La Segunda Guerra Mundial en Color

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Today, the 24th of January 2015, marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Sir Winston Churchill, the British politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945.
(30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965)

(Here are two images colourised by Tom Marshall and Paul Reynolds)

(Left photo) Churchill inspecting a Cromwell tank in March 1944 as the 2nd Battalion Welsh Guards prepared for D-Day. To the right is Major J. O. Spencer, who commanded No. 2 Sqn. until he was killed at Hechtel in September 1944. Next to the hull mounted 7.92-mm Besa machine gun, the face of Sgt T. Dredge, the vehicle driver, can just be seen behind the open visor.

The markings on the front are (L to R) the number 45 painted in white on a green and blue square, which denotes that the vehicle belongs to an armoured reconnaissance regiment; the number 26 on a black circle is the bridge class (tanks were not allowed to cross bridges with a lower number); the white square shows that this is a No. 2 Sqn vehicle and the A within the square marks this as the squadron leader’s tank; and, lastly, the divisional badge on the far right is that of the Guards Armoured Division, the ever open eye.

 

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No.4 Company, 1st.Welsh Guards, in action near Cagny, Caen, Normandy during 'Operation Goodwood'. 19th of July 1944.

The Company Commander, Maj J. D. A. Syrett, is seen
indicating a mortar target to Sgt Vessey. Gdsm Kitchen is in the foreground and Gdsm Fenwick is the Bren gunner. Major Syrett was killed a few days later.

'Operation Goodwood' was the name given to the Allies attempt to capture the city of Caen in Normandy. 'Operation Goodwood' was started in July 1944 and by the time the operation was declared over the city of Caen was in ruins. Ironically, the people who had come to rescue Caen from German occupation were also the same people who caused far more damage to the ancient city than the German occupiers had done. However, by the end of 'Operation Goodwood' the city was freed of German control and for the civilians who lived in Caen, they had their city back. It may have been extensively damaged, but it was under French control one again.

1st Btn Welsh Guards diary note for the 19th July.
"We linked up with 3 Squadron of 2nd Armoured Recce Battalion WELSH GUARDS under Major CONSETT who stayed with us for most of the rest of the day.
Change of plan now became the order of the day and the Commanding Officer’s carefully conceived Operation Order immediately became inoperative.
We first took up a sort of pivot position behind a railway and it was here that Prince of Wales Company, to Major MILLER’s great joy took our first Prisoners: one Czech and the other from DUISBURG and both only too ready to talk.
The Battalion moved on from there to its original debussing point above CAGNY, and Prince of Wales and No, 2 Companies straight away put in an attack on the little town which it was considered might still contain enemy elements: it did and both Companies made a nice bag of Prisoners most of them eager to give themselves up after the morning’s heavy bombing.
The remainder of the Battalion then moved forward to the pivot area on foot.
By this time it was about 2300 hours and the transport then came up amid a galaxy of tracer, parachute flares and all the rest of it.
However, nothing was hit and after a certain amount of difficulty all the transport reached their correct Companies, and the Battalion spent most of the rest of the night digging in interspersed with diving for cover whenever ‘moaning minnie’ made her all too frequent appearance."

 

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A selection of images, posted previously, of US Aircraft Carriers of the Pacific Fleet.

Top left clockwise - USS Yorktown (CV-10), USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24), USS Lexington (CV-16) and USS Hornet (CV-12)

(Colourised by Tom Thounaojam, Royston Leonard, Paul Reynolds and Doug.

 

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Soldiers of Fallschirm-Panzer-Division 1. 'Hermann Göring' pass by the immobilised Panzerjäger Tiger (P) 'Elefant' of Feldwebel Gustav Koss, 1./653 schwere Panzerjäger-Abteilung and continue to advance during the counterattack against the allied beachhead at Anzio, Italy.
Early March 1944.

When the Allies landed at Anzio in January 1944, the division was rushed to the area and took part in the battles against the invasion force, and for a time was employed opposite the 1st Special Service Force. From February to April 1944, the division saw fighting at Cisterna, on the Rapido River and at Minturno.

Fallschirm-Panzer-Div 1 HG was an elite German Luftwaffe armoured division. The HG saw action in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and on the Eastern Front.
The division was the creation of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring and increased in size throughout the war from an Abteilung (battalion) to a Panzer corps.

Panzerjäger Tiger (P) 'Elefant' (Sd.Kfz. 184);
VK4501(P), the Tiger developed by Porsche, submitted alongside the Tiger developed by Henschel in 1942, was put into production but quickly halted after serious failures in the ability to solve engine and drive chain problems after only 5 were completed. When the Tiger P failed to materialize a successful carriage for the large 8.8cm KwK L/71, it was decided that a StuG with 200mm of frontal armour be immediately designed with the Tiger P's chassis as the basis mounting the 8.8. With Alkett designing and producing, and Nibelungenwerke providing the completed chassis, 90 existing Tiger P's were converted into the Panzerjäger Tiger (P), Ferdinand, eventually some were modified again, in the Elefant modification.

