M3A1 Scout Car Ambulance

[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.