La Segunda Guerra Mundial en Color

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4.Fallschirmjäger Division, at Anzio in Italy, January 1944

The trooper shows off a captured British 'Bren' Light Machine Gun and is leaning on a wooden case marked: "Luftdichter Patronenkasten" (Air tight sealed ammunition boxes, for 1500 x 7.92 Mauser or 9mm cartridges).

(source: Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-576-1846-11A)

The 4 Fallschirmjäger Division was formed in Venice, Italy, in November 1943, from elements of 2 Fallschirmjäger Division and volunteers from the Italian 184 and 185 Airborne Division Folgore parachute divisions.
Its first combat action was against the Allied landings at Anzio (Operation Shingle) as part of the I. Fallschirm Korps in January 1944.
After Anzio, the Division fought a rear guard action in front of Rome, and was the last German unit to leave the city on 4 June; it withdrew towards Viterbo Siena Firenze and then managed to halt the Allies at the Futa pass.
In the Winter of 1944/1945 it was positioned on the Gothic Line. In March 1945, the Division had to send the II Battalion, 12 Fallschirmjäger Regiment and the 2nd Company from the Pionier Battalion to the new 10 Fallschirmjager Division, which was being formed in Austria.
It surrendered to the Allies in April 1945.

(Colourised by Doug)

 

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Private L.V. Hughes, 48th Highlanders of Canada, Cdn.1st Division sniping a German position near the Foglia River, on the Gothic Line in Italy.
Late August 1944.

He looks to be using a Nº4 Mk.1(T) Lee Enfield Sniper Rifle with a Canadianmade Nº32 R.E.L. Mk.III Telescopic Sight.

Gothic Line, Italy - Canadian 1st Division
While the Canadian 3rd Division troops had been in battle in France for almost 3 months, the Canadian 1st Division had landed in Italy from Sicily almost one year before, on the 3rd of September 1943. The 48th Highlanders (Toronto) approached 'The Gothic Line' -- the next German line of defence and the next grand battle.

In the last week of August 1944, the entire Canadian Corps began its attack on the Gothic Line with the objective of capturing Rimini. Six rivers lay across the path of the advance. On August 25, the Canadians crossed the Metauro River but the next, the Foglia was more formidable. Here the Germans had concentrated their defences, and it required days of bitter fighting and softening of the line by Allied air forces to reach it. On August 30, two Canadian brigades crossed the Foglia River and fought their way through the Gothic Line. On September 2 General Burns reported that "the Gothic Line is completely broken in the Adriatic Sector and the 1st Canadian Corps is advancing to the River Conca."

The announcement was premature for the enemy recovered quickly, reinforced the Adriatic defence by moving divisions from other lines and thus, slowed the advance to Rimini to bitter, step-by-step progress. Three miles south of the Conca the forward troops came under fire from the German 1st Parachute Division, while to the west heavy fighting was developing on the Coriano Ridge. By hard fighting the Canadians captured the ridge and it appeared that the Gothic Line was finally about to collapse, but this was not to be. For three more weeks the Canadians battled to take the hill position of San Fortunato which blocked the approach to the Po Valley. On September 21, the Allies entered a deserted Rimini. That same day the 1st Division was relieved by the New Zealand Division to sweep across the plains of Lombardy to Bologna and the Po. But the rains came. Streams turned into raging torrents, mud replaced the powdery dust and the tanks bogged down in the swamp lands of the Romagna. The Germans still resisted.

(Colourised by Doug)

 

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D Day plus one. On the shingle of Omaha Beach Dog White sector, at Saint-Laurent sur Mer, Normandy.

"I managed to find one reference to this photo on a French web site and I sent a scan of it to Joseph Balkoski author of 'Omaha Beach: D-Day, June 6, 1944'. He concurred on the location and possible date. What I find interesting is the fact that there are so few people around. Must have been right before the big surge of troops onto shore.

This photo would be the spot that General Cota rallied the troops and led the attack off the beach. At 07:50, C/116 led the charge off of Dog White, between WN-68 and WN-70, by forcing gaps in the wire with a Bangalore torpedo and wire cutters. 20 minutes later, the 5th Rangers joined the advance, and blew more openings. The command party established themselves at the top of the bluff, and elements of G/116 and H/116 joined them, having earlier moved laterally along the beach, and now the narrow front had widened to the east. Before 09:00, small parties from F/116 and B/116 reached the crests just east of Dog White. The right flank of this penetration was covered by the survivors of the 2nd Rangers’ A and B companies, who had independently fought their way to the top between 08:00 and 08:30. They took WN-70 (already heavily damaged by naval shells), and joined the 5th Rangers for the move inland. By 09:00 more than 600 American troops, in groups ranging from company sized to just a few men, had reached the top of the bluff opposite Dog White and were advancing inland
This picture is from a 2 ½ by 2 ½ inch black and white negative most likely taken by an Army Signal Corps Photographer. Apparently the photographer liked it enough to bring it home. I purchased it a couple of years ago."

