Colored photos from WW1

[WestKentucky]

I ran across some photos of ww1 posted on Facebook which have been researched and colored as accurately as possible. The color brings these images to life in a way I have never seen. There are plenty pictures where we can play name that weapon, but the photography itself is incredible, and the color put back into the photos does something I can't put into words. I'm sure this is a repost, but for those folks who haven't seen these, please take some time to look at these.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/73317.html

 

[Mitlov]

With WWI, I am always struck by the contrast between (1) the horrible savagery of the fighting itself, and (2) the courtesy and respect with which each side treated POWs from the other side.

 

[WestKentucky]

I love the stories of folks breaking lines and enemies sharing christmas dinner or swapping cigarettes for food or whatever. That was an age where even in war, people were still human. Now things are so very different with automated weaponry, remotely operated equipment, and operators behind the controls who don't have the kinship shared by the guys in the trenches. You do still get a little bit, but not widespread like back then.

 

[jamesinalaska]

Excellent post. Thank you West Kentucky. I will put the website of your link into my favorites column. I just love good reads like those.

 

[SwaneeSR]

Agreed. Excellent post.

Desolate. It is amazing the amount of detailed information provided with each image.

 

[bannockburn]

Nice job with the colorization. Thanks for the link.

 

[Midwest]

Thank you for posting the link!





"Canadian MGC with their Vickers .303 machine guns, dug in shell holes during consolidation after the battle at Vimy Ridge, 9th-12th April, 1917.
(Library and Archives Canada – O.1146)"
.

 

[HexHead]

While I'm sure all war is hell, the Great War was it's own special hell.

 

[DoubleMag]

An almost tearful eye and ''thank you'' across years to these brave men who fought and died, or have passed away by now. Most certainly these brave faces share a large part of why I wasn't raised with german as my official language!
Amazing detail, hard to realize this pics average 100 years old. Great post !

 

[Scooter22]

Thanks for the link. Boy you can get lost on that site. I'm going to crack a cold one tonight and look around.

 

[SSN Vet]

The artillery bombardments back and forth across the same stripe of land, for years on end, just decimated the landscape, like never seen since.

Went to a lecture by the author of Dough Boys a the library a year back and he spoke of visiting the battle fields in France, where you still can find shrapnel, cartridge casings, and bone fragments strewn about.

 

[WestKentucky]

Just wondering here...in the photo of the guy sleeping in the trench, his rifle has the action wrapped in a heavy cloth or leather. I'm assuming this was to keep moisture out of the action so the gun wouldn't freeze up. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[leadcounsel]

Wow, pretty amazing restoration. Thanks for the post. It's an often forgotten war having been largely ignored by Hollywood. The Revolutionary and Civil Wars, WWII and Vietnam seem to get the big screen glory, whereas WWI and Korea are ignored.

Really special to see those pictures. What a hellish war that must have been.

Just wondering here...in the photo of the guy sleeping in the trench, his rifle has the action wrapped in a heavy cloth or leather. I'm assuming this was to keep moisture out of the action so the gun wouldn't freeze up. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Almost certainly to protect the action from mud, dirt, water, etc. There's another picture with the guy holding his helmet displaying a large hole in the helmet. He has the muzzle covered likely to keep mud out of it.

When I was deployed, we often put plastic muzzle caps on our rifles, kept dummy mags in the magwell when we weren't authorized to have live mags in, and always kept the dust covers closed. As we all know, dirt, water, mud, etc are bad for the actions and barrel.

 

[Red Wind]

Thank you very much, WestKentucky. A very fine pictorial. Hard to believe it has been 101 years since The Great War began. A whole European generation wiped out.

The horrors are almost unimaginable. The Marne, Ypres, Passchendaele, Verdun, The Somme, Argonne Forest. All to do all over again in 1939.

 

[ozarkhillbilly]

I thought the world was in b&w back then, now I find out it was in color.

When I was a little boy we had a WWI vet I went to church with, Mr Neal who had a biplane in his garage, taken apart. The engine was put together and would run and his wicker chair was in his living room. I remember him telling me about the war and how one day he was going to put his plane together so he could fly like he did in the war.

I often wonder what became of his stuff after he died, I hope someone has taken good care of it, he was a very nice man to a little boy.

 

[Bexar]

With WWI, I am always struck by the contrast between (1) the horrible savagery of the fighting itself, and (2) the courtesy and respect with which each side treated POWs from the other side.

More than just a few of the combatants were blood related to the guys on the other side. In fact the ruling leadership of the opposing sides were in some cases cousins. Plus...the leaders were of an aristocratic family order that conducted even war by social rules.

Prisoners simply were no longer the enemy...just the cousin's kids. Now it's dictators, in some parts of the world, (not Europe) fighting wars whose ruling paradigm is brutality.

 

[Robert]

While I love the topic, let's stick to talking about the firearms since that is the focus of THR.

 

[jmr40]

If you click on each photo it will take you to links showing many more, some from WW-1 and WW-2. I hope this can stay on topic, but there is only one firearm in all of the original photos.

This is sorta special to me. My maternal Grandfather was a WW-1 vet who was gassed and suffered his entire life after returning. He died in 1964 at age 64 when I was only 6. I never really got to know him. Which was a huge shame because he was an avid hunter before WW-1 and had a nice collection of Winchesters from the 1890's. I got to see them once. They were passed down to his only son, who had 1 son, a cousin, who had them last I heard.

 

[Cee Zee]

I love Civil War photos myself. Here's one example:

http://www.shorpy.com/node/18488?size=_original#caption

It's way too big for posting here. But it is well worth the look. There are hundreds of Civil War photos on that site but this is the only full size sample I found.

Here's another great site for Civil War photos.

http://www.bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2013/05/civil-war-soldiers-were-real-people.html

This one shows southern soldiers preparing for a battle. Notice the complete lack of any kind of repeating rifle. If you want to know why the gubmit wants to take our guns it's because they know the team with the best guns wins. Be sure to zoom in. This might be before the battle at Fredericksburg.

http://www.bobcesca.com/files/2013/05/CIVIL115.jpg

There are lots of other Civil War photo sites. It's amazing how good the quality is of some of those photos. Mathew Brady in particular took a lot of high quality photos. Sadly too many try to make big money on his photos when they are clearly not copyrighted. Here's a sample of a Gettysburg photo he took but the quality was purposely made bad by the site. They want to sell you a good quality print. Brady took photos like the one in my first link.

http://ep.yimg.com/ay/mcmahanphoto/civil-war-harvest-of-death-at-gettysburg-photo-print-6.jpg

 

[TRX]

Don't forget shorpy.com for old photos. Shorpy can be a huge time suck if you're not careful.

 

[Cee Zee]

Don't forget shorpy.com for old photos

LOL that's where my first link went to. That photo is incredible. Many people have no idea how good photos were back during the Civil War. They used 8 x 10 film. It should be good. Shorpy has a lot of photos though. Not just Civil War stuff.