Colorized World War II Never Seen Before Photos of Liberated France

   

Convoys of the 28th Infantry Division are flanked by Frenchmen in the northern city of Colmar after liberation on February 3 1945.  Nazi occupation of France formally lasted from  May 1940 to December 1944



               

African American`doughfoots' of the 92nd Infantry (`Buffalo') Division pursue the retreating Germans through the Po Valley in Northern Italy. 909,000 black Americans were selected for duty in the Army during World War II however members of the African American 92 Infantry were the only ones that engaged in combat.  Most African American conscripts were assigned to segregated construction,  supply units or performed more unpleasant duties such as grave registration.

  

The USS LST-388 unloads on a Normandy beach at low tide, 12 June 1944, after D-Day during a resupply operation. A number of barrage balloons or blimps lurk overhead 

  
US Army soldiers use a jeep to move a Very Low Altitude (VLA) antiaircraft balloon  during a training exercise in southern England before D-Day, circa May 1944. Blimps were used to defend against dive bombers by blocking their path to fighter jets which in turn forced enemy planes to fly higher which put them in the range of anti-aircraft fire
 

Two color guards and color bearers of the Japanese-American 442nd Combat Team, stand to attention in the Bruyeres area, France, on November 12 1944.  The regiment was a fighting unit composed almost entirely of American soldiers of Japanese ancestry. In total around 14,000 Japanese-Americans fought in World War II