Color Photos of World War II Part 9: Planes

Seafire (modified Supermarine Spitfire) fighters on an unidentified Royal Navy carrier circa 1942.

Here we have color pictures of World War II aircraft. As always, these are checked for authenticity - they usually are colorized, but the original black-and-white photograph is authentic from the World War II timeframe.

A USAAF officer of the 57th Fighter Group with an Italian Macchi 200 or Macchi 205 wreck in North Africa. Life magazine photos are among the few original color pictures from World War II because it was one of the few publications that published in color (Hart Preston).

As always in this series, there are no guarantees that any of these are original color photographs. As long as the photographs appear to be from the World War II timeframe (broadly speaking), colorization is accepted. At least a few of the photographs on this particular page, however, do appear to be original color photographs.

North American P-51 Mustangs (Source: US Air Force). This may be a post-war photograph because the P-51 remained in service into the 1950s, but it's a classic shot from the general time period.

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.

Wrecked Luftwaffe Junkers Ju-52 transport and perhaps part of a Junkers Ju-88 during the latter stages of the Tunisia campaign, El Guettar, April 1943.

The crew of an RAF Avro Lancaster bomber either preparing for a mission or returning from one.

Bf 109 K-4 W.Nr. 332 579 "Schwarze 15" 14./JG. 53, shown after capture at Schleissheim, 1945.

Looking out of the nose turret of a B-17 during World War II. There is a great scene of looking out such a turret in "The Best Days of Our Lives" (1946).

Messerschmitt Bf 110 C-5 "L2+MR" of 7.(H)/LG 2 in Russia during spring of 1942, probably at Stalino airfield in southern Russia.

Some colorful Disney nose art on a US bomber. "Command Decision," incidentally, was the name of a 1947 Broadway play made into a 1948 film starring US Army Air Force Major Clark Gable (DFC, ret.) of the 351st Bomb Group (Heavy). It was about tough decisions made by the USAAF during World War II.

This appears to be an original color photograph of Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-5/U3s. This is 6.Staffel / II.Gruppe / Schlachtgeschwader 1 (SG 1), January 1943. These ground attack fighters are brand new, do not have all their markings and sit on the runway at Deblin-Irema, Poland, perhaps as a stopping point on their way further east (this photo is featured in  "Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Owner's Workshop Manual" by Graeme Douglas).

This appears to be another view of the squadron of new Focke Wulf Fw 190 fighters pictured above. The ground crews are busy painting them and putting on other finishing touches. 

 Visible are a Seafire, F4F Wildcat, F4F Martlet, Hawker Hurricane, and perhaps some other planes. Incidentally, different people identify these planes differently, but those are the planes I believe they are.

SBC Hell Diver dive bomber preparing for launch on the deck of USS Enterprise off the Hawaiian Islands, spring 1941 (Carl Mydans for Life).

A Japanese "Zero" found on Munda, New Georgia.

Arado Ar-196-A2 floatplane.

Grumman F4F Wildcat and Douglas SBD Dauntless on USS Wasp, 1942.

P-63 Kingcobra lend-lease fighters destined for the Soviet Union.

Luftwaffe Junkers Ju-87 Stuka dive bomber flying over Greece, 1941.

Luftwaffe Dornier Do 17z bombers flying over the Netherlands, May 1940.

P-51D Mustangs of the 4th Fighter Squadron in flight, Italy, 1944.

Fock-Wulf Fw-200C "Condor."

Luftwaffe Heinkel He-115 seaplane.

‘The Iowa Beaut,’ a P-51B of the 354th Fighter Squadron flies over the English countryside with pilot Lt Robert E Hulderman, mid-1944. A different pilot in this plane was lost near Rechtenbach, Germany, September 11, 1944.

A Luftwaffe Focke-Wulf Fw 189 Uhu ("Eagle Owl") observation plane.

View from the control tower at Martlesham Heath, Suffolk, England, UK, of P-51D Mustangs of the 360th Fighter Squadron in sandbag revetments, sometime in 1944.

Italian Regia Aeronautica Macchi MC-202 fighter, operating out of an olive grove.

Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-5 fighters, of Fighter Squadron JG-54, 1943.

A Royal Air Force Lockheed Hudson Mk VI (AE626) of the Middle East Communications Flight flying over the Egyptian pyramids, 1942.

Luftwaffe Me-262 "Sturmvogel" (Storm Bird) fighter-bomber, 1944-45.

Luftwaffe pilots participating in a macabre ceremony at the Tatinskaya airfield, near Stalingrad, 1942.

World War II RAF Kittyhawk fighter plane, landed in the Egyptian desert. The pilot was never found and the plane wasn't for over 60 years. 

2018