World War II was a disastrous global war, started just after two decades of The Great War. The conflict involved virtually every part of the world, with over 30 countries, directly and indirectly, involved in the deadliest war. 75 million people died, including soldiers and civilians, which counts for 3% population at the time. Many civilians died because of deliberate genocide, massacres, mass-bombings, war crimes, diseases, and starvation. The Soviet Union alone lost around 27 million people, including 8.7 million militaries and 19 million civilians. Millions more were injured, and still more lost their homes and property. Here below is a collection of colorized photographs from WWII. These photographs show soldiers on battlefields, women working in factories making weapons, and many more.
#1 American servicemen drive in jeeps through an unidentified and nearly completely destroyed town, Italy, May 1944.
#2 While a patrol moves in from the rear, two United States Marines cover a Japanese sniper hiding in a church, below Shuri Castle on Okinawa, 1945.
#3 broken down and deserted Soviet T-35 heavy tank of the 8th Mechanized Corps. On the Dubno – Plycza highway, Rivne Oblast (province) of western Ukraine.
#4 Two soldiers standing on the tank and assessing the destructions.
#5 A pair of servicemen and a quartet of schoolboys sit on bridge over the Thames, Henley-on-Thames, England, May 1944.
#6 Supreme Allied Commander American General Dwight D. Eisenhower, his deputy, British Chief Air Marshal Arthur Tedder , and the principal commander of Allied ground forces in Europe, British General Bernard L. Montgomery, stand in a US armored vehicle as they review a tank exercise, Salisbury, England
#7 The flight deck crew prepares planes for launch from the USS Lexington (CV-16), en route near New Guinea, early April, 1944.
#8 Close-up, in-flight view of a Douglas SBD Dauntless piloted by American Lt. George Glacken (left) with his gunner Leo Boulanger, near New Guinea, early April, 1944.
#9 American troops unloading supplies on the shores of Guadalcanal Island in 1943.
#10 American soldier sits and eats his meal (which includes chicken, mashed potatoes, bread, and pineapple) atop rows of a stockpiled ammunition shells, England, May 1944.
#11 British and South African soldiers hold up Nazi trophy flag while combat engineers on bulldozers clear a path through the debris of the bombed-out city of Cassino in 1943.
#12 A US Army Corps of Engineers solider packs 1/2 pound tins of the explosive TNT under one end of an abandoned German tank in preparation for detonation during military operations in the El Guettar Valley, Tunisia, early 1943.
#13 Cadets at Corpus Christie Naval Air Training Station.
#14 An American soldier sits behind the wheel of a Willys MB jeep, shortly before the United States joined World War II, 1941.
#15 Crew removing plane which has made a slight crash landing aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise CV-6 during the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet maneuvers in 1940.
#16 Crew aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise CV-6 listening to instructions during the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet maneuvers around Hawaii in 1940.
#17 Photographers standing in front of Pappy’s Pram, a B-26 Marauder at base, 1943.
#18 An Avenger aircraft from the squadron VT-26, after engine failure and a catapult mishap on board the aircraft carrier USS Bataan CVE-29. March 13, 1944.
#19 Spectators from all over the world pick vantage positions on the deck of the USS Missouri, in Tokyo
#20 Wounded troops lying on stretchers aboard a lighter in Munda Point, New Georgia. There were more than 36 million casualties during the War in the Pacific.
#21 Captured wounded Japanese soldier surrounded by Marines on Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands. During World War II, it’s estimated that between 19,500 and 50,000 members of the Imperial Japanese military surrendered to the Allies.
#22 Marines torch a Japanese defensive in Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi by using flamethrowers in 1945. These military tools were an effective weapon for burning out entrenched fighters who would have otherwise continued to fight, costing more lives. Pictured are Pvt. Richard Klatt and PFC Wilfred Voegeli
#23 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.
#24 A Finnish soldier practices maneuvers in the winter snow at a military dog training school during the Finnish-Soviet Continuation War. Hämeenlinna, Finland. February 1941.
#25 A Chinese Nationalist soldier guards a row of Curtiss P-40 ‘Warhawks’ flown by the ‘Flying Tigers’ of the American Volunteer Group (AVG). July, 1942.
#26 Squadron Leader J.A.F. MacLachlan, the one-armed Commanding Officer of No 1 Squadron RAF, standing beside his all-black Hawker Hurricane Mark IIC night fighter, ‘JX-Q’, at Tangmere in West Sussex, England
#27 T/5 William E. Thomas and Pfc. Joseph Jackson prepare a gift of special “Easter Eggs” for Adolf Hitler and the German Army. Scrawling such messages on artillery shells in World War II was one way in which artillery soldiers could humorously express their dislike of the enemy.
#28 Soviet artillerymen transporting a 76-mm divisional gun M1942 (ZiS-3) during the forced crossing of the Oder River, Germany, c. December, 1944
#29 The strain and fatigue of 23 days on the line is shown by Marines of Combat Team ‘C’, 2/7th US Marines, 1st Marine Division seen here displaying Japanese battle flags captured during the Battle of Cape Gloucester. 14-15th January 1944
#30 On October 1, 1940, Private Jack Bernard and other volunteers in The British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught’s Own Rifles) were marching smartly down Eighth Street in New Westminster to board a ship and sail off to war.
Suddenly, Bernard’s five-year-old son broke free of his mother’s grasp and sprinted into the military formation to take his smiling father’s hand. In that instant, an alert Vancouver Daily Province photographer, Claude Dettloff, snapped the shutter. Soon, his unforgettable image of little Warren “Whitey” Bernard was being printed by leading publications throughout North America. It was later used in Canada’s war bond drives with the plea, “help bring my Daddy home.” Jack Bernard survived the war and was reunited with his son in 1945
