Rare color photos cast new light on World War II | CNN

A 'spotter' at a 3.7-inch anti-aircraft gun site, in December 1942. Scroll through to see more images from the Imperial War Museums' collection of color World War II photographs, which are in their original condition, and are neither retouched nor colorized.

The image shows Private Alfred Campin of the 6th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry during battle training in Britain, March 1944.<br />"This is one of my favorite shots," said Ian Carter, author of an Imperial War Museums book in which they were published. You can see the tan in the man's face and you can see he's a veteran of the desert. This was part of a whole sequence taken in black and white, with just a few color shots. This soldier was killed in Normandy, but he's immortalized by this picture."<br />

The image shows Private Alfred Campin of the 6th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry during battle training in Britain, March 1944.
"This is one of my favorite shots," said Ian Carter, author of an Imperial War Museums book in which they were published. You can see the tan in the man's face and you can see he's a veteran of the desert. This was part of a whole sequence taken in black and white, with just a few color shots. This soldier was killed in Normandy, but he's immortalized by this picture."

Dutch civilians dance in the streets after the liberation of Eindhoven by Allied forces, September 1944.<br />"The great thing about this particular scene is the orange: when the Dutch were liberated they hung out flags and sheets, everything was orange and that would be lost in a black and white photograph," said Carter.

Dutch civilians dance in the streets after the liberation of Eindhoven by Allied forces, September 1944.
"The great thing about this particular scene is the orange: when the Dutch were liberated they hung out flags and sheets, everything was orange and that would be lost in a black and white photograph," said Carter.

Lieutenant Vernon R. Richards of the 361st Fighter Group flying his P-51D Mustang, nicknamed "Tika IV'" during a bomber escort mission in 1944.

The man in charge of D-Day, General Dwight D Eisenhower and his senior commanders at Supreme Allied Headquarters in London, February 1944.

Nurses and convalescent aircrew at Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Hospital at Halton in Buckinghamshire, August 1943. The hospital was opened in 1927, and treated some 20,000 RAF casualties during the War.

A crew from the 16th/5th Lancers, 6th Armored Division, clean the gun barrel of their Crusader tank at El Aroussa in Tunisia, May 1943.

Lancaster bombers nearing completion in Avro's assembly plant at Woodford near Manchester, 1943. Some 125,000 British aircraft were built during the Second World War, and over half of the workforce were women.

5.5-inch gun crew from 75th (Shropshire Yeomanry) Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery, in action in Italy, September 1943.

British paratroopers prepare for a practice jump from an RAF Dakota based at Down Ampney in Wiltshire, April 1944.

An Air Raid Precautions (ARP, later renamed the Civil Defence Service) warden inspects damaged buildings in Holborn, London. Most wardens were volunteers, with regular daytime jobs. One in six were women.

The RAF's top-scoring fighter pilot, with 31 confirmed kills at this date, Wing Commander James "Johnnie" Johnson, with his Spitfire and pet Labrador 'Sally' in Normandy, July 1944.

Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery explains Allied strategy to King George VI in his command caravan in Holland, October 1944.

British soldiers admire the Caryatids on the Acropolis while sight-seeing in Athens, October 1944.

Rare color photos of World War II

CNN —

Color film was rare in World War II. The vast majority of the photos taken during the conflict were in black and white, and color photography as a whole was still a relatively new technique.

It’s this fact that makes the photos published by Britain’s Imperial War Museums so mesmerizing. They are in their original state – not retouched, not colorized: “You are seeing exactly what was taken. I know it’s common these days to see retouched photographs and colorized black & white photos, but this is the real deal,” said Ian Carter, author of a museum book in which they were published, during a phone interview.

The images were commissioned by the British Ministry of Information, which got hold of a very small quantity of Kodachrome film. They then decided to use it experimentally, by giving it to some of their official photographers who took it to several locations and employed it very sparingly.

Only about 3,000 images were taken in total, but not everything has survived: “About half of them went missing and we don’t know where they went,” said Carter. The surviving photos became part of the Museum’s archives in 1949, and some of them are being published for the first time in 70 years.

Dutch civilians dance in the streets after the liberation of Eindhoven by Allied forces, September 1944.

The photos were commissioned to publish in American magazines, which were printed in color, but not all of them would have been published during the war.

It’s not entirely clear how the film was allocated to photographers, but it’s likely they were taken as “special” shots along with regular black and white cameras: “They had a very limited amount of film and had to be very careful, therefore they must have had the film in a separate camera and used it for a couple of photos while taking black and white shots,” said Carter.

Some amazing details that would be lost in greyscale suddenly emerge, such as the orange accents – the color of the Dutch royal family – in a scene of liberation in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Colorized photos or footage from World War II have been around for some time, but these images truly show the world as people would have seen it at the time: “When you see them, they look almost like they were taken yesterday or reenacted,” said Carter.

“It still seems a bit odd to see color photography from the Second World War. It still has the power to shock.”

“The Second World War in Colour” is published by Imperial War Museums (IWM).