Raising the Soviet flag over the German Reichstag, May 1945

The iconic raising of the Soviet flag over the devastated Reichstag was a re-enactment photo taken the day after the Soviet victory in the Battle of Berlin.  Colorized from two re-enactment original photos taken by Yevgeny Khaldei with a Leica III rangefinder camera with a 35mm f3.5 lens on 2 May 1945.

The photo was published 13 May 1945 in the Ogonyok magazine. While many photographers took pictures of flags on the Reischtag roof, it was Khaldei's image that stuck.

The Soviets wrongly considered the Reichstag as symbolic of  Nazi Germany. It was already abandoned after the 1933 fire that left it in ruins. On 2 May 1945, photographer Khaldei scaled the now pacified Reichstag to take his picture. He was carrying with him a large flag, sewn from three tablecloths for this very purpose, by his uncle. Arriving at the Reichstag, he asked the soldiers who happened to be passing by to help with the staging of the photoshoot. There were only four of them, including Khaldei, on the roof: the one who was attaching the flag was 18-year-old Private Kovalev from Kiev, the two others were Abdulkhakim Ismailov from Dagestan and Leonid Gorychev from Minsk.

After taking the photo, Khaldei returned to Moscow and edited the image at the request of the editor-in-chief of the Ogonyok, who noticed that Senior Sergeant Abdulkhakim Ismailov, who is supporting the flag-bearer, was wearing two watches, which could imply he had looted one of them, an action punishable by execution. Using a needle, Khaldei removed the watch from the right wrist. Later, it was claimed that the extra watch was actually an Adrianov compass and that Khaldei, in order to avoid controversy, doctored the photo to remove the watch from Ismailov's right wrist. He also added to the smoke in the background, copying it from another picture to make the scene more dramatic.[1]

Stumbled on another photo by Khaldei with the flag still to be unfurled, but used another image of the flag in another photo unfurled and slightly distorted.

Colorized photo of English childred in a dugout or trench bomb shelter during the German bombing blitz of London 1940-41

England, 1940-41 Battle of Britain. Children in an English trench bomb shelter, colorized from a photo by the British Information Service.

Audie Murphy (1925 - 1971), most decorated U.S. solider in WWII, coloriized from an early 1950 photo

The photo colorized only shows less than half of his medals. Audie received every military award for valor available from the U.S. Army, as well as French and Belgian awards for heroism. He received the Congressional Medal of Honor (highest personal recognition conferred by the U.S.)  at age 19 for single-handedly holding off an entire company of German soldiers for an hour at the Colmar Pocket in France in Jan 1945, then leading a successful counterattack while wounded and out of ammunition. He became a Hollywood star after the war. and perished in a plane crash in 1971. 

Adolph HItler in Paris, June 1940, colorized

After Poland, Hitler trained his sights on France, enabling him to conquer the western European countries of Belgium, Luxumberg and the Netherlands along the way. It also put into motion his vengeance against the country that humiliated Germany in WWI in the Treaty of Versailles. Against all expectations, Hitler demolished within a few weeks what was considered the most powerful military power in mainland Europe since WWI. France underestimated Hitler (and overestimated their own military power) who mobilized more than 3 million soldiers to overwhelm a mere 800,000 French military. The fall of France on June 20, 1940 enabled Hitler to launch his bombing blitz on London and considered invading Britain through the English Channel except that he hesitated and focused his resources on invading Russia instead, opening an eastern front, his biggest and most fatal blunder. Had Hitler continued to invade Britain after France. Britain could have fallen next with a ground invasion while preoccupied with dogfights in the Battle of Brittain. The Royal Family would have moved to Canada.

Here's my colorized take on this event captured Jun 23, 1940 when Hitler posed with his architect Albert Speer (left), sculptor Arno Brecker (right), and personal photographer Heinrich Hoffman against the Eiffel Tower considered a symbol of liberty by the French. The photo shocked the world when it appeared in several broadsheets a day later. People everywhere expected Hitler to proceed and conquer Britain.

