elishabull Posted 19 March , 2008 Share Posted 19 March , 2008 I am trying to duplicate a ww1 ambulance of the AFS in 1917 I need to know the color code of the paint used, should be a blue /gray can anyone help??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobL Posted 19 March , 2008 Share Posted 19 March , 2008 I believe they were only grey early on in the war - by 1917 they would be in a green shade. I'd be interested to know if anyone knows if the AFS only served in the French/American sectors, or if any strayed into British areas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elishabull Posted 20 March , 2008 Author Share Posted 20 March , 2008 I am trying to duplicate a ww1 ambulance of the AFS in 1917 I need to know the color code of the paint used, should be a blue /gray can anyone help??? I have found some referances to a blue/gray color for all French motor transports, and several color or re-colored photos on the web. Fro what ive seen its a hard color to copy. I thought some one would have this info, for French trucks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ice Tiger Posted 20 March , 2008 Share Posted 20 March , 2008 I can't answere your question with 100% certainty but. . . . . Have you read "Ambulance Number 10" A Drivers Letters From the French Front by Leslie Buswell? There are 3 colour pictures on the front cover, although I do feel that the ambulance colour in these pictures may not be a true rendition as I believe they were coloured post war. Not a bad little compilation of letters sent home from an American Ambulance driver if you're interested in this area. If it helps ISBN is 1-905363-03-6 Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 20 March , 2008 Share Posted 20 March , 2008 Ironically I just ordered this and was hoping it would arrive in time to post to this thread! I am researching an individual who volunteered for the Ambulance Service and ended up driving ammunition lorries for the French - and became a pilot when the US entered the war... I don't know the answer to the colour either but there is also Arlen Hansen "Gentlemen Volunteers: The Story of the American Ambulance Drivers in the Great War" which may have info...I'm waiting for it arrive too. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elishabull Posted 21 March , 2008 Author Share Posted 21 March , 2008 Ironically I just ordered this and was hoping it would arrive in time to post to this thread! I am researching an individual who volunteered for the Ambulance Service and ended up driving ammunition lorries for the French - and became a pilot when the US entered the war... I don't know the answer to the colour either but there is also Arlen Hansen "Gentlemen Volunteers: The Story of the American Ambulance Drivers in the Great War" which may have info...I'm waiting for it arrive too. Chris Well from the thing that I could find he was in SSU1 which transfered to the flying service when the US joined the war. From what I have seen it was join or go home and get drafted!!!! If you can give me a name I will check the archives for you!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 21 March , 2008 Share Posted 21 March , 2008 Well from the thing that I could find he was in SSU1 which transfered to the flying service when the US joined the war. From what I have seen it was join or go home and get drafted!!!! If you can give me a name I will check the archives for you!!! Hi Thanks for the offer - which archives are you referring to? I have numerous letters from the individual and somewhat contrary to what you suggest in several of the lettters he suggests that volunteering (for the air service) was the QUICKEST way (and therefore the choice of many) into US service and could be done in France because the majority of the training was being done by the French. To seek a regular army commission meant return to the US for training etc. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssu71 Posted 2 April , 2008 Share Posted 2 April , 2008 The museum at Blerancourt has a restored AFS ambulance. There is also a movie for the AFS made in the 1980's that features the ambulance and it is in color. The 3 volume History of the American Field Service in France has color images of several of the section mascots with some of the surronding gray paint. I have a car donor side plate from a ambulance and the paint is a dark color very similiar to the darker shade you see on french helmets. The paint color changed to drab after the US Army took over in the Fall of 1917. Still the pround AFS units would not completely paint over their old AFS unit designations. AFS section 3 and 10 severed in what is now Albania after being on the Western Front. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trenchtrotter Posted 4 April , 2008 Share Posted 4 April , 2008 Slightly off topic but maybe of interest.....I have a French Adrien Helmet that belonged to a member of the AFS. It has a khakhi finish over the horizon blue and a red band and the base of the skull just above the visor and rear neck piece. Affixed to the front is a red cross badge on a shield and scratched into the thick paint around the badge is AFS. It has no liner and an officers chin strap. It is rather tired in appearance. Out of interest also Regimentals have just sold a lovely tunic and cap to a member who drove French supply trucks. Was tempted! Regards. TT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runflat Posted 14 April , 2008 Share Posted 14 April , 2008 Some suggested reading: "Ambulance 464 - Encore des Blesses" by Julien H Bryan: Reminisences about SSU XII: "...the experience and the life did me untold good and when my period of enlistment was up I would have stayed on and entered the Aviation Service had the decision been entirely my own..." "Trucking to the Trenches" by John Iden Kautz: Reminisences of an AFS man who volunteered for ambulance work but ended up driving trucks. "Camion letters": Similar to Kautz's book, but a compilation of letters from various AFS men: "...men who had gone over animated by zeal to perform humane services felt that to drive munition trucks was a departure from their original purpose. Some solved the problem in a plain, soldierly spirit, saying that what France wanted was clearly the thing for them to do. Others held strongly to their original idea..." This book also refers the reader to "Friends of France", "Ambulance No. 10" and "Diary of Section VIII" for records of American ambulances in France. I don't have these works (yet). Mention has been made of the preserved ambulance at Chateau de Blerancourt. A picture of this vehicle appears in Vehicules Militaires magazine, No 8, as part of a feature on the restoration/recreation of another example. It appears to be dark blue in colour. The restored example is olive drab. I'm also aware of a third example in America. The last I heard it was owned by Sam Jeffe, New York (see Automtive Weekly, January 1, 1998) but it may well have moved on since. It is absolutely original. The only colour picture I've seen shows it to be in olive drab as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runflat Posted 14 April , 2008 Share Posted 14 April , 2008 This may also be of interest: http://www.memorial-genweb.org/html/docume...americaines.