There is no written or photographic evidence that the Airborne forces used the James ML. Discuss

Sorry John, I've nothing to add regarding the ML's Airborne career but having seen Kitty Von Mew perch on my M20 at the weekend, I'd say the James wasn't designed as a prop for a burlesque dancer. Photographic proof can be found on the Goodwood thread.

I hope this helps.

email (option): lee@twowheelstested.co.uk

John. I'm quite sure these are Para's with an ML on the bonnet. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Ron although there are some Horsa gliders in the background, the soldiers wear "Combined Operations" badges, so are Commandos.

Have however one picture believed to be in Oosterbeek, a James is lying in the grass beside a civvy H-D, it's however not known when this picture was taken.



And another one in Normandy



Note, it's not a Dying Flea!

Will ask some people coming weekend, when I'm in the Arnhem area.

Lex

email (option): welbike@welbike.net

Lex your first picture was sent to me by Axe and was taken from the Hartenstein museum, with the following caption. Ron

Ron.

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Ah yes, I know where that road is, but it has changed a lot now, many houses built there.

Will investigate more on this picture, seems it does prove then, that James's were used by the Airbornes in combat.

Most pictures of them show Canadians using them in Normandy.

Cheers,

Lex

email (option): welbike@welbike.net

By far the nicest thing I bought at Netley, an N.O.S. petrol tank for a James





Never had petrol in it, never been on a bike!

So now only a frame, forks, wheels, and engine (less cylinder as I have a new one) and I'll have a complete bike.

Thanks to Ron I also have a tailpipe!!

Cheers,

Lex

email (option): welbike@welbike.net

The caption for the photo with the ML on the Jeep says " on or around drp zone N" did any of the Commandos land by glider or was it only the 6th Airborne Division?

Thanks for all the responses.
Regards, John

Hi,

The photo which was believed to be taken at Oosterbeek, was (correct me if I am wrong) taken at Arnhem on the Hulkesteinseweg. Nowadays, there is a huge flat building. The house you can see ahead is the big house on Utrechtseweg near the Junction Oranjestraat. Left from the former Volkswagen service garage.

There must be another picture taken from this spot without the Bren carrier.

Regards,

Ramon

email (option): noahlevi6@hotmail.com

I will look around in the bushes there tomorrow!!



Cheers,

Lex

email (option): welbike@welbike.net

John,

Here found on a website:

The invading forces landed at 0725 hours on D-Day and were greeted with moderate fire. They were able to put out suppressing fire, and by 0800 hours the fighting was mostly inland. By 1300 the commandos had achieved their most important objective: they had linked up with airborne troops at the bridges over the Orne waterways. On the right flank the British had been unable to link up with Canadian forces from Juno Beach, and at 1600 hours tank forces and mechanized infantry units from the 21st Panzer Division launched the only serious German counterattack of D-Day. The 192nd Panzer Grenadier Regiment actually reached the beach at 2000 hours, but the division's 98 panzers were halted by antitank weapons, air strikes, and Allied tanks themselves. The counterattack was stopped.

At the end of the day, the British had landed 29,000 men and had taken 630 casualties. German casualties were much higher; many Germans had been taken prisoner. However, for the Allies the optimistic objectives of Caen and the Carpiquet aerodrome were still a long 5 km away.

Paratroopers from the British 6th Airborne Division, Major General Richard Gale commanding, were to be landed at night onto the left flank of the Normandy Invasion area in order to help isolate the battlefield for the seaborne invasion force that was scheduled to land on nearby Sword Beach at dawn. The drop zones were labeled X, Y, N, K, and V. X and Y were glider landing zones near the two bridges over the Orne River and the Caen Canal. V was a glider landing zone near the Merville battery, and N and K were on the Ranville ridge separating the Orne and Dives rivers.

German forces in the area consisted of elements of the 716th Infantry Division. The dominant defensive position was the battery at Merville, with four guns of undetermined size fortified in hard casemates.

The objectives of the 6th Airborne were to seize, intact, the critical bridges over the Orne River and Caen Canal near the village of Bénouville, securing vital exit routes for the forces scheduled to land at Sword Beach; to destroy the bridges over the Dives River, thus denying the Germans a route to the invasion area from the east; to hold the dividing ridge between the Dives and the Orne from an expected German counterattack; and, finally, to destroy the Merville battery, which threatened Sword Beach with its big guns.

At 0016 hours on D-Day, gliders containing Company D, 2nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, commanded by Major John Howard, touched down precisely on target at the bridges. Within 10 minutes and with the loss of only two men dead, the daring coup de main placed both bridges in Allied hands. Howard's company thus became the first attackers of the Normandy Invasion on French soil and the first unit to achieve its objective on D-Day. The Caen Canal bridge was soon immortalized as Pegasus Bridge, named after the insignia of the 6th Airborne Division.

The silencing of the Merville battery fell to Lieutenant Colonel Terence Otway's 9th Battalion. The 9th, however, had a bad drop, and the attack began with only 150 men of the 750-man force. The daring attack captured the battery at a cost of half the attacking force. The defending Germans paid a terrible price: only 22 men of the 200-man garrison were uninjured.

The rest of the 6th Airborne troopers continued to land throughout the night, although many were scattered. Nevertheless, small parties found one another and managed to destroy five bridges over the Dives.

By morning, as the invasion force rolled ashore on Sword Beach, the left flank of the area was indeed secure. By 1300 hours Howard's glider troops at the bridges had connected with elements of Lord Lovat's 1st Commando Brigade. As evening fell on June 6, the 6th Airborne was generally in place and had achieved its objectives.

No Commando's in gliders, but just the link up with the Airbornes, think the James was not taken in Gliders, but will investigate some more.

Cheers,

Lex

email (option): welbike@welbike.net

Did you see the ML at Founders day for £450? I didn't have enough money for it on me, so I pointed a couple of stallholders to it and they just pulled their noses up at it! Needless to say, it sold within a few minutes of it opening to the public.

email (option): davmax@ntlworld.com

Yes Dave, saw it and looked at the frame number, that was in the 12K range, so postwar.

Otherwise I would have bought it!

Any news on the saddle covers?

Cheers, Lex

email (option): welbike@welbike.net

My father served in a infantry regiment,the (Suffolks), in Normandy and told me their company runners were issued with James ML for the invasion. They were to be used until they broke and not replaced. The runners were back on foot. They were basically disposable. My father recalls their ML lasted six weeks.

It was the Suffolks who took the strongpoint known as Hillman, which is where we used to stay in Normandy. They were extremely brave and courageous group of chaps. I recall the bunker was eventually stormed by a man called Hunter who put the German machine guns out of action for which he won a bravery award. He became known as Bunker Hunter although I always thought he should have been called Hillman Hunter.

My ML was found in a barn on a farm just south of Caen, which I guess was as far as they had got in about 6 weeks.

P.S. Lex, I still covert your tank so please do contact me if you ever decide to part with it. It would look just fantastic on my original Normandy ML.

Happy Christmas to all.

nice one on ebay for restoration.

email (option): bwlukhard@msn.com