Two German snipers surrender to GIs of the 3rd Army in Koblenz. Colorized a 1945 photo by Alex Lim

A colorized photo depicting two German snipers surrendering to GIs of the 3rd Army in Koblenz. The youngster on the right was wounded by US return fire. Germans generally preferred surrendering to American GIs as Russia

ns took no sniper prisoners; they were invariably shot on sight. March 26, 1945.

Girl cradling her baby doll, London Blitz 1940, colorized by Alex Y. Lim

A girl sits outside the rubble of her bombed home, cradling her baby doll. This photo was taken during the aftermath of a London blitz by the German Luftwaffe in 1940.

Canadian M4 Sherman tank from the Sherbrook Fusiliers advancing through an abandoned and devastated village in Caen in July 1944, colorized by Alex Y. Lim

Here is my colorized take on a famous photo of a Canadian M4 Sherman tank from the Sherbrook Fusiliers advancing through an abandoned and devastated village in Caen in July 1944, a month after the Normandy invasion. Caen was a critical main objective in the Allied invasion as its capture would effectively disable quick response by the Germans. The battle for Caen saw old enemies, Field Marshals Bernard Montgomery and Erwin Rommel smack each other. Erwin gave Bernard a difficult time taking Caen and delayed the allied forces timetable in liberating France, but after the fall of Caen, the liberation was a sure thing.

American soldier mortally shot by a German sniper, 1945

Colorized a photo of a n unidentified American soldier, shot dead by a German sniper, clutches his rifle and hand grenade in March of 1945 in Coblenz, Germany.  A senseless death considering that Germany capitulated in just a few more weeks.

Field Marshal General Erwin Rommel (1891 – 1944)

My diversification into the War photos left me with several photos on my hard drive with some unfinished colorization.  This one for the German war hero Rommel was completed yesterday along with another.  Some liberties were taken of the background.  The vine leaves on the wall would not have been a problem colorizing but I felt a simpler background gives more focus to the subject.

Colorized photo of a WW2 close combat between a GI and a German infantry

The photo is possibly a re-enactment, but the photo composition is excellent.  Undated and no location indicated in the original downloaded from a Pinterest site.  It's possibly a re-enactment.

Colorized photo of American liberators as they watch the Eiffel tower fly the French Tricolors again

This is a colorized photo taken after the liberation of France in Aug 1944, as the tricolors were hoisted back to its rightful position atop the historic Eiffel Tower. Hitler had earlier ordered this land landmark destroyed along with the entire Pari when he heard about the upcoming liberation of the country. The City fell to German occupation on June 14, 1940, French resistance fighters allegedly cut the elevator cables to the Eiffel Tower. This meant that if Hitler wanted to hoist a swastika flag, a soldier would have to climb the roughly 1710 stairs to the summit platform.

As Allies neared Paris in August 1944, a Frenchman scaled the tower and hung the French flag. When it became obvious that the Germans would lose Paris, Hitler ordered General Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, to turn the city into rubble – including the Eiffel Tower. General von Choltitz did not carry out the command. Reportedly, within hours of the Liberation of Paris, the Tower’s lifts worked again.

Colorized re-enactment of a close combat between a Polish and German infantry at the Battle of Mlawa, Northern Poland, Sep 1939

Colorized with some liberties recreating smoke on the foreground.  This is a re-enacted shot conducted by the Polish government using authentic artillery and actual German Lufthwaffe aircraft sometime in 2015 .  Story of the history battle that preceded the fall of Poland to Hitler here

Colorized "Fat Man"

Never thought I would colorize something like an atomic bomb. First time I read about it, this bomb was described the "Fat Man" and was painted YELLOW, with Green and Red stripes that drove me to colorize its b&w photo taken just before being loaded on a B-29 Superfortress to bomb Nagasaki in August 1945. (The first one that devastated Hiroshima was named "Little Boy").  Unlike the first, the  Fat Man used an Implosive firing mechanism and a solid plutonium core that instantly killed almost 80,000 in Nagasaki, finally ending WWII in the Pacific.