First World War photographs injected with colour

The heroes, heroines and villains of the First World War have been brought spectacularly back to life by an expert colouriser. 

Among the striking pictures from the cataclysmic war is a fascinating shot capturing the moment German and British troops put down their weapons for the famous Christmas truce of 1914.

There is also a beautifully coloured photograph of two women shovelling coal in a sugar factory in Scotland as warm light shines through stained-glass windows in the background. 

Other incredible images show the Great War from the Austrian perspective, including a frostbitten Lieutenant Foehles shortly after landing from a flight and Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, whose assassination kick-started the conflict. 

The black and white snaps were painstakingly restored and colourised by photographer Mario Unger, 53, from Rotenturm in Austria.

‘I choose the images of war, because war doesn’t look as terrible in black and white as it does in colour,’ he explained.

Among the striking pictures from the cataclysmic war is a fascinating shot capturing the moment German and British troops put down their weapons for the famous Christmas truce of 1914. Pictured above are soldiers from the 5th London Rifle Brigade standing alongside German Saxon regimental fighters in the Belgian village of Ploegsteert. The truce began spontaneously in the week leading up to Christmas Day, with British, French and German troops crossing no-man’s land to exchange season’s greetings. There were also burial ceremonies and prisoner swaps. There are even records of Christmas carols being sung and, of course, football games. But not every soldier on the front experienced the peaceful moment – in some places, the fighting went on as before

Pictured: A beautifully coloured photograph of two women shovelling coal in a sugar factory in Scotland as a warm light shines through stained-glass windows in the background. The workers are feeding charcoal kilns to purify sugar at the Glebe Sugar Refinery Co in Greenock. During the war, when most able-bodied men were out fighting in the trenches, women were asked to take up their old jobs factories. By the end of the war, some 80,000 had enlisted to help. The experience is considered to mark an awakening among women in Britain and the West, with many of those who worked during the war feeling reluctant to transition back to a society where they largely excluded from the workforce 

The black and white snaps were painstakingly restored and colourised by photographer Mario Unger, 53, from Rotenturm in Austria. ‘I choose the images of war, because war doesn’t look as terrible in black and white as it does in colour,’ he explained. Pictured: An Austrian M99 7cm mountain gun being fired from The Ortler, the highest mountain in the Eastern Alps. At 12,812ft, the photograph – taken in 1917 – is believed to be the war’s loftiest snap. Austrian and Italian soldiers fought over the mountain during the Great War as part of a regional conflict immortalised by Ernest Hemingway’s 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms

This fascinating picture shows an American soldier displaying his trophies, including a German Iron Cross, pointed helmet and a pistol in 1918. Behind him is a bicycle. Colouriser Mario Unger said he was not hoping to glorify war through his work. He explained: ‘I have restored and colourised hundreds of old photographs, war images are just a small part of them. I hate that there is still war on earth, but to restore and colourise this images was still interesting’

Pictured left: A frostbitten Lieutenant Foehles shortly after landing from a flight in 1916. Colouriser Mario Unger explained the reason the likes of Lt Foehles ended up fighting for the Central Powers during the conflict. He said: ‘Franz Ferdinand of Austria’s assassination was the trigger for the First World War and with colour you can feel a little bit more what happened’. Right: The same photograph before being colourised 

What a waste: Austro-Hungarian imperial soldiers sit on the toilet in 1916. Franz Ferdinand’s assassination led to a month of diplomatic manoeuvring between Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, France and Britain, called the July Crisis. After a series of ultimatums, each country got behind a side in the conflict between Austria and Serbia and this led to the First World War

The man himself, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, is pictured above with his wife Sophie and their three children. The 50-year-old Ferdinand was the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire when he was murdered alongside his wife in 1914 by Bosnian Serb terrorist Gavrilo Princip. Princip declared himself a Yugoslavian nationalist who wanted Austria out of Slavic affairs. Pictured right: The same image before being colourised 

Between 1915 and 1918, the Italians and Austro-Hungarians fought a bitter mountain war along their border in the Alps. The Italians – who were fighting with the Triple Entente – were aided by the British, French, Americans, Czechs and Romanians while the Austro-Hungarians were aided by their German allies. The forces fighting for the Italians suffered over two million casualties, with the Central Powers suffering closer to two-and-a-half million. The Italians won a decisive victory 

Pictured: Karl Boy-Ed, the naval attaché to the German embassy in Washington DC during the First World War, in full uniform. He and German chancellor Franz von Papen were expelled from the USA in December 1915 after clandestine operations were reported in American newspapers. He died in 1930 after a horse riding accident. Right: Karl in black and white 

Franz Ferdinand shot countless big animals in his life. He is shown above in Ceylon, British India, after shooting an elephant. He went on a tour of the world between 1892 and 1893, where he was also photographed above the corpse of a tiger 

A light cavalryman from the Austro-Hungarian Empire known as a hussar is pictured with his wife, likely before the beginning of the First World War. Right: The same image in sepia 

The Christmas truce of 1914 shown in black and white, before the masterly colourising treatment from photographer Mario Unger 

Not so lifelike: Franz Ferdinand sat upon the elephant’s back in the original sepia photograph, before Mr Unger worked his magic upon it 

Dull and dark: The image of the Austrian troops fighting on the Ortler mountain is drab and obscure when compared with the colourised version 

The two women shoveling coal at the Scottish sugar factory can be seen in the original black and white photograph, with the gorgeous light from the stained-glass windows almost unseen  

The jolly American parading his captured German loot is pictured above in the original black and white image. His helmet in particular suffers from the lack of colour 

Toilet time: The Austrians on the loo are pictured above before they were brightened up and brought back to life by the sweat of Mr Unger’s brow 

Austrian troops fighting in the Alps can barely be seen in the original sepia photograph (above) 

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