Reggiane Re.2005 Sagittario, colorized
The Colorized Photo Archive

The machines that
shaped history

A curated archive of World War II military vehicles — fighters, armour and naval vessels — restored from original photographs through meticulous, research-backed colorization.

81
Vehicles documented
Colorized
5
Theaters of war
1939–45
Period covered
01 — The Archive

Three collections,
one archive

Browse everything →
01 Live

Aircraft

Fighters, bombers, interceptors and jets from every major air force of the war — Axis and Allied.

27 entries
02 Live

Armour

From the Panzer IV to the Sherman, the T-34 to the Tiger — the steel that defined the land war.

27 entries
03 Live

Naval

Battleships, carriers, destroyers and submarines — the fleets that fought for the seas.

27 entries
Not sure where to start? ⚄ Take me to a random machine →
02 — Curated collections

Battles, told by
their machines

Curated sets of vehicles that fought the same campaign — every protagonist of a battle, cross-linked and in colour.

All collections →
The Battle of France, 1940
France · May–June 1940 · 24 machines

The Battle of France, 1940

Six weeks in which an army with fewer tanks, and lighter ones, destroyed the largest land force in Western Europe.

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The Battle of Britain
Southern England · Summer 1940 · 10 machines

The Battle of Britain

The RAF’s Few against the Luftwaffe — the first battle fought entirely in the air, and Germany’s first defeat.

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The Desert War
North Africa · 1940–1943 · 30 machines

The Desert War

From Operation Compass to Tunisia: the tanks and aircraft of the campaign with nowhere to hide.

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The Hunt for the Bismarck
Atlantic · May 1941 · 8 machines

The Hunt for the Bismarck

Six days and two thousand miles of ocean — every ship and aircraft of the greatest sea chase in history.

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The Eastern Front
Eastern Front · 1941–1945 · 36 machines

The Eastern Front

From Barbarossa to Berlin — the largest land war in history, fought by the most-produced machines ever built.

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Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941
Hawaii · 7 December 1941 · 12 machines

Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941

The morning that brought America into the war — and missed the carriers that would win it.

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Midway, June 1942
Pacific · June 1942 · 17 machines

Midway, June 1942

Five minutes that turned the Pacific war — the carriers and aircraft that were there.

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Operation Husky: Sicily, 1943
Sicily · July–August 1943 · 30 machines

Operation Husky: Sicily, 1943

The largest amphibious assault yet mounted — the invasion that carried the war onto Axis home soil and toppled Mussolini.

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The Italian Campaign, 1943–1945
Italy · Sept 1943 – May 1945 · 37 machines

The Italian Campaign, 1943–1945

From Salerno to the Alps — the slow climb up the peninsula, and the only front where Italians fought on both sides.

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D-Day and Normandy, Summer 1944
Normandy · June–August 1944 · 32 machines

D-Day and Normandy, Summer 1944

The largest amphibious invasion in history — from the airborne drops in the dark to the closing of the Falaise Pocket.

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Leyte Gulf, October 1944
Philippines · October 1944 · 12 machines

Leyte Gulf, October 1944

Four battles in three days — the largest naval clash in history and the death ride of the Japanese fleet.

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The Defence of Japan, 1944–1945
Japan · 1944–1945 · 6 machines

The Defence of Japan, 1944–1945

The B-29 fire raids and atomic missions against Japan — and the Army and Navy interceptors that rose to stop them.

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The Fall of Germany, 1944–1945
Western Front · Dec 1944 – May 1945 · 24 machines

The Fall of Germany, 1944–1945

From Hitler’s last gamble in the Ardennes to the collapse of the Reich — the machines of the final campaign in the West.

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03 — Head to head

The match-ups
everyone argues about

Settled against the sourced record, not the legend — gun, armour, reliability and numbers, side by side.

All comparisons →
Tiger I vs M4 Sherman
Western Front · 1942–1945

Tiger I vs M4 Sherman

Did it really take five Shermans to kill one Tiger? The gun, the armour, the numbers — and what the record actually says.

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T-34 vs Panther
Eastern Front · 1943–1945

T-34 vs Panther

Germany built the Panther to beat the T-34. It was the better tank — and it still wasn’t the better answer.

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Spitfire vs Bf 109
Battle of Britain · 1940

Spitfire vs Bf 109

The closest-matched duel of the war. They were equals — so what actually decided the Battle of Britain?

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A6M Zero vs F6F Hellcat
Pacific · 1943–1945

A6M Zero vs F6F Hellcat

A kill ratio near 19 to 1 — achieved without ever out-turning the Zero. How the Hellcat really did it.

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Bismarck vs HMS Hood
Denmark Strait · 24 May 1941

Bismarck vs Hood

The two mightiest ships in the Atlantic met once. Their guns were near-identical — so why was the Hood gone in three minutes?

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Reggiane Re.2005 vs Fiat G.55
Regia Aeronautica · 1943

Re.2005 vs G.55

Same engine, same guns, both superb. The Reggiane flew better — so why did Fiat’s Centauro win the production contract?

Open comparison →

Every photograph is a document. Every colorization is a bridge between that world and ours.

Iconic WW2 is a personal archive dedicated to the meticulous documentation and colorization of World War II military vehicles. Each entry pairs historical photography with careful, research-backed colour — restoring to these machines the visual immediacy they had for those who built, flew, drove and fought against them.

Browse the full archive →