(Source - Bundesarchiv Bild - 101I-311-0940-35)

 

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1st Battalion Welsh Guardsmen near Arras in North-Eastern France, January/February 1940.

(Nb. The second man in line carries a Bren LMG and is followed by one with a Boys Anti-Tank rifle)

In November 1939 the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards were sent from Gibraltar to France, where they were to provide protection for the GHQ, this was located eight miles away from Arras.

The 1st Battalion Welsh Guards from the 17th - 24th May 1940 formed the nucleus of the force defending Arras. After a week during which the town was bombed and shelled and the garrison had
repulsed persistent armoured attacks, the order came to withdraw. In the days between leaving Arras and embarking at Dunkirk the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards was involved in costly company actions at Cassel, Vyfewg and West Cappel.
After returning home from France the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards spent the next four years between Wimbledon, Byfleet, Midsomer Norton and Knook Camp, Heytesbury where they carried out their
training continuously in case of another invasion which seemed imminent.

 

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Recruits undergoing close quarter combat at the Commando Basic Training Centre, Achnacarry, Inverness-shire, Scotland.
9th of January 1943

After the fall of France in June 1940 the British established a small, but well-trained and highly mobile, raiding and reconnaissance force known as the Commandos. They were to carry on the war against the Axis after the evacuation from Dunkirk. The first Commandos were all volunteers selected from existing regiments in Britain.

Fairbairn-Sykes Commando knife.
The British Commando knife was first designed in 1940 by close combat legends William Fairbairn and Eric Sykes, who established and taught the combative training methods for wartime special forces such as the independent companies, SOE, Commandos, U.S Rangers and OSS.
Though known as the FS Fighting knife, this was not designed to be a knife fighting knife, but primarily designed to be used in silent killing actions such as sentry take-outs. The techniques of effective use were taught to various special forces at Highland training centres such as Lochailort Special Training Centre (STC) and Achnacarry, which was the Commando Basic Training Centre (CBTC) from 1942-1945.

 

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2nd Hungarian Army, 29M Bofors 80mm AA gun in firing position in Stary Oskol, Russia.
Summer 1942

The Swedish Bofors Model 29 was sold to various countries in both 75-mm (2.95-in) and 80-mm (3.15-in) calibres. It was a sound design produced by Bofors when German designers were working in Sweden on the 88, and so there were many design features common to the two.

The 209,000-strong 2nd Hungarian Army deployed to the German Army Group B at Kursk in Southern Russia from the 11th of April 1942.
It's III Corps fought in Operation' Blue1' on the 28th of June advancing 120 miles via Stary Oskol to reach the Don on the 7th of July, followed on the 27th of July by the rest of the 2nd Army.
The 2nd Army had suffered 30,100 casualties by September.

 

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Men of “E Squadron” Glider Pilot Regiment photographed at RAF Down Ampney shortly before 'Operation Market Garden' in September 1944.
The men pictured here piloted Horsa Gliders in to the operational area on the 17th & 18th of September 1944. Once on the ground many of E Squadron defended the Divisional HQ at Oosterbeek. The Regiment suffered 60% casualties during ‘Market Garden’ and never recovered from the losses.
Brigadier Hackett, commanding 4 Parachute Brigade said of the these men that “they were the finest body of soldiers that the British Army produced in WW2”

 

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US 3AD soldiers, Cpl. James L. Gregory and T/5 Omer G. Taylor of 'C' Company, 1st Battalion, 36th Armored Infantry Regiment, 3rd Armored Division seek shelter behind a M-4 Sherman tank while under German Artillery bombardment at Geich, near Düren, Germany, on the 11th of December 1944.

 

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German submarine U-45 (Type VIIB U-boat) conducting speed trials in 1938.

On the morning of the 14th of October 1939, U-45 attacked the unescorted convoy KJF-3 about 230 miles southwest of Fastnet and reported the sinking of three big steamers. In fact two ships, Lochavon and Bretagne (total of 19,313 tons) were sunk and the British steam merchant Karamea was missed, because a torpedo detonated prematurely.

U-45 was depth-charged and sunk later the same day (14th of October) by the I-class destroyers, HMS Inglefield, HMS Ivanhoe and HMS Intrepid at position 50°58′N 12°57′W., southwest of Ireland. Kapitänleutnant Alexander Gelhaar and all of the 37 crew members went down with the submarine.

The three British destroyers were all lost at sea during the war.
HMS Ivanhoe struck a mine in September 1940.
HMS Intrepid was sunk by a German Junkers 88 in September 1943.
HMS Inglefield was sunk by a Henschel Hs 293 glider bomb in February 1944.

 

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At the beginning of the East Pomeranian Strategic Offensive of the Red Army, SS-Panzergrenadiers of the 4. SS-Polizei-Panzergrenadier-Division armed with Panzerschrecks, disembark from trucks to defend the city of Pyritz, Pomerania, Germany. (Pyritz now Pyrzyce in Poland)
11th of February 1945.

