But they didn’t have colour photography back in the early 1940s, did they?

Turns out they did, with they being the British Ministry of Information. The Ministry got hold of a very small quantity of Kodachrome film, dishing it out to a handful of their official photographers to document Word War II.

Before we check those out, some background via CNN:

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 [author Ian] Carter. The surviving photos became part of the [Imperial War] Museum’s archives in 1949, and some of them are being published for the first time in 70 years.

Carter is the author of a new book published by the museum, and he stresses that this collection is truly unique:

You are seeing exactly what was taken. I know it’s common these days to see retouched photographs and colorized [sic] black & white photos, but this is the real deal…

They [the photographers] 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…

Alright, I think we’re ready to ogle.

Here are our favourites with a little write-up for each:

A ‘spotter’ at a 3.7-inch anti-aircraft gun site, in December 1942.

Private Alfred Campin of the 6th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry during battle training in Britain, March 1944.

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

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.

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.

31 confirmed kills, people.

I know it sucks that data is expensive and you can’t bath in Cape Town but yoh, that World War II struggle was real.

[source:cnn]