BEFORE AND AFTER D-DAY: RARE COLOR PHOTOS

My Maternal Grandfather went ashore 13-June-1944 at Omaha with the 30th ID,and was KIA 25-July-1944 in Operation Cobra,the Break Out of St.Lo

My mother was born 6-Feb-44 and as he had already shipped to England,he never saw her.
 
My Maternal Grandfather went ashore 13-June-1944 at Omaha with the 30th ID,and was KIA 25-July-1944 in Operation Cobra,the Break Out of St.Lo

My mother was born 6-Feb-44 and as he had already shipped to England,he never saw her.

My uncle was also lost at St Lo in Sept 44.
 
It goes without saying that I love this stuff.

Might steal a few of those for enquiry skills lessons :thu:
 
We have one colour photo of my late grandfather in (I think) New Delhi, where he was part of the Tenth Air Force.
 
My great grandfather side went in to the British army as a boy soldier in 1914 and made it out, he then lied about his age saying he was younger so he could go back into combat in WW2. Got out of both of them unscathed and died in his late 90s though I was too young to really get to know him before he died.

The other one was a life time soldier and spent 48 hours standing in the channel at Dunkirk before he was picked up. Pretty sure he was involved in the Normany landings in some capacity too. I never met him and apparently when he got out of the army he hit the bottle hard and had to pawn his medals for booze money :(

One of my favourite parts about Christmas is listening to my gran talking about what it was like to be a little girl during the war.
 
Thanks for sharing these, Mark.

One of the photos is of a group of Germans captured by the Allied troops. That photo really struck me. My father was about that age during the war. He served in the German army and was captured by the British. Getting captured saved his life.
 
Excellent photos.

One of my uncles fought in Italy and brought back a German helmet and flag for my Dad. We still have the swastika flag.

Another uncle was lost aboard the Arizona.
 
Excellent photos.

One of my uncles fought in Italy and brought back a German helmet and flag for my Dad. We still have the swastika flag.

Another uncle was lost aboard the Arizona.

Damn, that's rough.

My dad smuggled home a bunch of stuff. Three rifles, binoculars, an iron cross and such. Those Mauser 98s are some wicked guns.
 
My dad fought at Hollandia in '44 and the Philippines at Lingayen Gulf in '45. He was an anti-aircraft/artillery gun crewchief (corporal) on a 90mm gun.

He was there when General Yamashita surrendered to some U.S. troops, his gun actually fired on the generals small group several times before they surrendered. His gun was just doing fire by map coordinates and they had no idea they kept targeting, purely by accident, General Yamashita and his staff :)
 
Really great photos. The addition of color just makes the whole thing seem more 'real'. Not that it wasn't real, but color pics make it look more like family snapshots of people I might know.
 
My great grandfather side went in to the British army as a boy soldier in 1914 and made it out, he then lied about his age saying he was younger so he could go back into combat in WW2. Got out of both of them unscathed and died in his late 90s though I was too young to really get to know him before he died.

The other one was a life time soldier and spent 48 hours standing in the channel at Dunkirk before he was picked up. Pretty sure he was involved in the Normany landings in some capacity too. I never met him and apparently when he got out of the army he hit the bottle hard and had to pawn his medals for booze money :(

One of my favourite parts about Christmas is listening to my gran talking about what it was like to be a little girl during the war.

I'd have LOVED to have met him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Damn, that's rough.

My dad smuggled home a bunch of stuff. Three rifles, binoculars, an iron cross and such. Those Mauser 98s are some wicked guns.

My grandmother re-married in 1948,and he was an MP in the 29th ID. He brought home a big trunk full of flags,medals,coins ,insignia and knives he had taken from prisoners. It was a BIG deal when i was a kid for him to open the trunk and show me his trophies.
My other hobby aside from music is Imperial German Militaria,I loves me some medalbars!
 
Grandfather on my dad's side was in the Phillipines. He survived the Bataan Death March. He would never speak of the war, unless he had a lot of booze in him. Then it was lookout cuz grampa is drunk and angry.

I've always been fascinated with WWII. Partly because of my grandfather, partly becausse it created so many other things. Nuclear weapons, the Cold War, Rockets, Jets...

Thanks for sharing the pictures
 
Very cool photos.

Amazingly, to my knowledge, none of my relatives fought in WWII. Both of my grandfathers fought in WWI, and my Dad fought in Korea - but no WWII vets in the family line.
 
Those are awesome...I always enjoy seeing those kind of pics. Helping my son earlier this year do a report about a great uncle who was a POW in WWII, captured during the Battle of the Bulge was an eye opener.
 
Thanks for sharing these, Mark.

One of the photos is of a group of Germans captured by the Allied troops. That photo really struck me. My father was about that age during the war. He served in the German army and was captured by the British. Getting captured saved his life.


I'm always amazed by stuff like this. My dad forged my grandfathers signature to join the navy while he was still underage and ended up in the Sea Bees in the Pacific theater. Even though he wasn't a combat troop apparently he was in enough combat zones that he had extra points at the end of the war and was able to go home after only 14 months. He told me the only time he was ever really shot at though was by MP's in the Phillipines for being out after curfew. :embarrassed:

He was incredibly proud of his service though and while he didn't talk about it too much until the end of his life he had a ton of papers and other items in his belongings that we found after he passed. It's amazing how young so many of the troops were in that war. My dad was 16 when he entered boot camp and not even 19 when he left the Navy. In Germany towards the end I've read that they were throwing young children and the oldest of old men and women into uniform as they ran out of recruits of the standard ages.
 
Very cool photos.

Amazingly, to my knowledge, none of my relatives fought in WWII. Both of my grandfathers fought in WWI, and my Dad fought in Korea - but no WWII vets in the family line.

Too bad the whole world isn't so fortunate.
Hitler was a prick.
 
None of my family has ever served in combat to my knowledge. I feel both fortunate and left out in a strange way.

My paternal grandpa served in the air force as a radar operator. But he spent all of his career in the states.

EDIT: I lied, i have an uncle who served in Afghanistan. He was a Pave Low...something. Got a medal for a rescue operation. I think it's the Distinguished Flying Cross? Not genetically related but still family.
 
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Grandfather on my dad's side was in the Phillipines. He survived the Bataan Death March. He would never speak of the war, unless he had a lot of booze in him. Then it was lookout cuz grampa is drunk and angry.

Highly recommended book: "Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission" by Hampton Sides

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