(Additional notes from 'PhotosNormandie' - "Des marins américains se tiennent sur des galets devant un muret, probablement à Dog White, vers le 7 juin 1944.
A Omaha, les 6 th et 7th U.S. Naval Beach Battalion (NBB) avec les 5th et 6th Engineer Special Brigade (ESB) sous les ordres du Brigadier General William M. Hoge formaient la Task Force 124.2 'Shore Party'.")

(Image and Caption supplied by and Colourised by Dave Ford from Ohio, USA)

 

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Ground Crew applying "Invasion Stripes" to a Martin Marauder B-26 of 553rd Bomb. Squadron, 386 Bomb. Group at Great Dunmow air base in Essex, England sometime between the 3rd and the 5th of June 1944.
In the background is the Marauder 131577 AN-Y "Elmer" (which crash landed in France 31st July 1944).

(Source: 'Life Magazine')

The stripes were added for the purpose of increased recognition by friendly forces during and after the Normandy Landings.

Orders were given to apply the "invasion stripes" as of the evening of June 3rd 1944. The invasion was originally scheduled for the 5th.

The specification for the stripes was laid down by SHAEF in 'Operational Memorandum 23' as early as April 18th 1944.

"Upper and lower wing surfaces of the aircraft will be painted from the engine nacelles outward with five white and black stripes, each twenty-four inches wide, arranged in order from centre outward: white, black, white, black, white.
Fuselages will be painted with five parallel white and black stripes, each twenty-four inches wide, completely around the fuselage, with the outside edge of the rearmost band eighteen inches from the leading edge of the tailplane."

There is plenty of evidence of the somewhat haphazard application of the stripes on aircraft in the field.

(Colourised by Royston Leonard UK)

 

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Close port-side view of a CAC CA-13 Boomerang fighter aircraft, serial no. A46-128, of No. 5 (Tactical Reconnaissance) Squadron RAAF, piloted by 407056 Flight Lieutenant Donald Howard Goode of Port Pirie, South Australia.
The aircraft is coded BF-N with the nicknamed "U-Beaut 2" and is flying from Mareeba, Queensland.
18th of March 1944.

(Australian War Memorial image NEA0414)

No. 4 Squadron and No. 5 Squadron flew Boomerangs in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands Campaign and Borneo Campaign, also in the close support role, with marked success. Flying in pairs (one to observe the ground, the other to observe the air around them), their tasks included bombing, strafing, close infantry support and artillery spotting. When attacking larger enemy formations Boomerangs often operated in conjunction with larger aircraft. In this role the Boomerang would get in close to confirm the identity of the target and mark it with a 20 lb (9 kg) smoke bomb with the "cooperating" aircraft delivering the major ordnance from a safer distance. A partnership between 5 Sqn Boomerangs and Royal New Zealand Air Force Corsair fighter bombers during the Bougainville Campaign was said to be particularly effective.

(Colourised by Doug)

"U-Beaut-2"

 

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'Operation Barbarossa'

German Schnelltruppen, supported by Schutzenpanzerwagen Sd.Kfz. 251/1&10 (armoured personnel carriers), move into a burning Russian village at an unknown location during the German invasion of the Soviet Union, sometime between June 26th and July 1st, 1941.

Russia was unprepared for the sudden 'blitzkreig' attacks across a border that spanned nearly 2,900 km (1,800 mi), and they suffered horrible losses. Within a single week, German forces advanced 200 miles into Soviet territory, destroyed nearly 4,000 aircraft, and killed, captured, or wounded some 600,000 Red Army troops. By December of 1941, German troops were within sight of Moscow.

(Colourised by Royston Leonard UK)

 

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A 7.2-inch howitzer of the British Army's 75th Heavy Regiment, Royal Artillery being towed through the narrow Via Giuseppe Mazzini by the corner of Via Oreste Bandiniin in the commune of Borgo San Lorenzo, Florence in the Italian region of Tuscany.
12th of September 1944.

(© IWM NA 18595)

(Colourised by Royston Leonard UK)

PD:

Via Giuseppe Mazzini by the corner of Via Oreste Bandiniin

 

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Infantry soldiers and US armoured vehicles of the 41st Armored Infantry Regiment, 2nd Armored Division come down the Rue Saint Michel in the village of Lonlay l’abbaye, Normandy.
On the 14th of August 1944.

Throughout the first half of August, 1944, the Division held its ground on the north and south flanks of the German thrust and by steady pressure drove the enemy back, aiding materially in the eventual closing the Falaise gap. Co. H., 41st Armored Infantry Regiment held a hill east of Mortain for five rugged days and nights, driving back repeated enemy counterattacks. Co. H, 41st Inf. also received the Presidential Citation for its valiant stand in this engagement. CC"A" pushed from the Vire area toward Flers and rejoined the Division in the Domfont area.

