M3A1 Scout Car Ambulance

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Here is one in use by the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps (RNMC) at Soerabaja, Java, Netherlands East-Indies/Indonesia. December 1946. The mobile hospital of their medical company (MED CIE) had two of these armoured abulances.

The RNMC was trained in the USA and they used US equipment throughout. As the Netherlands East-indies Army KNIL had received a batch of these Scout Cars before WW2 broke out in the Pacific, these ambulances may have been converted from re-captured vehicles.

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Source, Source 2

[Jesse Browning]

Ambulance with a machine gun?

[Mike Cecil]

No Red Cross therefore not seeking the protection of the GC?

In any event, more modern AFVs don't seem to worry about combining the two - the Aust M113A1 armoured ambulance had a T50(Aust) turret with a 30/50, plus a red cross symbol on the sides.

The M3A1 seems to still have its skate rail except across the back, which would overcome the problem of the armour flapping.

Mike

[maple_leaf_eh]

Originally Posted by Jesse Browning

Ambulance with a machine gun?

I asked that question of a Canadian Afghanistan combat medic. The principle of self-defence has never been removed from the agreements. The medic said he carried a C7 and the Bison Ambulance had a C6 MG in order to protect himself, his crew and his patients.

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by Jesse Browning

Ambulance with a machine gun?

Under the 1929 Geneva Convention (which would have applied at the time), medics may use armed force to protect themselves and the wounded under their care from enemy aggression, without forfeiting the protection afforded to them by the convention. They may not use weapons offensively, however. (It seems that a lot of military personnel don’t know this, though, and would consider any armed medic to be in violation and thus, liable to get shot.)

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

No Red Cross therefore not seeking the protection of the GC?

That would hardly have mattered, given that this is a Korps Mariniers vehicle in the Netherlands Indies, probably during one of the “police actions” that were to suppress Indonesian independence fighters. The Geneva Convention does not apply to internal struggles, only to wars between signatory nations.