Hella all,

I hoping there is someone out there who can help.

I am in the progress of building Italeris Dodge WC-54 Ambulance in 1/35 scale, and since I have an interest in the Korean War, I would prefer to mark it as a vehicle used in this conflict.

However, no matter how much I google the web, I am unable to find photos of these Korean War field ambulances, where I can see the bumper codes etc.

Does anyone have any picture references of Korean War WC-54's they could share? It does not matter what unit, as long as it is Korean War.

Many thanks in advance,
Sven

Hi Sven

Here are a few :





Not even sure this one is an ambulance



I know this one is a WC-64 KD, but it's an example of ambulance markings :



HTH

H.P.

Wow, thank you so much H.P.!

Great pics, these will certainly help.

Interesting to see how battered these vehicles are.

You're welcome Sven Here's another period picture, showing members of the 8225th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) in Korea on October 14th, 1951 :



larger view

Another one :

"Although heavily riddled by enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire, an American WC-54 3/4-ton ambulance is used to evacuate United Nations casualties from a Korean battlefront, 6 October 1950,":



Full size

You can compare the markings on these Korea WC-54's to the WW2 ones :

http://gomotors.net/pics/Dodge/dodge-wc-54-ambulance-05.jpg



Looks like the markings are similar, save from the Caduceus symbol shape. The Caduceus should be red :


H.P.

I've just noticed that judging by the impacts in the windshield, the bullet-riddled WC-54 in my last post seems to be the same as one in the post before...

H.P.

Thank you again H.P. , this is extremely helpful.

What a shame that the bumper and registration markings on the ambulance behind the chopper are not visible, that would have been the perfect one for my project :-)

No problem about sending the same pic twice, better twice than not at all :-)

In fact I meant these two pics appear to show the same ambulance . Maybe the markings have been sprayed over by censors on the second picture (just pay attention to the location where "Ambulance" should be stenciled on the roof above the windshield) :





Here's another picture that may help with the unit markings of the WC-54 in the 8225th MASH picture:

"568th Medical Ambulance Co. (8th Army) at the 8225th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH), Korea, 1 September 1951" :



The pictured ambulance is a WC-64, but maybe the 568th Medical Ambulance Company used both types ?

H.P.

Ah, now I am following you H.P. :-)

It is actually rather sad to see an ambulance so bullet-ridden like that, but I guess that is the nature of war.

Thanks again for all the pics! Lots of inpiration here.

Cheers,
Sven

Hi Sven

The more I see Korea war bumper markings the more I think WW2 ones were very similar.

Hre' you'll find all you need to know about ambulance markings in WW2 :

http://www.med-dept.com/med_veh.php

The markings system described there is OK for Korea as well. Here's a WC-64 ambulance in Korea :



It belonged to the 120th Medical Company, 45th Infantry division. It's the 12th vehicle in the company.

You can compare these marking to the pattern in the WC-54 color plate on the med-dept page. The only difference I see is that "AMB" is replaced by "A".

Now back to the MASH pic. I guess the pictured WC-54 could have these bumper markings (looking at it from the front) :

8A-568M on the left half on the front bumper and A 5 on the right half (if you decide that it's the 5th vehicle;) )

Of course, as a Plan B, you can decide not to take a chance and choose this option, with only a few markings remnants (Korea 52-53)



H.P.

Thank you so much again, H.P., for your very kind dedication to my question, this is very valuable.

I have studied the marking system on US vehicles, and I am happy that it is more logical than for example the British system. :-)

The biggest challenge has been trying to find actual medical unit numbers and the divisions etc they were attached to. Now you have provided at least two examples of this as well, which is great!

I wonder, however, if the "A" in the "A12" designation does not refer to the company? I seem to recall that on AFV's "A1" would be the first vehicle in "Able" company and "E4" the 4th vehicle in "Easy" Company etc. Logically, though, the A on the vehicle in the pic could be an abbreviation for "Ambulance".

I have found some pics of restored WC-54's with the word "MASH" followed by the MASH unit number on the bumper, but I have no idea if this is accurate or not since it does not follow any marking system. My doubts are based more on the fact that on most of these restored examples, the unit number is "4077" which we know is a fictitious MASH unit created for the excellent TV series.

The "A" can could indeed refer to the Company, as in this example from the med-dept page :

II-40M A-10 (Second Army Corps, 40th Medical Battalion, A Company, 10th Vehicle)

I agree that sometimes markings on restored vehicles can be questionable accuracy-wise

Here are some examples of another Korea War ambulance, the M43 :







On a side note, different ambulances could be found in the same place :

http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/14310b7989339f3e_large

H.P.

You a re Gold mine for excellent pics and references, H.P! Thank you..

Really like the link with the mixture of ambulances. Perhaps they tried to stick to a certain type within each company if possible. :-)