Original French WWI Horizon Blue Combat Tunic and Garrison Cover Original Items

Original Item: Only One Set Available. Horizon blue is a color name which is well remembered because it was used for the blue-gray uniforms of French metropolitan troops from 1915 through 1921.

This name for a shade of blue which refers to the indefinable color which separates the sky from the earth, had been previously used in the world of fashion, and has been since then. It had also served as an emblem of political groups prevailing upon the army of the Great War.

The expression “horizon color” is found in diverse descriptions in and after 1895. In 1899, the Journal des débats pointed out that the motor boats destined for the administrators of the Cayenne convict prison were “painted in horizon color, to conceal them more easily”.

The color of the uniform of the French infantry became known as “horizon blue” in three steps:

1. The first orders at the end of 1914 designated a new uniform cloth as “light blue”.
2. On 16 January 1915, an article of L’Illustration designated the color of the uniform of the soldiers as “horizon color”. On the 26th, Le Matin likened this color to horizon blue. In February, the newspaper Le Temps compared the old and new uniforms: “The dark cloth of the old overcoats is seen side by side with the light azure of the new “horizon color” uniform. In the Spring of 1915, the expression was popularized. Becoming insensibly horizon blue, it was in general usage in September. It would never become an official term.
3. The expression became so popular that it was found in official descriptions of the army. The employment of “horizon blue cloth” instead of “light blue” can be explained notably by the fact that this expression possessed a national character and seemed “to echo the famous blue line of the Vosges.” However, regulations continued to name the uniform cloth as “light blue cloth” until 1921 and even beyond.

This is a lovely set consisting of a single breasted wool tunic and overseas cover. The tunic is one of the best condition ones that we have seen and presents minimal moth nips and is free of damage. There is no unit markings or names present unfortunately, or manufacturer information. All 5 buttons are free of damage and even still have almost all of the original finish present, something rarely seen. The overseas cover shows signs of extensive use, wear and steaning. Unfortunately there are quite a bit of moth nips.
This is truly a wonderful set! Comes ready to be displayed.

During World War I, France was one of the Triple Entente powers allied against the Central Powers. Although fighting occurred worldwide, the bulk of the conflict in Europe occurred in Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Alsace-Lorraine along what came to be known as the Western Front, which consisted mainly of trench warfare. Specific operational, tactical, and strategic decisions by the high command on both sides of the conflict led to shifts in organizational capacity, as the French Army tried to respond to day-to-day fighting and long-term strategic and operational agendas. In particular, many problems caused the French high command to re-evaluate standard procedures, revise its command structures, re-equip the army, and to develop different tactical approaches.

France had been the major power in Europe for most of the Early Modern Era: Louis XIV, in the seventeenth century, and Napoleon I in the nineteenth, had extended French power over most of Europe through skillful diplomacy and military prowess. The Treaty of Vienna in 1815 confirmed France as a European power broker. By the early 1850s, Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck started a system of alliances designed to assert Prussian dominance over Central Europe. Bismarck’s diplomatic maneuvering, and France’s maladroit response to such crises as the Ems Dispatch and the Hohenzollern Candidature led to the French declaration of war in 1870. France’s subsequent defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, including the loss of its army and the capture of its emperor at Sedan, the loss of territory, including Alsace-Lorraine, and the payment of heavy indemnities, left the French seething and placed the reacquisition of lost territory as a primary goal at the end of the 19th century; the defeat also ended French preeminence in Europe. Following German Unification, Bismarck attempted to isolate France diplomatically by befriending Austria-Hungary, Russia, Britain, and Italy.

After 1870, the European powers began gaining settlements in Africa, with colonialism on that continent hitting its peak between 1895 and 1905. However, colonial disputes were only a minor cause of World War I, as most had been settled by 1914. Economic rivalry was not only a source for some of the colonial conflicts but also a minor cause for the start of World War I. For France, the rivalry was mostly with the rapidly industrializing Germany, which had seized the coal-rich region of Alsace-Lorraine in 1870, and later struggled with France over mineral-rich Morocco.

Another cause of World War I was growing militarism which led to an arms race between the powers. As a result of the arms race, all European powers were ready for war and had time tables that would send millions of reserves into combat in a matter of days.

France was bound by treaty to defend Russia. Austria-Hungary had declared war on Serbia due to the Black Hand’s assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, which acted as the immediate cause of the war. France was brought into the war by a German declaration of war on August 3, 1914.