The East Pomeranian Strategic Offensive operation was an offensive by the Red Army in its fight against the German Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front. It took place in Pomerania and West Prussia, and officially lasted from 10 February – 4 April 1945.

Soon afterwards, the 4th SS was moved to Danzig where it was trapped by Soviet forces. After dire battle the Division was shipped across the Hela Peninsula and over sea to Swinemude. From there, after a brief rest, what remained of the SS-Polizei Division fought its way across the Elbe river, surrendering to the Americans near Wittenberge-Lenzen.

 

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"A bridge Too far"

Two soldiers watch as 'Cromwell' tanks of the Guards Armoured Division of the 2nd Armoured Recon Battalion the Welsh Guards cross Nijmegen bridge in the Netherlands, Thursday, the 17th of September 1944.

This bridge was located approximately ten miles from Arnhem and was described by General Eisenhower as a ‘valuable prize’.

It marked the entry point to the flat piece of land that divided the River Waal from the Lower Rhine, which was called ‘the Island’. The exposed single road north often proved to be a bottleneck as vehicles were vulnerable to enemy fire.

This image is one of a series colourised by Tom Marshall for a new book by Trevor Royle on the history of the Welsh Guards 1915-2015. 'Bearskins, Bayonets & Body Armour' is available to purchase now from Pen and Sword Books at half price here; http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/welshguards

 

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Soviet troops in action during the 'Battle of Voronezh" in the summer of 1942.

The Battle of Voronezh was a battle on the Eastern Front fought in and around the strategically important city of Voronezh on the Don river, 450 km (280 mi) south of Moscow, from 28 June - 24 July 1942, as the opening move of the German summer offensive in 1942.

They are firing the SVT-40 (Samozaryadnaya Vintovka Tokareva, Obrazets 1940 goda) 7.62 mm cal. semi-automatic battle rifle.

 

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An Unknown US Marine readies to land on Guadalcanal during the five-month struggle for the island between August 1942 and early 1943. Three thousand miles south of Tokyo, Guadalcanal was a major shipping point for military supplies.
The Allied victory there in February, 1943, marked a major turning point in the war after a string of Japanese victories in the Pacific.

 

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Lt. Samuel 'Ted' Hutchins of Port Charlotte, Fla. climbs out of his Chance-Vought OS2U Kingfisher spotter-plane after coming back aboard the Battleship USS 'South Dakota' off Okinawa, January 22nd 1945. Ensign Stark, in the rear cockpit, had just been rescued after his Hellcat fighter plane was shot down. (Colourised by Paul Reynolds)

 

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The Break-out of the Demyansk Pocket.

A German Panzer III tank (probably of the 3rd SS Division 'Totenkopf') and troops in winter camouflage in the Demyansk Pocket, Russia, 21st of March 1942.

The Demyansk Pocket was the name given to the pocket of German troops encircled by the Red Army around Demyansk (Demjansk), south of Leningrad, during World War II on the Eastern Front. The pocket existed mainly from 8 February-21 April 1942.
On the 21st of March 1942, German forces under the command of Generalleutnant Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach attempted to leave through the "Ramushevo corridor". Over the next several weeks, this corridor was widened. A battle group was able to break out of the siege on the 21st of April, but the fighting had taken a heavy toll. Out of the approximately 100,000 men trapped, there were 3,335 lost and over 10,000 wounded. However, their strong resistance had tied up numerous Soviet units at a critical moment, units that could have been used elsewhere.
Fighting in the area continued until 28 February 1943. The Soviets did not liberate Demyansk until 1 March 1943, with the retreat of the German troops.

(Source - Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1972-042-42)

 

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A Re-Post from 2014.

Junkers Ju.87 D-5 'Stuka' of I./Schlachtgeschwader 3 - I./SG3 being hand crank started in Immola, Finland.
June/July 1944.

(Colourised by Doug)

 

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On the 11th of June 1944, F/O H.G. Garwood of 412 Squadron was flying VZ-S (MJ 255) MK IXc Spitfire when it suffered an engine failure* near Tilly-sur-Seulles, France, during the allied invasion.
He was forced to execute a wheels-up landing which tore the port wing off as it looped in the grass.
Fortunately Garwood was able to make it back to his base unharmed.

We think these tanks maybe from the 24th Lancers with the 8th Armoured Brigade, the regiment landed on Gold Beach, in the second wave of the Operation Overlord landings, supporting the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division. Shortly after landing, it was involved in the fighting around Putot-en-Bessin and Villers Bocage, also seeing intensive action in the Tilly-sur-Seulles, Fontenay-le-Pesnel, Tessel Wood and Rauray areas.

Photo taken on the 17th of June as these Shermans were advancing.

*Note: Most reports say he suffered engine failure though a few articles say this spit was shot down by enemy AA, if anyone knows for certain please let me know.

 

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Panzer IV Ausf.H of 5. Kompanie/II. Abteilung/Panzer-Regiment 29/12.Panzer-Division on the Eastern Front in 1944.

(Colourised by our newest 'recruit' - Joshua Barrett aged 20 and from the UK)