Captured

Captured SS troops at Arnhem.

French Resistance

A couple of photos of the French resistance during World War II.

A WWII French resistance propaganda matchbook, gives instructions how to derail trains

One Sunday Afternoon in Townsville

A Sunday afternoon on a beach in the heart of Townsville. The unidentified men and women on the beach represent the Australian Military Forces, United States Provost Corps, Australian Army Intelligence and the Royal Australian Navy. Defensive barbed wire entanglements can be seen in the background running across the beach.

Drawing by Roy Hodgkinson, 1942.

Source AWM

Bersaglieri

Italian "Bersaglieri" (assault troops) in North Africa with captured Thompsons.

Wehrmacht Sniper

A Wehrmacht sniper operating near Stalingrad, September, 1942.

Damage

The cameraman's vehicle (kubelwagen) after an attack by Soviet partisans.  This photo was taken at Yalta, Soviet Union, 1942.

Clearing Wreckage

American troops clear wreckage in Saint-Lô, Normandy, 1944.

Servicing a Messerschmidt

Servicing of a Luftwaffe’s Messerschmidt Bf 110D-3 fitted with wing-mounted drop tanks, on a Sicilian airfield, likely Palermo. The Luftwaffe unit is likely ZG 26 “Horst Wessel”.

French Colonials

French colonial soldiers fought during the Battle of France in 1940.  

The Dead

American soldiers come across a dead German.  This appears to be a screenshot from a color video.

Wounded

An absolutely brilliant colorization from Mike Gepp.  A German medic gives on the spot first aid to his comrade, Potschlowaj, Ukraine August, 1941.

Young Sniper

Douglas Dillard, a 19 year old sniper of the 551st in France, 1944.  Dillard went on to serve in the Korean war and Vietnam war.

Another photo of Dillard, in the Ardennes

Source of second photo and interview of Dillard found here

Kamikaze Pilots

A group of kamikaze pilots bow during a ceremony in 1945.

Lower Manhattan, 1942

America was at war, but life went on.

Photo by Charles Cushman

Tennessee Joe

United States Navy crew manning a 20mm Oerlikon AA Gun on the USS Tennessee.

Recon

Summer 1942-in the Kuban-Kalmyk Steppes. Armored soldiers standing on Panzer IV (short) in front of thatched House asking for water-According to full translation this photo was taken near the town of Elista near the Caspian Sea leading one to believe this unit belonged to 16th Motorized Infantry Division who was doing reconnaissance in the vast no-man's land between Astrakhan and the Terek river.

On the Outskirts of Stalingrad

A Russian partisan near Stalingrad.  Armed with a PPSh-41 sub-machine gun with a drum magazine.  Also armed with a couple of animal furs.

Spotter Cards

These were sold to both American soldiers and civilians.  The idea being to help identify friendly vs. enemy aircraft.

Source:  Ames Historical Society

Advance Party

An advance party of the 3rd Panzer-Division south of Brest-Litowsk on June 22nd, 1941.  This photo was taken in the early moments of the Battle of Brest.

This video is a modern day dramatization of the defense of the Brest Fortress.

Battleship Strasbourg

An American soldier on the deck of the destroyed French battleship Strasbourg in Toulon, August 1944. Near the battleship, on its side, is the light cruiser La Gallissoniere.

War Photographer

Here is one of the men who may have took some of the pictures we post here.  A German war photographer.

US Airborne Troops

US Airborne troops waiting for the green light and jump off on D-Day June 6th, 1944 (photo source: US Army Corps)

Ju-87D 'Stukas'

Ju-87D 'Stukas' I./StG.2 returning from a bombing mission over Stalingrad - c.1942

Panzer VI 'Tiger' in Tunisia

Pz.VI 'Tiger' - (Nº141) 1.Kompanie s.Pz.Abt.501 DAK - Tunisia 1942/43

German Ambulance

Scale models of the German Opel Blitz ambulance used extensively during World War II.

