A History to Remember: 30 War Photos (31 photos)

Joel Bellevure, lead photo colorist at Cassowary Colorizations, started the project out of a desire to learn by rediscovering history. Cassowary Colorizations colorizes photographs for both media and private commissions, but no matter where the image comes from, it is always treated with care and attention. Bellevure accompanies each photo with a detailed description, which often includes important historical facts.





1.



Jacob K. Miller (August 4, 1840 – January 13, 1917) was a private in Company K, 9th Indiana Infantry, who was wounded in the head at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19, 1863. The bullet hit Miller in the head, but did not penetrate his skull. He walked around with the bullet in his forehead for several years, and gradually, piece by piece, it fell out of the wound entirely. While the bullet was still in his head, it would occasionally cause Miller to go into a stupor, usually when he had a cold and the bullet would put more pressure on his brain. When the bullet remnants fell out, Miller finally recovered and lived without symptoms until he was 88.

2.



A small portion of the thousands of wedding rings that the Nazis took from their victims. American troops discovered a cache of rings, watches, precious stones, eyeglasses and gold crowns near the Buchenwald concentration camp - May 5, 1945.

3.



Wojtek the bear with a Polish soldier, Iran, 1942. Wojtek was the name of a brown bear who was ransomed by Polish soldiers of the Second Corps, who arrived in Iran from the USSR. Wojtek was later awarded the rank of private, and after participating in several battles, he was promoted to corporal. After the war, Wojtek was demobilized and lived out the rest of his life in Edinburgh Zoo, where he died at the age of 21 in 1963.

4.



Not war, but about war: colorization in honor of the 75th anniversary of the film "Casablanca".

5.



Seaforth Highlanders and a dog rest in a trench near La Gorgue, France, August 1915. The position of the bayonets suggests that the photo is staged, as is the case with 95% of such photos.

6.



An American soldier from the 11th Airborne Division shares a chocolate bar with a local girl, 1946, Japan. During World War II, the most famous chocolate was Sho-Ka-Kola, which was given to German Luftwaffe pilots so that they could react quickly during combat. American troops, meanwhile, distributed Hershey’s chocolate to their soldiers.

7.



An Italian Alpini soldier ziplines from one peak to another, circa 1917.

8.



A German soldier of the Mountain Infantry Regiment, awarded the Assault Infantry Badge, during a celebration. Summer 1943.

9.



An American soldier at an Allied base in Australia shakes hands with a kangaroo. Probably North Queensland, October 9, 1942.

10.



Colorized for the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Dresden. The photo captures the view from the town hall to the destroyed city several months after the bombing.

11.



A color photograph from World War II. Although most of the photographs taken by the press, propaganda agents, and of course soldiers were in black and white, some journalists and soldiers were given new color cameras. Inventions such as Kodachrome (1935) and Kodacolor (1942/1958) brought previously unheard-of results to photography and are now the standard for photo colorists.

12.



Austrian Lance Corporal with the Two-Thousand-Yard Stare, 1918. The expression "The Two-Thousand-Yard Stare" was coined after the publication of a painting of the same name by artist Thomas Lee in Life magazine and describes the detached, unfocused look often seen in soldiers who have suffered combat trauma.

13.



Soviet female snipers fire from a trench somewhere on the Eastern Front, 1943. Decoy snipers were common during World War II. This photograph shows a helmet decoy that would cause an enemy soldier to fire from another trench, thus giving away his position to the sniper.

14.



One of 80 colorized photographs featured in the book "The German and French Armies in the Great War," which illustrates the fighting on the Western Front.

15.



A sign placed by a soldier from Dog Company during the Korean War, March 25, 1952, Korea. "The one who wore this helmet is still alive - wear yours."

16.



A U.S. soldier wearing Brewster armor, 1917. A steel armor for infantrymen developed in 1917 in the United States for its troops in World War I. It consisted of a breastplate and helmet that could stop a machine gun bullet at a speed of 820 m/s. The problem was that the armor weighed 18 kilograms and restricted the soldiers' movements. The United States later developed an adapted armor weighing 5 kg, which fit tightly to the body and was more comfortable.

17.



A member of the French Resistance during the liberation of Paris on August 23, 1944.

18.



An Italian officer performs the "Mombrone descent" during a final exercise, 1906. The Italian Cavalry School, founded in 1823, was responsible for training the entire cavalry staff of the armed forces. Every officer at the cavalry school in Pinerolo (near the Alps) had to perform the "Mombrone descent" before graduating. The 6-meter descent from the window of a ruined castle about five kilometers from Pinerolo was considered a test of character.

19.



Finnish artillery corporal Niman makes a sand sculpture of a woman during the Soviet-Finnish War. Valkjärvi, circa 1943.

20.



Captain D. Michelson with Tim the tortoise, a pet of the Australian 2/2nd Battalion, 16th Brigade, 6th Division. Julis, Palestine, March 28, 1930.

21.



Soldiers console each other during intense combat in Pleiku, South Vietnam, May 26, 1967.

22.



Private First Class Joseph E. Day (1918-2009) in his underwear carries a puppy named "Invasion" wearing a German helmet. Le Désert, France, 1944.

23.



Sergeant Joseph Levin of the U.S. Chemical Warfare Service tests a new gas mask on his horse, Buddy, on Governors Island, New York, in 1928. The photo was long thought to be of a French soldier during the Battle of Verdun, but Bellevure found a similar photo in the October 1928 issue of Popular Science magazine. The article said that Buddy demonstrated the effectiveness of the new protective gear by successfully leading Sergeant Joseph Levin of the U.S. Army Chemical Warfare Service through a deadly curtain of poison gas without injury.

24.



A Norwegian child is carried into an ambulance from the destroyer HMS Onslot in Gourock, Scotland, on March 1, 1945. The girl was one of 525 civilians who escaped the Germans on the island of Sørøya and were rescued by the Royal Navy. They hid in the snowy mountains of the Norwegian island for three months and were rescued by four British destroyers.

25.



A German Heinkel He 111 bomber crashes into the sea, date and location unknown. This He 111 is one of thousands that crashed at sea during World War II. There are 800 wrecked planes on the island of Malta alone.

26.



A soldier of the German Afrika Korps (DAK) sits on two M24 Stielhandgranate grenades, North Africa, 1942.

27.



A tired American medic returns from the front during the Battle of the Bulge. Field medics during World War II were soldiers with basic medical training who were responsible for providing first aid on the battlefield, but could also help other units by preparing patients for surgery, making beds, or serving as cooks. The Geneva Convention prohibits medics from using weapons for self-defense, only to protect the injured.

28.



Two girls during the siege of the Alcazar in Toledo during the Spanish Civil War. 1936

29.



An unknown American soldier in a summer uniform parodies Hitler with a hairbrush. His uniform is wearing the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Distinguished Service Medal, which is one of the oldest military awards in the United States, and another unknown medal. Circa 1944.

30.



American soldiers aboard a landing craft heading for the beaches of Oran, Algeria, during Operation Torch, November 1942.