The following featured photographs, colorized by Allan White, Benjamin Thomas, Doug Banks, Jared Enos, Johhny Sirlande, Tom Thounaojam, Olga Shirnina, Paul Reynolds and Royston Leonard, capture in vivid detail the Allied Troops on the battlefields of World War II.
Their photos are also featured among the hundreds of colored photos on the WW1 Colourised Photos, WW2 Colourised Photos and Colourized pictures of the world wars and other periods in time Facebook pages.
Editor’s note: Photos and photo captions are courtesy of artists’ Facebook pages, but may be edited for brevity. Photos featured are from Defense of Department (includes U.S. Navy, Marines, Army, Coast Guard and Air Force) and military service pages, National Archives, Library of Congress, newspapers or donated by third parties. Permission was granted to feature the colorized photographs on Argunners.
United States Marines climbing down the nets into landing craft during the Battle of Peleliu, September-November 1944. [Colorized by Benjamin Thomas]
‘Dog Beach Patrol’, (possibly on Parramore Beach, Virginia, US October 1943) A Coast Guard and his Alsatian dog poses with a M1928A1 Thompson SMG with 50-round drum magazine – .45 ACP. [Colorized by Royston Leonard]
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. [Colorized by Paul Reynolds]
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. [Colorized by Paul Reynolds]
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). [Colorized by Tom Thounaojam]
US Air Force pilot 2nd Lieutenant Robert Wade Biesecker with his crew of the 569th Bombardment Squadron, 390th Bomb Group, US Eighth Air Force, standing by ‘Honey Chile’, their B-17 Flying Fortress bomber (serial 42-31027), at RAF Framlingham, a US Eighth Air Force Bomber Command station in England, 18 October 1943. [Colorized by Benjamin Thomas]
‘Operation Husky’ A Sherman tank of ‘A’ Squadron, 50th Royal Tank Regiment, 23rd Armoured Brigade is silhouetted by the setting sun. 1st of August 1943, in Sicily. [Colorized by Paul Reynolds]
An American Medic and a GI of the US. 80th Infantry Division reading a comic at Reisdorf in Luxembourg near the German Border. 12th of February 1945. Left to right : Pfc Reynold H. Bush Middletown, Ohio , and Pfc Aurelio Maltese, New York. [Colorized by Johhny Sirlande]
Soviet Air Force officers, Rufina Gasheva (848 night combat missions) and Nataly Meklin (980 night combat missions) decorated as ‘Heroes of the Soviet Union’ for their service with the famed ‘Night Witches’ unit during World War II. They stand in front of their Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes. [Colorized by Olga Shirnina]
A Supermarine Spitfire Vc ‘Tropical’ JK707 MX-P serving with 307th Fighter Squadron, 31st Fighter Group operated by 12th USAAF. The regular pilot was 1st.Lt. Carroll A. Prybylo, but when lost it was flown by Capt. Virgil Cephus Fields, Jr. [Colorized by Paul Reynolds]
This photo was on the cover of ‘YANK’ Magazine, Continental Edition of January 14, 1945, entitled “PRESENT ARMS” it featured Pfc. Robert Leigh and his collection of enemy weapons taken by the 83rd Infantry Division during the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest. (MP.38 and MP.40’s, an MG.34 and an MG42). [Colorized by Paul Reynolds]
Alex Vraciu, who was just 25 when he reigned as the US Navy’s top World War II fighter ace after downing 19 Japanese aircraft and destroying 21 more on the ground in only eight months in 1944, died on January the 29th 2015 in West Sacramento, Calif. He was 96. [Colorized by Johhny Sirlande]
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. [Colorized by Paul Reynolds]
General Bernard Montgomery stands beside an M3 Grant command tank near Tripoli, Libya.
27th of January 1943. [Colorized by Paul Reynolds]
Major John W. Forth, Chaplain of The Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa (right), Canadian 3rd Infantry Division, helping the unit’s Regimental Aid Party treat a wounded comrade during the Battle of Caen, France, 15 July 1944. [Colorized by Benjamin Thomas]
Regimental Sergeant Major Evans of the 12th Battalion, The Devonshire Regiment examines captured German helmets in Hamminkeln, Germany, 25th March 1945. [Colorized by Paul Reynolds]
A US 7th Armored Division 3-inch M5 towed antitank gun covers the approach road near the Railroad crossing at Vielsalm, Belgium. 23rd of December 1944. [Colorized by Jared Enos]
G.I.’s from (possibly) the 1st Btn, 314th Inf. Rgt. of the US 79th Inf. Div., during an attack on the Bolleville road, just north west of La Haye Du Puis in Normandy. c. 8th July 1944. [Colorized by Allan White]
An American G.I. (possibly of the 79th US Infantry Division) runs past a German Sd.Kfz 251 Ausf D (SonderKratfahrzeug 251) – it’s probably one of many SPW (Schützenpanzerwagen) belonging to 2.Panzer Aufklärer (recon.), knocked out near St Aubin d’Appenai in Normandy during mid-August 1944. [Colorized by Royston Leonard]
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. [Colorized by Jared Enos]
