Motorcycles,the,Military,The,o car Motorcycles in the Military
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The other day, I took the chance to watch again thatfantastic movie The Great Escape. As I watched Bud Ekins take the place ofSteve McQueen, to jump the wire fence on his Triumph, I began to wonder aboutthe role of the motorcycle during wartime, so I did a little reading and wassurprised to find that motorcycles have played a huge part in military history.Being able to go where other vehicles couldnt, they became the modern dayhorses, with one great advantage; some bikes, such as the Enfield Flying Flea or Airborne as it wasalso known, could be parachuted from an aeroplane along with troops. Royal Enfieldalso supplied motorbikes to the British Armed Forces in World War 1, with machinegun-carrying combinations and stretcher-bearing motorcycles being made ondemand. The company even won a contract to supply motorbikes to the Russians,and when most able bodied men were at war in Europe,a police force made up of women was issued with 600cc motorcycles. TheGermans werent slow in seeing the practicality of using two wheeled transport.BMW motorcycles were to prove invaluable in North Africa during World War 2. Not having a chain thatcould clog with sand, they were so successful that Harley-Davidson wererequested by the US military to copy the machine, which they duly did andproduced the Harley-Davidson XA. With the German war machine insatiable formotorcycles, BMW flourished during the war years. The American Army have been using motorcycles since1913, with a third of all Harley-Davidson machines being produced for themilitary in 1917. In the Second World War the company produced 30,000 bikes forthe Russians and also built machines for the Canadians. A total of 90,000motorcycles were produced during the conflict. The Indian Motorcycle Companyalso produced machines such as the Scout and Chief during the war years,but werent able to replace Harley Davidson as the motorcycle of choice.In Britain,the First World War provided work for the Triumph factory as production was concentrated on the war effort. More than30,000 motorcycles, including the Model H Roadster were turned over to themilitary. In World War 2, the Triumph factory was laid to waste by Germanbombs, along with most of Coventry, soproduction moved to a site near Meriden, also inthe West Midlands area of England.Apart from building some 50,000 motorbikes during the war, Triumph alsoproduced aircraft components. In 1950, the North Koreans, backed by China, wereable to deploy a Motorcycle Reconnaissance unit equipped with home producedbikes. Vietnam also saw the use of the military motorcycle, with SpecialForces employing motorbikes during that ill-fated conflict. In 1988, VietnamVeterans took to the streets of Washington D.C. to create a two-wheeled convoyknown as Rolling Thunder, in order to raise awareness of the suffering of thesoldiers who did not return from the war. This has developed into an annualpilgrimage to the VietnamVeterans Memorial. Operation Desert Storm in 1991 again saw the deployment ofmotorcycles, and more recently, the manoeuvrability of two-wheeled transportproved invaluable in Afghanistanand Iraq.When the road ends, the motorcycle keeps on going. When the road doesnt end,the speed of a motorcycle is unchallenged. Accessibility and versatility havebeen key words associated with the role of military motorcycles since theoutset.Now back to Steve McQueen, who was frowned upon byhis bosses at the studio for spilling the beans about his stunt double, duringThe Johnny Carson Show. When Johnny congratulated Steve on the motorcyclejump, Steve didnt hesitate in putting the record straight. It wasnt thatSteve McQueen couldnt ride a bike, quite the contrary. In the scenes beforethe jump, he rode his own bike as Virgil Hilts, but the German riders couldntkeep pace with him, so wearing a German uniform, he took the role of a pursuingGerman, and through the magic of film editing, chased himself. So the next timeyou get the chance to see The Great Escape, look out for Steve McQueenchasing Steve McQueen. The motorcycle chase was actually McQueens idea. Theoriginal script had Virgil Hilts attempting to escape by train, but whenMcQueen said to his director Hey John, Ive got an idea that will put morejuice into this, a small piece of movie and motorcycle history was born.
Motorcycles,the,Military,The,o