Forgotten for decades, newly discovered and restored WWII photos offer a striking glimpse into wartime history

In 2020, amidst the Covid lockdown, Peter Deleuran, a history enthusiast living in Spain, purchased a collection of 300 vintage World War II photos from a UK-based seller. Upon receiving the collection, Deleuran was immediately struck by the unique nature of the images, many of which had remained unseen since the war. The collection included American gunners in street battles, Londoners on bombed-out streets, Japanese corvettes obliterated by direct hits, and German troops marching through Norwegian towns.

Some of the photos were too damaged to restore, but others were remarkably sharp, well-exposed, and beautifully composed. Deleuran chose to focus on the "quiet" images, which he believed held the greatest power. One particularly striking image showed a 15-year-old London boy, Leslie Davison, holding parts of a German aircraft that had crashed into his home during a bombing raid.

Deleuran was captivated by the defiance in Davison's eyes, a sense of "bring it on" that seemed to transcend the horrors of war. The official caption identified the boy as Leslie Davison, one of four children who survived the crash, with three others killed in the house next door. Despite Deleuran's attempts to uncover more information about Davison, the boy's identity remains a mystery, adding to the image's significance and aura.

The collection was originally owned by the London-based Planet News agency, which merged with the America's United Press Association in 1958 to form UPI London. In the 1970s, British picture library TopFoto acquired UPI's photo archive, granting them the rights to Deleuran's collection.