The final year of fighting during the Second World War as Allied troops liberated Europe and ground down the Nazi war machine has been documented in newly-colourised photos.
The images chart the advance of Russian, British and American forces from both east and west as they pushed Hitler’s forces back with help from resistance groups operating out of occupied territories.
One particularly poignant photo shows an American paratrooper stamping on a photo of Adolf Hitler as Allied forces advanced into Koblenz, in the German Rhineland, in March 1945.
Other images document both very young and very old German POWs who were captured during the fighting, showing how Hitler’s armies were diminished as the tide of the war turned against him.
The photos were meticulously colourised by 21-year-old archaeology student Julius Jääskeläinen from Visby, Sweden, in order to shed new light on the conflict – which ended 75 years ago.
An American soldier is pictured stepping on a propaganda poster of Adolf Hitler in Koblenz, straddling the Rhine river, in March 1945 after Allied troops captured the German city. By the time this photo was taken Hitler’s forces were in full retreat across Europe, having failed to stop the Allied advance during the Battle of the Bulge
A Nazi Sturmgeschütz III ‘assault gun’ is pictured burning in a village somewhere in Germany towards the end of 1944, as Allied troops made their first advances on to German soil following the failure of Operation Market Garden – General Montgomery’s ambitious plan to bring an early end to the war
An SS soldier poses for the camera amidst the ruins of a US 14th Cavalry convoy in Belgium on December 18, 1944, during the opening days of the Battle of the Bulge. The battle was the last major counter-offensive by Hitler’s armies on the Western Front, and aimed to cut the Allies’ lines, capture the port of Antwerp and swing the war in the Nazis’ favour. It failed
An American medic treats a wounded German teenager during fighting around Cherbourg, France, in 1944. Following defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943 and in the counter-offensive at Kursk – two of the largest ground battles ever fought – the Nazis had resorted to recruiting members of the Hitler Youth into the regular army, many of whom saw action in Normandy
Troops of the 8th Royal Scots advance into Moostdijk, Netherlands, on November 6, 1944. Following the failure of Operation Market Garden in September – a lightning-fast operation which had aimed to get the Allies across the Rhine and into Berlin by Christmas – their troops were forced to make slower advances across the Netherlands and towards the river
A member of the Dutch resistance (left) guides American troops as they walk through the town of Neerkant during the Battle of Overloon in October, 1944. The US 7th Armored Division had launched an initial attack on Overloon in late September that was beaten back, before withdrawing to allow British forces to press home the advantage. As the British fought to capture the city, the Americans were used to launch diversion attacks to draw out the German forces
A dead German soldier is pictured lying next to an MG 42 machine gun somewhere on the battlefields of northern France, in 1944. D-Day may have marked the successful invasion of mainland Europe, but the Allies still faced two months of fighting to consolidate their position. By the time the Normandy campaign was over the Nazis had lost 400,000 men, the British and Canadians 84,000 and the Americans 125,000
A Russian soldier attempts to identify one of his fallen comrades somewhere on the Eastern Front by comparing photographs. While Allied forces faced fierce fighting against Nazi troops in the west, it was Stalin’s troops in the east who dealt with the brunt of Hitler’s forces. It is thought that Russian troops killed three out of four Nazi troops, while Field Marshal Zhukov admitted that so many of his men died fighting in eastern Europe that the true toll would never be known
A member of the Waffen-SS lies dead somewhere on the Western Front during the final year of the Second World War. Verfügungstruppen SS battalions, under the command of Hemrich Himmler, were among Hitler’s most elite troops, and had reputations as fanatical fighters. But as the war dragged on and their numbers thinned, Himmler was instead forced to command the Volkssturm – units of civilians drafted in as Nazi Germany’s last line of defence
Danish resistance fighters from the BOPA group, which was formed by pro-Communist veterans of the Spanish Civil War who had fought to support Franco, and found their political groups disbanded under Nazi occupation. They are pictured here posing with an American-made Ford Deluxe in Copenhagen in May 1945, following the surrender of German forces
Members of the Danish resistance group Holger Danske arresting Danish collaborators of the Schalburg Corps – an armed volunteer group of the Danish Nazi Party – in May 1945, following the surrender of Nazi forces in the country. Holger Danske was largely made up of veterans from the Winter War, who had successfully defended Finland against Soviet invasion in 1939
Young German POWs captured by the British Guards Armoured Division, including one wearing a British military helmet (right) are pictured after being captured fighting in Germany in April, 1945. German teenagers were shifted on to the frontlines of the war in Europe from 1943 onwards – at first via the Hitler Youth and then in the Volkssturm civilians units. American troops recalled taking prisoners as young as eight
Two elderly members of the Volkssturm civilian fighting units are pictured in March 1945 at Bocholt, in northern Germany, after surrendering to the 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division as the Allies advanced across Europe. Henrich Himmler, who had previously been in charge of the SS and had overseen the Holocaust, took personal charge of the Volkssturm units as he tried in vain to mount a last-ditch defence of Germany
A 17-year-old German POW captured in fighting to the east of the Rhine in March, 1945. Older children were recruited into the ranks of the Nazi military from 1944 via the Hilter Youth and saw action from D-Day onwards, gaining a reputation as fanatical fighters who would often rather fight to the death than surrender or be captured
A Swedish soldier and a Norwegian resistance fighter are pictured shaking hands across the Sweden-Norway border on May 7, 1945. Sweden was one of just a handful of European nations to remain neutral throughout the war, lending limited assistance to both the Nazis and Allies as the fighting progressed. Norway – though neutral – was invaded by Nazi Germany in 1940 and occupied until the surrender of Hitler’s forces on May 8, 1945