Rarely seen photos record World War II in brilliant, immersive color

December 1942

An Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) ‘spotter’ at a 3.7-inch anti-aircraft gun site.

Image: Imperial War Museums (tr 453)

Though color photography was invented decades before World War II, it was still a rather niche process, more complicated and expensive than black-and-white photography.

The scarcity of...