A World at War in Color

Soviet soldiers celebrating the relief of Leningrad, 18 January 1943. However, the Germans were still nearby, this attack only broke through a narrow corridor along the southern shore of Lake Ladoga. Every inch of land there was under German artillery fire. The real relief of the city did not come for another year.

This page is devoted to color photos of World War II soldiers. The emphasis is on ordinary soldiers, not generals and politicians.

I have tried to include a variety of soldiers from different warring nations.

Soviet naval soldiers processing Wehrmacht captives.

All efforts have been made to make sure these are authentic photos from the World War II timeframe.

German Fallschirmjäger.

Some or all of these pictures may be colorized using modern tools such as Photoshop. As long as the coloring process does not alter the scene represented aside from the addition of color, it is good to go. There are ways to turn off color on your end if the addition of color annoys you.

The Soviet 1st Squadron of the 15th Guards Ground Attack Aviation Regiment.

Obviously, this is a huge topic, with millions of soldiers in every major-power army. The objective is to give a representative sampling of what ordinary soldiers went through during the war. This includes a lot of standing in formation, marching down dusty roads, and fighting.

German soldiers advancing near the ruins of Stalingrad Tractor Factory.

If you like these color photos, you may wish to check out my other pages of color photos of World War II.

You may find more color photos of World War II on page 1 and page 2 and page 3 and page 4 and page 5 and page 6 and page 7 and page 8 and page 9 and page 10 and page 11 and page 12 and page 13 and page 14 and page 15 and page 16 of this series.

German motorcycle troops taking a break during the advance into the Soviet Union, 1941.

A German soldier with his German Shepherd.

A Spanish Blue Division soldier at the front in 1941. The Blue Division held the Volkhov River line south of Leningrad.

Approaching Omaha Beach, 6 June 1944.

German motorcycle troops.

A Cossack in German service.

Coming ashore at Normandy, June 1944.

German soldiers neutralizing a Soviet sniper who was using a Degtyaryov machine gun or DP-27, 1941.

Soviet soldiers at the 24 June 1945 Victory Day Parade in Moscow. These are specially made uniforms for this event only known as the "Victory Dress."

German soldiers marching down the road in Russia.

German soldiers in the Netherlands, 1940.

German soldiers at a graveyard in North Africa.

Allied troops on the move (capture from combat footage).

Waffen SS Troops with Halftracks and Panther V Ausf G tanks during Soviet Operation Bagration in mid-1944.

Allied troops on the move (capture from original footage).

Civilians watch a German convoy late in World War II (capture from original footage).

Soviet Marines detachment of Major Caesar Kunikov, 1943.

A late-war Allied parachute drop (capture from original combat footage).

A German squad during the Battle of Stalingrad.

French Legion soldiers.

German soldiers on the march.

Members of the 7th Guards Tank Corps with a T-34-85 crew in Berlin, 1945.

Swedish soldiers with a KSP m/14-29 during World War II. Sweden was neutral but its military was prepared to resist a German invasion on short notice.

A German Waffen-SS machinegunner.

RAF plane plotters.

An Imperial Japanese burial ceremony in China, 1938.

German soldiers in the Soviet Union.

Returning to base after 23 days on the line are Marines of Combat Team 'C', 2-7th US Marines. This was during the Battle of Cape Gloucester. 14-15th January 1944.

German soldiers armed with MG-34s and KAR-98 rifles escorting two Soviet POWs (USSR 1941).

A US soldier wielding an M1 Garand.

German soldiers during Operation Barbarossa.

US soldiers of C Company, 36th Armored Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division seek shelter behind an M-4 Sherman tank at Geich.

Roza Shanina, Soviet sniper.

2020