on March 24, 1945. Operation Varsity would be the last full scale airborne operation of the war. The 17th Division with the 507th spearheaded the assault and dropped at the southern edge of the Diersfordter Wald (Diersfordt Forest), three miles NW of Wesel. The 507th performed well and captured their objectives. The Medal of Honor was awarded to Pfc George J. Peters posthumously for his single handed assault on a German machine gun position, eliminating the position and allowing his fellow troopers to gather their equipment and capture their first objective. The 17th Airborne suffered 1300 casualties in the operation. The 17th then moved through Germany and on the 10th of April, the division captured Essen, the home of Krupps Steelworks.

After Germany’s surrender, the 17th Airborne was shipped home and deactivated in September 1945.

 

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A Finnish Brewster Buffalo 239 fighter (BW-352) of (Squadron) Lentolaivue/24 at Selänpää airfield. 24th June 1941.

The account of Corporal Heimo Lampi, 2/LeLv 24, after his first air victories at Selänpää 25.6.1941;

"We didn't know that the war was about to begin on the morning of the 25th of June 1941. I hadn't even completed my shooting training with the Brewster, but on that morning we had to begin shooting at the edge of field constructed ground targets. Just before the clock was about to strike seven the phone rang, and we we're told, that the soviets had begun their assault on Inkeroisten kauppalaa.

We scrambled our Brewsters into the air, the first men of our squadron spotted the enemy, 18 Tupolev SB-2 bombers flying in formation. They didn't have any fighters covering them. After some slight confusion at the beginning a battle started. I shot the first bomber which was at the very end of the right in their formation, It crashed with it's full bomb-load right straight to an cliff and exploded to pieces. Then I managed to shoot my second victims engine. The bomber broke from the formation and flew low with the remaining power of it's one last engine. I attacked again, but I was flying at such high airspeed that I flew right next to it and the SB gunner managed to get a few hits on me, when I was about 10 metres from it. I did a turn and managed to shoot it's remaining working engine until it was set on fire. I saw how the SB crashed straight into a shallow lake near Selänpää airfield.

I also had got a few hits on my machine. My fuel tank ruptured, the gas was leaking inside the cockpit, the machine gun belt breached and the brake line cut off. When I was landing on the Selänpää airfield, I was about to crash, I didn't know the brakes we're inoperative. The brakes on one side worked, but weren't working on the other. I managed to land without crashing with the use of my engine to keep the plane balanced. I was afraid that the plane was about to set on fire, but however that didn't happen. My knees we're totally wet with the fuel."

During the Continuation War of 1941–1944, the B-239s (a de-navalised F2A-1) operated by the Finnish Air Force proved capable of engaging and destroying most types of Soviet fighter aircraft operating against Finland at that time and achieving in the first phase of that conflict 32 Soviet aircraft shot down for every B-239 lost, and producing 36 Buffalo "aces".

 

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Medics of the US. 5th Infantry Division examining GI clothing found with German-captured equipment after the liberation of the area, near Diekirch in Luxembourg on the 20th of January 1945.

They are (L to R) Pfc Howard G. Lepcofker, NY, T/4 Francis A. Dafeo, Philadelphia PA and Pfc Harold C. Graham, Cleveland, Ohio.

General Patton's US 5th Inf. Div., had crossed the frozen Sauer River on their way to liberate Diekirch from the Germans on the night of the 18th January 1945.

 

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United States Marines climbing down the nets into landing craft during the Battle of Peleliu, September-November 1944.

Peleliu is a small coral island, one of the southern most islands of the present-day Republic of Palau, situated in the western Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippines.

The Battle of Peleliu, codenamed Operation Stalemate II, involved marines of the First Marine Division and later soldiers of the US Army 81st Infantry Division. The aim was to take the airstrip used by Japanese bombers, and which was considered to be of vital strategic importance for the US if they were to continue the liberation of Japanese-occupied Pacific islands, particularly the nearby Philippines.

However, the island proved incredible difficult to secure and the original estimated four-days dragged on in to a bloody two month campaign due to strong Japanese fortifications. The resulting US casualty rate was the highest for the Marine Corps during the Pacific War. USMC Colonel Merwin Silverthorn, one of the commanders involved in the operation, later remarked that "everything about Peleliu left a bad taste in your mouth."

Eighteen-year-old Eugene Sledge, who was in the second wave ashore, offers a vivid account of the landings:

'We moved ahead, watching the frightful spectacle. Huge geysers of water rose around the amtracs [landing vehicles] ahead of us as they approached the reef.

The beach was now marked along its length by a continuous sheet of flame backed by a thick wall of smoke. It seemed as though a huge volcano had erupted from the sea, and rather than heading for an island, we were being drawn into the vortex of a flaming abyss. For many it was to be oblivion. ...'