(Colourised by Royston Leonard UK)

PD:
Rue Saint Michel, Lonlay l’abbaye

 

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Pfc. Terry Paul Moore of Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was number one Browning Automatic Rifleman in 2nd Platoon, Company 'F', 184th Infantry Regiment of the US 7th Infantry Division and is lighting his first cigarette of the day on the island of Okinawa soon after the dawn attack on the town of Yonabaru.
In the early morning of the 22nd of May 1945.

(Photograph taken by William Eugene Smith for the 'Life' magazine edition published on the 18th of June 1945 )

W.Eugene Smith was tasked with the job of recording the working day of Infantryman Terry Moore, a typical foot soldier who had helped win
the battle for the island of Okinawa from the Japanese.

Pfc Moore got through it unscathed but Photographer Eugene Smith was badly injured whilst taking photos during a mortar attack, he was reported to have said that he wanted to be in the same spot as the guy he was photographing.

Eugene Smith's account:
"It was late in the afternoon when the artillery we'd been expecting opened up on us. They had us zeroed in and we just lay and took it.
I could see the bursts puffing up around us and to our rear and they were getting better. Terry lay a few yards away, I adjusted my camera, judged the footage and waited. I wanted to show Terry under close mortar hits, it was part of his day. The trouble with taking photographs when the air is full of lead is that you have to stand up when anyone with any sense is lying down and trying to disappear right into the earth. I got to my feet .....
The next thing I remember was a spiral ringing in my ears and I knew I was regaining consciousness. I knew I had been hit but I didn't hurt. I heard the cry, "Medic, medic, over here, the photographer!"

Smith had been hit by a shell fragment from a mortar, which had gone through his left hand and into his face.

(Colourised by Doug)

PD:
Photographer W.Eugene Smith's injuries received the day he took this and other photos of Pfc Moore.

 

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A comrade nails a division sleeve badge on the grave of Cpl. Marcelino Gil Martin of the 2nd Battalion, 263 Inf. Regt., 250th 'Division Azul' Wehrmacht Spanish Volunteers (Died 22/8/42) in Grigorovo, Near Novgorod in Russia.

This photo was taken in June 1943 when his brother, Lt. Angel Eustaquio Gil Martin obtained the necessary permission to go to the Volkhov Front to look for the grave of his brother Marcelino, who fell the previous year.

(Colourised by Doug)



PD:
Lt. Angel Eustaquio Gil Martin visiting his brothers grave side. It is recorded that a sleeve badge was removed from a uniform to attach to the cross, maybe it could have been the Leutnant's

 

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A Soviet artillery section of a 45-mm anti-tank gun M1942 (M-42) seen here in what looks like a training exercise under cover of a smokescreen. c.1943.

These guns were used from 1942 until the end of the war. In 1943, due to its insufficient anti-armor capabilities against new German tanks such as Tiger, Panther and Panzer IV Ausf H, the M-42 was partially replaced in mass production by more powerful 57 mm ZiS-2 anti-tank gun.
The total number produced up to 1945 was 10,843.

(Colorised by Olga Shirnina from Russia)

 

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It has been confirmed that this photo was taken on Tuesday 9th December 1941, by one of our researchers, John Winner, by magnifying the front page of the middle news paper in the pic.

A news stand on the corner of Sutter and Kearny Street, San Francisco,

(Colorised by Sanna Dullaway from Sweden)

PD:
Early December confirmed "..... Christmas 1941.... Early"

 

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Bell P-400 Aircobra "Sun Setter", 35th Fighter Squadron, 8th FG., Fifth US Airforce at Milne Bay, New Guinea.
September 1942 - February 1943.

The P-400 was an unusual design: a 20mm cannon fired through the propeller hub in the nose: the engine was located behind the cockpit and it featured a tricycle landing gear. The central location of the heavy Allison V-1710 engine helped to stabilise the plane.

Standing on the wing is Captain Philip Rasmussen.

On the morning of 7th of December 1941, as a Second Lieutenant of the 46th Pursuit Squadron based at Wheeler Field on the Island of Oahu, Hawaii, he was one of the few pilots to get off the ground during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
He was awakened by the air-raid, and ran from the officers mess strapping on his .45 Colt, clad only in his purple silk pyjamas, he jumped into a surviving Curtiss P-36 Hawk and taxied to a revetment at the edge of the airfield, where he joined three other pilots also preparing undamaged P-36 fighters. The pilots took off under fire, and were directed by radio toward Kaneohe Bay where they engaged 11 Japanese fighters in battle.
After shooting down one Japanese aircraft, Rasmussen was attacked by two Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighters. Gunfire and 20mm cannon shells shattered the canopy, destroyed the radio and severed the P-36's hydraulic lines and rudder cable. Rasmussen sought refuge in nearby cloud cover and began flying back toward Wheeler Field. He landed the P-36 without brakes, rudder or tailwheel, and with more than 500 bullet holes.

