WW1 and WW2 colour pictures

Hanno Spoelstra · #1 04-03-05, 12:45

For any interested in WW1, see Militaryphotos.net Forum -> WW1 in color for a parge amount of colour pictures. There´s at least one showing Canadian soldiers, reportedly.

Source: http://www.culture.gouv.fr/

Hanno Spoelstra · #2 05-03-05, 21:17

Just found a site featuring WW2 colour pictures too: http://www.ww2incolor.com/

Keith Webb · #3 05-03-05, 22:32

I noticed you've been helping with the captions which, apart from some of the aircraft seem to be a bit uninformed.
But what a great resource. Pity they're small though...

Keith Webb · #4 06-03-05, 07:55

There is a number of pics on the WW2 in color site which are shot on 120 film scanned with the edges - great shots - I think these were taken Stateside in training. Here's an example of one of the really good ones.

I've rotated it to the correct angle - it was 90 degrees out.

Looks like a M3 Grant.

Hanno Spoelstra · #5 06-03-05, 08:05

Quote:

Originally posted by Keith Webb
Looks like a M3 Grant.

It's an early M4A1 Sherman, the one directly succeeding the M3 Medium retaining the early type suspension and two hull-mounted MGs.

Great shots indeed.

H.

Keith Webb · #6 06-03-05, 09:28

Thanks for the ID Hanno

Looks quite precarious too!

Norm Cromie (RIP) · #7 06-03-05, 20:52

Hi Keith:
Great photo of the tank. Excellent resolution. The site that Hanno sent us to on WW1 color photos was exceptional in their resolution and human interest. But I think that the photographer had the subjects freeze their positions because as you notice no where in the photos is there any movement blur. I am sure the shutter speed at that time was certainly not what it is today. Still, the finest color photos that I have ever seen on WW1.

Keith Webb · #8 06-03-05, 21:11

Hi Norm

When Kodachrome was introduced in the mid 1930s it had a speed of around 8 ASA, making a tripod, bright light and immobile subjects necessary to make good photographs, so the photographs you see were probably made using the Autochrome process which used dyed potato starch for the colours on glass plates. Quite a process.

chris vickery · #9 06-03-05, 23:31

As a relatively young fella in the world of military history and the like, I grew up in a relatively colour world. I am old enough though to remember B&W television sets, while my younger siblings do not.
It is funny though, thinking of world wars, the American Civil War, ancient history etc as black and white, true and real in ones mind, but at the same time different because of all the pics lacking colour.
When I went to the forementioned site of colour WW1 pictures, suddenly everything became very real.
Funny how these thing work in the human mind...

servicepub (RIP) · #10 09-03-05, 19:38

I see some well-known Canadian pictures mis-catalogued as American because of the universal Allied recognition white star.