Photographer: Griffin
Image courtesy of the United States Marine Corps History Division, Peleliu 117058

 

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A German Panzer crewman and another soldier inspect the French Char B1 bis number 205 “Indochine”, 3rd Section, 3rd Company, 15th Combat Tank Battalion, 2nd Armoured Division near Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Nord-Pas de Calais. c.June 1940.
On the 17th May 1940 the 'Indochine' was knocked out by 'friendly fire' from a French 47mm anti-tank gun, the crew of: Chief - 2nd/Lt. Andre Raiffaud, Driver - Sgt. Docq, Gunner Cpl. Rollin and Chasseur Salard, all survived.

B1 tanks were used (and lost) during the first phase of the operations, especially the first week. Most counter-offensives against Guderian's "run to the sea" counted at least several B1s. Without air support these moves were doomed to failure against the quick and lethal Stuka attacks. Bad tactics of course brought these precious tanks to inept, hasty defensive "plugs" in the defensive lines, most of the time, ending in pure waste. In some case, the B1's extraordinary sturdiness allowed some success, notably the counter-attacks at laon and Moncornet led by col. De Gaulle, and stiff resistance like at Hannut and particularly Stonne. During these events, some individual B1s blocked by themselves the German advance, inflicting horrendous casualties. In a particular case, a single B1, 'Eure', commanded by Captain Pierre Billotte, attacked frontally and destroyed single-handedly thirteen Panzer IIIs and IVs, and then withdrew, while being hit 140 times. During two days, B1 tanks from the 3rd Division Cuirassée de Réserve literally ruled the battlefield at Stonne, destruction coming only due to German overwhelming attacks against single tanks and excellent communication, air strikes and indirect fire (by German howitzers). Some B1s also broke down or ran out of ammunition and petrol. The last surviving B1s were mixed with other tanks in support of the so-called "hedgehogs", which fell one after the other in June 1940. By the 26th of June, the campaign was over. (http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/)

The Panzer crewman wears a M1934 Schutzmütze (‘Panzer Beret’). Designed to offer special protection against the hazards of head injury, the unique headdress was comprised of two parts; the inner was a rubber crash helmet and this was fitted with a detachable black wool covering resembling a beret. The Schutzmütze was finally phased out in January of 1941.
The uniform consisted of a short black double-breasted jacket worn with long black trousers. (in this pic., the Panzer crewman appears to be wearing a Luftwaffe leather flying jacket)

 

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"Graffiti"
An Allied Soldier takes a break during the approach to Tripoli, Libya beside a swastika and the words 'Heil Hitler' that have been carved into a rocky hillside during January 1943.

'Entering Tripoli'
On the night of 19th January, the 51st Highland Division pushing forward with 154 Brigade leading, passing Hons discovered at dawn the enemy in a defensive position four miles west. The enemy position was on a fort, which they nicknamed "Edinburgh Castle". Across its front was an anti tank ditch linking from the coast to the Wadi Zenadi in the south.......
On the morning of the 23rd of January the 1st Gordons, riding on the tanks of 40th Royal Tank Regiment, and a company of 2nd Seaforth in lorries, entered Tripoli which had been abandoned by the enemy.

 

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Flying Officer Leonard Haines of No. 19 Squadron RAF sits by the cockpit of his Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Ia (QV-?) at Fowlmere, near Duxford. September 1940.

Leonard Archibald Haines, from Melcombe Regis in Dorset, joined the RAF on a short service commission in September 1937. He was with 19 Squadron at Duxford in early 1940. Over Dunkirk on 1st June he destroyed a Me109 and on a later patrol damaged a He111. On 19th August Haines shared a Me110, on 3rd September he destroyed a Me110, on the 5th a Me109, on the 11th a Me110, on the 15th two Me109's and a Me110 and on the 18th he shared a Ju88 and probably destroyed a Me109. He was awarded the DFC during (gazetted 8th October 1940).
(http://www.bbm.org.uk/)

At the time, replacement pilots were put in the hands of more experienced pilots to, "...give them a sporting chance". David Cox, a sergeant pilot with 19 Squadron, was taken under the wing of Fl. Off. Haines. Sgt. Cox said later, "I can give credit to him for the fact that I stayed alive as long as I did. He used to say, just keep my tail wheel in front of you and stick to me. Don't worry about shooting things. If you can follow me, you'll learn to throw a Spitfire about, which is what I did". (http://www.oldwinburnians.org.uk/)

Haines shared a Me109 on 5th November, shared a Me110 on the 15th and destroyed a Me109 on the 28th. He was posted away in late 1940 to be an instructor at 53 OTU at RAF Heston and was killed in a flying accident on 30th April 1941 whilst flying a Miles Master T8771 which spun into the ground at Hounslow Barracks, Middlesex. Cpl. Thomas F.G. Press, his passenger, was also killed.
At the time of his death, Len was an Acting Flt.Lt. aged 21 and Corporal Press was 36.
They are interred in the Heston and Isleworth (Hounslow) Cemetery. Middlesex.