Major Rasmussen would go on to fly P47s over the Pacific earning Oak leaf clusters to his Silver Star (awarded at Wheeler Field), and continue serving with the air-force until retiring in 1965 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Sadly Philip M, Rasmussen passed away on April 30th 2005.

(Colourised by Leo Determann from the Netherlands)

 

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Infantry men of 'B' Company, 44th Armored Infantry Battalion, 6th US Armored Division while crossing the street, pass the body of Pfc. Robert Vardy Wynne (aged 19 from Texas) who had just been shot dead by a sniper. This took place on April the 4th 1945 in Oberdorla, Mühlhausen/Thüringen, Germany.

(Colorised by Sanna Dullaway from Sweden)

PD:
Sperlingsberg, Oberdorla (recent pic)

 

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XI Flieger Film Korps photographer Erwin Seeger posing in the nose of a Heinkel-111 which was towing a Gotha Go-242 transport glider between Sicily and Tunisia. c.1942/43

(Sourse: Ecpad)

(Colourised by Doug)

 

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US Marines of the 29th Regiment, 6th Division securing Naha, the capital city of Okinawa. 25th May 1945.

(Colourised by Doug)

 

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Commandos of HQ 4th Special Service Brigade, 48th Royal Marines coming ashore from LCI(S) landing craft at 'Nan Red Sector' Juno Beach, Saint-Aubin-sur-mer, Normandy, France, at approximately 0845 on D-Day, 6th June 1944.

(Photograph by Lt. Handford No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit)
(© IWM B 5218)

(Colourised by Royston Leonard UK)

 

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Infantrymen of Company "I", 35th. Regt./ 25th. US Inf.Div. await the word to advance in pursuit of retreating Japanese forces. The Vella Lavella Island Front, in the Solomon Islands, Southwest Pacific.
13th of September 1943.

The Battle of Vella Lavella was fought from the 15th of August to the 9th of October 1943 between Japan and the Allied forces from New Zealand and the United States. Vella Lavella is an island located in the Solomon Islands that had been occupied by Japanese forces. The Allies successfully recaptured the island.

(Colorized by Tom Thounaojam from India)

 

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An Indian infantry section of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Rajput Regiment, 4th Indian Infantry Brigade, 26th Indian Infantry Division about to go on patrol on the Arakan front in Burma. May 1944

The 2nd Battalion was in the Arakan area and a number of actions were fought by it. The capture of Point 551, also called Rajput Hill was the most important. The Japanese holding this feature had turned back repeated attacks by other battalions but the Rajputs carried the day winning an IOM, five MC's and two MM's for this action. (Indian Order of Merit, Military Cross and Military Medal)

(Colourised by Doug)

 

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Easy Red Sector', Omaha Beach - approx. 0700 on the 6th June 1944

Photographer Robert Capa landed at Easy Red Sector, Omaha Beach with the men of Easy Company, the 2nd battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, US Army 1st Division.

After completing his task of photographing the landings, Capa’s survival instincts took over. Seeing another craft approaching the beach, he fled towards it. After he was hoisted aboard, the vessel took a direct hit from a German shell and several men on board were killed. Capa survived and transferred to a troop ship for the return journey to England.

On arriving in Weymouth, Dorset, Capa put the four rolls of 35mm film in a courier’s pouch together with several 120mm rolls that he had shot before the invasion. He also included a note to John Morris, Life’s London office picture editor, that stated, ‘John – all the action’s in the 35mm.’ With his films safely on their way, Capa boarded the first boat returning to France.

When the courier arrived at the Life office, Morris urged his staff to develop the films quickly in order to meet the publication deadline. They were given to 15-year-old darkroom assistant Dennis Banks to develop.

The incident that followed has become as famous as Capa’s images. A few minutes later, Banks returned to Morris’s office in tears, saying, ‘They’re ruined! Capa’s films are all ruined!’ In the rush to process and dry the films, Banks had placed them in a wooden drying cabinet and closed the doors. The heat had been so intense that the emulsion had melted and all that was left, as Morris discovered as he examined the films, was ‘a brown sludge in frame after frame’.

Only 11 of the 108 original frames were salvaged.
This photograph is contact screen frame 7/neg. 35

(Colourised by Royston Leonard UK)

PD:
Robert Capa (born Endre Friedmann October 22, 1913 – May 25, 1954) was a Jewish Hungarian war photographer and photojournalist who covered five wars: the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II across Europe, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the First Indochina War (where he stepped on a land-mine and died of his injuries.)