Butchers

A German mess unit delivering freshly cut meat to the front.

Canadians Alert!

Vintage National War Finance Committee poster encouraging Canadians to buy Victory Bonds.

Pigeon Power

An RAF crewman displaying a pair of pigeons that were carried by Avro Lancanster bombers. The idea was that if the bomber crashed in German-occupied territory, the crew could release the pigeons. The pigeons would fly back to the home base to deliver a message about the crash. Before electricity and telegraph, homing pigeons were used as a sort of a mail service to deliver messages.

Crewmen of Liberator GR Mark VA, BZ818 'C', of No. 53 Squadron handling carriers containing homing pigeons at St. Eval, Cornwall, after a patrol over the Bay of Biscay. Sergeant J Knapp of Toronto, Canada, (in the hatchway) hands a carrier to Sergeant W Tatum of London, while Warrant Officer A Mackinnon of Auckland, New Zealand, holds a second carrier.

Luftwaffe Airfield

Luftwaffe servicemen participating in what looks like a drill.

Destroyed Harbor

Russian Women in a destroyed harbor in Sevastopol, 1942

German Newsreel Footage of the Battle of Sevastopol

 

Going to Market

People going to market in Lubny Ukraine, 1941.  They are seemingly oblivious, except for one child, to the dead man on the street.  He had been shot by the Germans.    On October 16, 1941 over a thousand of the city's Jews, including women and children, were massacred by German Einsatzgruppen on the outskirts of the city.

Bogged Down

A Wehrmacht Kuebelwagen covered in Russian mud.  

Ruins of Normandy

A previously unpublished photo of the ruins of Normandy.  Photo by Frank Scherschel.  

Source

Used Plane Lot

World War II fighter planes, Kimpo, Korea, 1945.  Mitsubishi Ki.51 Type 99 attack planes.

Captured Flag

A United States Air Force officer poses with a captured Nazi flag, at the end of the war.

The People's Car

America's answer to the Volkswagen.  The 1942 Willys.

Off to the Eastern Front

A German radio unit is transferred to the Eastern Front by train.

Anti-Aircraft

A 40mm 40mm quad anti-aircraft machine gun crew, of the USS Alaska, loading clips into the loaders of their guns, off Iwo Jima, March 6, 1945.

Rommel

Erwin Rommel, on the battlefield.

Sharing

Soviet Soldiers sharing a cigarette during the battle of Stalingrad, 1942.  Photo colorization by Za Rodinu.

Artillery

An American soldier looking over German artillery captured or destroyed in the battle of El Guettar, 1943.

Hitler

From the documentary, Apocalypse - World War II.

German Surrender

These photos purport to be the only color photos of the Germans' World War II surrender.

Although defeated and just days after the Fuhrer's suicide, the never-seen-before photos show the German officers looking immaculate yet menacing in their long overcoats and jackboots. 

Until now the only images of the momentous occasion in existence are the official black and white ones held by the Imperial War Museum. 

Mr Playforth kept hold of his pictures along with a handwritten speech Montgomery wrote in March 1945 to rouse British soldiers ahead of a final push into Germany. 

The historic items have remained in Mr Playforth's family ever since but have now been made public for the first time as they are being sold at auction. 

Andrew Aldridge, of Henry Aldridge Auctioneers of Devizes, Wilts, said: 'Playforth knew he was about to witness one of the most important events of the 20th century. 

'He was of too low a rank to be present so he crept into the trees and bushes on the perimeter of the HQ tent and took four photographs using colour slides.

War is over: This distant colour snapshot from behind a hedge records the moment the German high command came to surrender to Montgomery in the spring sunshine on Lunerburg Heath on May 3, 1945 signalling the end of the war

 

Under cover: Ronald Playforth secretly took four unique colour slide pictures as the Nazi officers, who at well over 6ft tall, all towered over their adversaries as they agreed terms

Source