 

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A Broken down and deserted Soviet T-35 heavy tank of the 8th Mechanised Corps. On the Dubno - Plycza highway, Rivne Oblast (province) of western Ukraine.
June/July 1941

This T-35 was from the 8th Mechanized Corp and deployed into the 67th and 68th Tank Regiments of the 34th Tank Division.
In June 1941, the 8th Mech Corps had 858 tanks, including 71 KVs, 100 T-34s, 49 T-35s.

The Battle of Brody was an engagement at the beginning of the 'Operation Barbarossa' in June 1941.
Once in Dubno, the 8th Mech Corps was surrounded by the 11th and 14th Panzer Divisions and cut to pieces.

During Operation Barbarossa and the summer of 1941, ninety percent of the T-35s lost by the 67th and 68th Tank Regiments were lost due to mechanical breakdowns, lack of maintenance, fuel, and often sabotaged by their crews abandoning them. These figures can be explained by its sheer size and the fact it was overweight for its engine and transmission (similar to the T-28).

 

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A paratrooper from the American 17th Airborne Division gets a light from a Churchill tank crewman of 6th Guards Armoured Brigade near Dorsten in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, 29th of March 1945.

(Nb. The US paratrooper is wearing a souvenir Wehrmacht belt)

'Operation Varsity'
The 17th Airborne Division gained its fourth Medal of Honor on the 28th of March, when Technical Sergeant Clinton M. Hedrick of the 194th Glider Infantry Regiment received the award posthumously after aiding in the capture of Lembeck Castle, which had been turned into a fortified position by the Germans.

 

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F/L J. F. Thomas and the crew of Avro Lancaster Bomber 'B' MkI 'Victorious Virgin' RF128 QB-V of RCAF 424 Squadron "Tiger" Squadron on the 21st of March 1945. (probably taken at the Skipton-on-Swale, North Yorkshire airfield)

Crew member, Leading aircraftman (LAC) Matthew C. Ferguson (a former Calgarian) painted the nose artwork on this plane and others in the squadron. He also painted the first-ever and only known example of artwork on an aerial bomb, this 4000 pound "cookie" bomb was intended to celebrate the 2000th operation by No. 424 "Tiger" Squadron.
The plane's nose artwork was modelled on an original 'November 1944' Alberto Varga pin-up. The bomb artwork shows a winged tiger breaking out of an Easter egg and this particular bomb was a special present for Hitler from the squadron. It was dropped on the oil refinery at Hemmingstedt, near Heide in Germany.

 

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USS Alabama, Atlantic Ocean, 1943.

 

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Luftwaffe at War – 39 coloured images of the German airforce

TheLuftwaffewas the aerial warfare branch of the GermanWehrmacht during World War II.
After the German Empire’s World War I-era army air force, the Imperial German Army Air Service or in German, theLuftstreitkräftefrom October 1916 onwards, and the naval air units of theKaiserliche Marine(Imperial German Navy), collectively named theMarine-Fliegerabteilung, had been disbanded by May 1920 under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
The Luftwaffe was reformed on 26 February 1935 and grew to become one of the strongest, most doctrinally advanced, and most battle-experienced air forces in the world when World War II started in Europe in September 1939. After the defeat of the Third Reich, the Luftwaffe was disbanded in 1946.











































http://www.thevintagenews.com/2015/...-39-coloured-images-of-the-german-airforce/4/

 

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A Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) man in the bow of the rubber landing craft provides covering fire as a 10-man boat crew of the US Marine 3rd Raider Battalion reaches the undefended beach of Pavuvu in the Russell Islands during 'Operation Cleanslate'. February 1943.‪

The landing force for 'Operation Cleanslate' (the codename for the Russell Island assault) consisted of the 43rd Infantry Division and the 3rd Raider Battalion. The Army division would seize Banika Island while the Marines took nearby Pavuvu. The APDs of Transdiv 12 carried the raiders from Espiritu Santo to Guadalcanal in mid-February. Four days prior to the 21st February D-day, a lieutenant and a sergeant from the raiders scouted both objectives-they found them empty of the enemy. The 3d Raiders thus made an unopposed landing in their first offensive action. The 159th Infantry followed them ashore and assisted in the occupation of the island.

Once ashore, the light raiders suffered from their lack of organic transport as they struggled to man handle supplies from the beach to inland dumps. During the battalion's subsequent four-week stay on Pavuvu, the diet of field chow and the tough tropic conditions combined to debilitate the troops. Fully one-third developed skin problems, all men lost weight, and several dozen eventually fell ill with malaria and other diseases. Although it was not entirely the fault of planners, the hard-hitting capabilities of the Marine battalion were wasted on Cleanslate.

