Le Fantassin de la Grande Guerre 1914/1918

[Dan Morton]

I think these two French Gazette des Uniformes paperbacks are excellent general references on WWI uniforms and just wanted to share some pictures. Please note that I have no interest in violating the Gazette's copyright; I'm sharing these to interest more of you WWI nuts like moi in buying a copy! Each is, of course, French text, but even my feeble high school French allows me to follow the text descriptions of the photos. Each are compilations from the Gazette des Uniformes, a French periodical. Both of my copies were purchased 'used' via e-Bay.fr for under $15.00 each, not including postage. If you ask for the cheapest rate, postage is about $7.00 or $8.00 more. Librairie Le Hussard or Tuttostoria [www.tuttostoria.it] may be able to sell you a copy retail.

Hors Serie # 3, 1994 - this is the first compilation.

French 1915 uniform

Austro-Hungarian uniform - parts from various years

Hors Serie # 4, 1995 This one contains German, British, Belgian, Polish, Serb, Bulgarian, Turk, Portuguese, Japanese and Czech uniforms and equipment, but not all of these are dealt with in-depth and not all of them show photos of the complete uniforms.

German 1915 uniform

Japanese uniform

Hope you find the photos interesting and good e-Baying!

all the best,
Dan

 

[Roy]

Wow Dan...looks like they have some superb photographs inside..beautiful pictures.

Thanks.

Roy.

 

[Dan Morton]

Living in London, expect you will be able to find them easily. Certainly easier than those of us on this side of the pond!

Working on other RAF figures? What's your current project?

All the best,
Dan

 

[Guayo]

Hi, Thanks for sharing, this is a must for anyone who is looking for Uniforms of the POILU or the Tommy's, as you say they are fully illustrated, The Gazette des Uniformes also has publish two special on La Légion Etrangère 1831-1989, for more Uniforms and photos of the WWI from the same serie you can check Portraits de combattants is HS#8, you can find then in www.lehussard-librairie.com/ and may be you find something else.

Once again Dan Thanks, when I bougth them some years ago there were no sample before buying it , so this would help any one who haven't make his mind.

Eduardo

PS. there is also this publication with many great photos from the French Archives,
you can find it in Amazon.fr or Livrechezvous.com.

The one that has been hard to find for the moment is "Photographies anciennes 1848-1918: Regard sur le soldat et la société" from Jean Humbert, is part of series of books from the Collections du Musée de l'armée, I own two from the Franco-Prussian War and they amazing illustrated with B/W photos and color illustration, they are old(1985) but really helpfull.

 

[Dan Morton]

ON THE BOOK COVER - IS THE POILU 'INTERFERING' WITH THAT INNOCENT YOUNG WOMAN????!!!! HARUMPH!

Thanks for the info on the other 2 books. The one with the charming and handsome young Poilu on the cover is a little pricey for me. Haven't seen the other two you mentioned, but will definitely check them out.

++++++++++++++
COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SUBJECT -
It's amazing what pops up on e-Bay. Usually the seller knows full well the value of the book they are offering [Down to the last centime!!!], but once in a while!!!

I was able to buy a mint copy of Trench Knives and Mustard Gas, by Hugh Thompson recently pretty cheaply. This is a memoir of the famous 42nd Rainbow division in France. Great stuff! The writer really is entertaining and knows how to keep his narrative moving along. If you are looking for a good memoir of the US in WWI - I'd recommend it. [There are about 10 others I'd also recommend...don't get me started.]

all the best,
Dan

 

[Guayo]

Hi Dan, I would look for "Trench Knives and Mustard Gas", just with the name I can see that there is many in interesting chapters, for post cards or WWI poster, or any other collections you can check http://www.chapitre.com, they always got something that you may not find in E-bay.

We can not forget another usefull recommendation of Laurent Mirouze, all the major Uniforms fron the French, Germans, Italian, US and Russians, in this book we can see the evolution of the first colorfull uniforms use by the French and the Belgians more suitable for the XIX century wars but after the heavy casualties they make some big changes on the uniforms.

Once again thanks for the recommendation,

Eduardo

 

[Dan Morton]

Agreed! Mirouze's book is pretty much my bible for uniform and kit colors. My only complaint is either some of the photography lighting wasn't 100% or the printing colors are just a little off. Not on every uniform, just some of them. I ended up with two copies of Mirouze's book and there are slight differences in shade of uniform when comparing the same uniform in both books. So I tend to look for other sources and cross-reference.

I wish there were more compilations like that one. What makes it particularly nice is you can see the way the equipment and uniform fit on a person, not a mannequin.

I'd love to see some of the Austro-Hungarian uniforms in Stephen Coil's book and "The Emperor's Coat" presented like that. The Emperor's Coat is a wonderful reference, but very expensive, unfortunately. And it hasn't been around long enough to be seen on e-Bay much.

Thanks for the other auction site web address. I'll check it out.

all the best,
Dan