WW1 photos in colour

 

Captured prisoners of the First World War from eight different nations at an unknown German prisoner of war camp, from left, Annamite (Vietnamese), Tunisian, Senegalese, Sudanese, Russian, American, Portuguese and English. Certain camps were harsher than others, whereas others afforded comfortable living conditions to officers who had been captured. Ranking prisoners even had a gentleman's agreement with their guards, meaning they were allowed out during the day provided they returned to the camp before nightfall. Photos coloured by Brazilian artist Marina Amaral

August von Mackensen (1849-1945), a German Field Marshal during World War I, wears a fur hat with a skull embedded in it. Iron Crosses decorate his uniform.

Corporal Fred McIntyre of the 369th Infantry, the Harlem Hellfighters. He shows a framed photo of Kaiser Wilhelm II that he carried around for luck during WWI. They spent 191 days on the front - the most of any American regiment - and sustained 1,500 casualties - more than any American regiment.

Battle of Passchendaele (the Third Battle Of Ypres) took place from July 31 to November 10, 1917, for control of ridges south and east of the Belgian city of Ypres in West Flanders. Passchendaele lies on a last ridge east of Ypres, five miles from Roulers, the station through which the majority of supplies to the German 4th Army ran. In this photograph taken by Lt. J W Brooke on August 1, stretcher bearers struggle in mud up to their knees to carry a wounded man to safety near Boesinghe. Unusually wet weather that summer and then the beginning of autumn rains led to appalling conditions. In his memoirs in 1938, Lloyd George wrote: 'Passchendaele was indeed one of the greatest disasters of the war ... No soldier of any intelligence now defends this senseless campaign.' It was one of the bloodiest battles of the war, with more than 850,000 casualties in total

A woman munitions worker operating a machine in an armaments factory during the First World War. They stepped up to fill the gaping holes in various industries as vacancies shot up when their husbands, brothers, cousins and friends were conscripted. The employment of married women increased sharply - accounting for nearly 40 per cent of all women workers by 1918. Following the war's end, many women were laid off when soldiers returned from the blood-soaked battlefields on the continent. Those who stayed on were often expected to work for less money than their male counterparts despite doing the same job. Flagrant workplace discrimination continued until the Second World War, when women once again stepped in to fill the shoes of the men sent away to fight in another global conflict.

The Red Baron: First World War German fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen (with binoculars) with fellow pilots in front of his Fokker biplane. The brilliant pilot, who was credited with a staggering 80 kills in the war, was shot down as he chased a British Sopwith Camel plane over the River Somme near Amiens in France at just 400ft from the ground. He originally served as a cavalryman before transferring to the air force in 1915. Von Richtofen was christened the Red Baron because many of his successes were in aircraft painted bright red, initially an Albatross. His final 19 victories were at the controls of a red Fokker Dr.I triplane.

The British Army On The Western Front In 1916, Three 8-inch howitzers of 39th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA), firing from the Fricourt-Mametz Valley during the Battle of the Somme, August 1916. Lasting 141 days, the Battle of the Somme was the bloodiest battle of the First World War. Around 420,000 British soldiers, 200,000 Frenchmen and 500,000 Germans were killed in the battle. It is estimated 24,000 Canadian and 23,000 Australian servicemen also fell in the four-month fight. On the first day alone, 19,240 British soldiers were killed after 'going over the top' and more than 38,000 were wounded.

A WWI soldier has paint added to a mask to cover his horrific face wounds. Never before had warfare been so bloody and mutilated so many men. Thousands were left with life-long disabilities and left with terrible scars and disfigurements. World War 1 saw over 700,000 British and Commonwealth forces killed and more than 1.6 million wounded. Of these, around 240,000 suffered total or partial leg or arm amputations as a result.