The Russell Islands, were located 30 miles northwest of Guadalcanal's Cape Esperance and had been a staging point for the enemy's reinforcement and subsequent evacuation of Guadalcanal. Strong Japanese forces there would be a thorn in the side of an operation against New Georgia and possibly a threat to Guadalcanal itself. Admiral Halsey thus decided to seize the Russells prior to action elsewhere in the Solomons.

(Source - USMC ID #: 54765)

(Colourised by Royston Leonard UK)

 

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'Spitfire For Sale'

Two German members of the Organisation Todt (involved in the construction of the Atlantic Wall) are sitting on the Spitfire brought down on the wet sands at Calais by Flying Officer Peter Cazenove. It had been hit by a single bullet from a German Dornier bomber. The plane was consumed by the sandy beach and remained there for 40 years.‪

One of the earliest Spitfires ever to go into action will go on sale for £2.5 million after spending 40 years buried in sand on the French beach it crashed on.
The Mark 1 version of Reginald Mitchell's famous design was among the first built in March 1940 but Spitfire P9374, once flown by an airman involved in the Great Escape, never made it to the Battle of Britain as it crash-landed in May 1940.

The fighter plane, dubbed the ballerina because of its grace in the skies, was being piloted by Flying Officer Peter Cazenove over Dunkirk when it was hit by a single bullet from a German Dornier bomber.
He was then captured by the Nazis and taken to the Stalag Luft III prisoner of war camp, famous for The Great Escape.

The plane became consumed by the sandy beach and remained there for the next 40 years. In 1980 the wreckage was discovered when part of it was spotted poking out from its sandy grave.
It was corroded and covered in barnacles but amazingly still intact. The plane was dragged from the beach and taken to the Musée de l'Air in Paris.

Sadly, Cazenove died just a few weeks before the Spitfire was discovered. Shortly before he passed away he is even said to have told his wife ‘I wonder whatever happened to my Spitfire'.

Spitfire P9374 is now flyable once more and will take to the skies again at IWM Duxford in the VE Day Anniversary Air Show on May 23rd and 24th 2015.

(Article by Sam Tonkin For Mailonline)

(Colourising and Text by Paul Reynolds.)

 

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'The Royal Pioneer Corps' have commissioned and featured images supplied by colourists from this Page for their latest Newsletter, open the link for more pics on pages 24 to 28.

 

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Yefim Costin, a Gunner Guard who was awarded The Order of the Red Star on the Leningrad Front in August 1944.

He is armed with a Degtyaryov DP-28 machine gun.
The Degtyaryov Light Machine gun was developed by Vasily Alekseyevich Degtyaryov at the Soviet Small Arms design bureau and was the standard issue light Machine gun for the Red Army during World War II and some years after.

The Order of the Red Star (Russian: Орден Краснoй Звезды) was a military decoration for bravery of the Soviet Union.

(Photographer - Vsevolod Tarasevich)

 

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Sgt. Carl Wienke (1911-1982) and Pfc. Ernest Marjoram (1920-2002), Signal Corps cameramen, wading through a stream while following infantry troops in a forward area during the invasion at a beach in New Guinea. Photograph by Technician 4th Class, Ernani D'Emidio (1918-2008).
April 22, 1944.

"Sergeant Carl L. Wienke and Private First Class Ernest B. Marjoram ford a stream with the photographer, Ernani D'Emidio behind Red Beach 2 during the invasion of Tanahmerah, Hollandia. Their 8-man Signal Corps Unit under Lt. Hillock arrived by LST three hours after the initial landing. Later, Marjoram and D'Emidio, ordered to catch up with the front line, wandered in the jungle for three days and nights attempting to catch up with the fast-moving combat. Marjoram was on his third tour; he was the only man from his first and second tours to survive the war unharmed. When the photo was widely published, it was the first time his mother learned he was in combat. Wienke also saw heavy combat but only was injured "by a coconut thrown by a monkey." Wienke was a reporter for the Detroit News. He worried that "his obituary would list the coconut as the cause of death."

(Source - US National Archives)

 

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Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A3 of 1./JG51 (I. Gruppe / Jagdgeschwader 51) "Mölders" - Jesau, Siliesia (now Jěžow, Poland). August/September 1942.

Oberst Werner Mölders' old unit, Jagdgeschwader 51, was christened "Mölders" in his honour, on 22 November 1941, only hours after his death. Its members were entitled to wear the "Mölders" cuffband.

In August 1942, I. Gruppe / Jagdgeschwader 51, were equipped with Fw 190s at Jesau airfield, (having previously flown Messerschmitt Bf 109s).

On the 10th of September they were relocated to Ljuban in the northwestern Russian Leningrad Oblast. There the group was re-subordinated to the staff of Jagdgeschwader 54.

 

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