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trenchtrotter Posted 14 April , 2008 Share Posted 14 April , 2008 Here is an image of the helmet I referred too. The AFS is clearly etched into the paint around the badge. The significance of the red band is not known to me. TT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 14 April , 2008 Share Posted 14 April , 2008 Runflat - Thanks for those suggestions - I have been reading a good deal on this topic recently I had missed the middle one which looks like a must for what I am doing - thanks again. I just got a copy of the 3 volume "History of the American Field Service in France" which also has a section on the "camion drivers" with anecdotes etc. Most of this is available online too HERE Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 14 April , 2008 Share Posted 14 April , 2008 The enclosed link take you two an extended article that has two WW1 colour photos of American Field Service Ambulances. They are horizon blue with olive drab tilts. The French did take some genuine colour photos (ie not colourized). I've checked these (which are supposed to be genuine colour photos and checked them against a certified colour photo of a French truck of the period. The colours match exactly. Ambulance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 3 July , 2008 Share Posted 3 July , 2008 The National USAF Museum at Dayton OH has one on display. I believe it is actually a post war model but painted as a wartime one (post 1917) There are a couple more pics in the link I put under War in the Air - Pictures from Dayton thread. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobL Posted 3 July , 2008 Share Posted 3 July , 2008 Does anyone know if the AFS served in any British areas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 3 July , 2008 Share Posted 3 July , 2008 Does anyone know if the AFS served in any British areas? Apologies for the quality I just spread it on my desk and snapped (if you would like a proper copy PM me) you can see that the vast majority are in French areas but there are some units in the vicinty of Ypres in 1915 Here is a map from the AFS History of all the locations in 1915,16,17 prior to asorbtion into the AEF I have another post absorbtion if there is interest. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 4 July , 2008 Share Posted 4 July , 2008 Good luck, but don't forget that many things were painted with the paint available. In the desert in 1942/43, Maskelyne discovered that the best camouflage paint was a mixture of camel dung and worcester sauce (he found a couple of crates of the stuff washed up on a beach). One modeller I know wanted desperately to get the exact colour of a particular tank. He wrote to the regiment and got the reply that they waited for a stocktaking of the paint supplies and used whatever was in surplus! mixed so as to give some sort of camouflage. On another tack. I am interested to see that on the map of dispositions of the AFS the rail line from Luxembourg south west to France is missing entirely. No unusual, but this was the rail line that would have supplied the German army if it had gone around Paris (and was built by them for that purpose), and was the reason for Luxembourg being the biggest German railhead on the western front. See my book (if you read French). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerseygary Posted 31 July , 2008 Share Posted 31 July , 2008 Out of interest also Regimentals have just sold a lovely tunic and cap to a member who drove French supply trucks. Was tempted! Regards. TT Did anyone manage to get pictures of the Tunic and cap sold by Regimentals? I'd love to see one named to a Camion unit, I've only seen ambulance drivers groups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 31 July , 2008 Share Posted 31 July , 2008 Does anyone know if the AFS served in any British areas? RobL - further to the Map I posted above. I am currently reading : Hansen, Arlen. 1996. "Gentlemen Volunteers" (The Story of the American Ambulance Drivers in the Great War) New York: Arcade Publishing. ISBN 1-55970-313-X as part of some research I am doing (actually into a camion section driver)... The book has quite an interesting discussion about the operation of the AFS units in British areas, the complex relations with the British Red Cross and the British medical and military command structures. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 11 August , 2008 Share Posted 11 August , 2008 Just thought that the recently posted pictures HERE would be a good addition to the original question posed in this thread regarding ambulance colours. Also - and related: The plate (below) was on the ambulance driven by a local man signifying that he and/or the unit (I am not sure which, as both seem to be true) was awared the croix de guerre. Does anyone know where on the vehicle this would have been attached I have not been able to find a picture of such a plate. I believe this was on the ambulance after the A.A.S. had been absorbed into the A.E.F. Thanks in advance, Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rum Ration Posted 31 December , 2017 Share Posted 31 December , 2017 Has any study been published on the Ambulances of the American Field Service? Particularly the serial numbers of vehicles assigned to each unit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rum Ration Posted 31 December , 2017 Share Posted 31 December , 2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 31 December , 2017 Share Posted 31 December , 2017 Not that I am aware of ,and over the last 7 or 8 years I have read everything I possibly could on the subject while researching my book. The AFS have a pretty good archive of material but I don't recall ever seeing any listing of serial numbers. I know what "my" chap's ambulance number was as he mentioned it frequently in letters. (BTW I answered my own question above - the CdG plaque was attached just behind the driver's seat. Those are some great pics btw . Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now