Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Friday, January 18, 2019

Horrors of WWII are brought to life in a series of colourised images

The brutal reality of the Second World War has been brought to life in a series of stunning yet emotional colourised images from one of the world's most devastating conflicts.

Striking shots show Sergeant Jake McNiece of the 101st Airborne Division, ready to drop into Normandy, a Marine comforting a brother who broke down after witnessing the death of a friend and American troops walk down a war ravaged street, Messina, Sicily.

Other vivid colour pictures show U.S. Army military policemen toasting bread over molten lava from Mount Vesuvius after its eruption and the crew of the B-17 Flying Fortress 'Memphis Belle' at an air base in England after completing 25 missions over enemy territory.

The original black and white photographs were painstakingly colourised by design engineer Paul Reynolds, 48, from Birmingham.

He said: 'I mostly colourise war photos because each photo usually has a story to tell, stories of real everyday people.

'I think colourising detailed photos really brings them to life. You notice detail that usually gets missed due to the monotone background.

More

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Horrors of WW2? Where, these are very tame photo's, I saw better gore in Saving Pvt. Ryan on TV.

Anonymous said...

12:52. The horrors of WWII were not always about the gore and bloodshed, but it was about the hours, days, weeks and months of never having a dry bed to sleep in or a hot meal that or one you didn't have to eat while marching through mud in strange places where people didn't speak your language. And, of course, not knowing when a Panzer was going to surprise you around the next corner and blow up your entire platoon.
No, the horrors of war can be seen on the faces of the men and women and children who had to endure years of endless fighting and bombardment.
The blood and gore sells movies, but the real war devastation was what it did to their morale.

Anonymous said...

Another must see is " They Shall Not Grow Old " WWI footage digital remastered and colorized and they even brought in forensic lip readers and figured out what some of the troops were saying. It is truly spooky. We are so accustomed to seeing the silent grainy sped up old hand cranked footage. No matter how you look at either War is just carnage it's amazing anyone survives.